IDF to blame navy in scathing report on Gaza flotilla raid

You just refuse to acknowledge it. The evidence shows that you are wrong to claim the "activists" were innocent. We know this to be true; there is video, testimony, etc., etc., as tangible proof that at least a few of them had violent goals. How can a sane person continue to justify ignorance of the facts at hand? It's in bad taste to lie to yourself, or at least to ignore the evidence!

...." This ship was attacked before it was even proved (that there were some "arms" or threatening things for import to Gaza) to be so. " How exactly, Miss Anne, does one prove such thing "BEFORE ATTACK"?

by using the resources of Israel's famed intelligence gathering agencies.

Israel always bad, nine dead terrorists armed with knoves and metaql clubs good. To be continued.

are just too blinded by anti-israel sentiment to recognize the basic truth that Israel can actually get something right on occasion?

Did you happen to notice that there is expected to be a complete lack of any blame laid on any person? Internationally people tend to think that if mistakes have been made, they were usually made by someone, they don't just appear out of thin air. People need to be held responsible. "Sanctions" along the line of "[military institution X] could you please do things a little differently next time, k thx" are not exactly what is expected from a proper investigation. You may also note that the expected results of this "investigation" disregard the question of whether the IDF was allowed to do the boarding in the first place, it just asks if the boarding was conducted in the best possible way.

i can concede somewhat. however, by singling out specific branches of the army, the inquiry is effectively laying blame on the leadership of that branch (navy, mossad). Whether the IDF was allowed to do the boarding will be addressed during Turkel's investigation. This was not a broad inquiry but an internal military one. It fulfilled its mandate well. Its ok for you to admit it too. It won't make you pro-Israel, just intellectually honest.

Maybe the investigation now as a result of the international pressure is more objektiv than so many times before. Also the result of the investigation will be judged very carefully by the "outsiders". It will not be enough to give the answer that it was ONLY "the operational mistake". People are crying loudly for Shalit ( hope he will be released) but hey do no know know any mercy for those killed people who also "defended" themselves and it has not yet been told if they they have been quilty of something else (f.e importing arms or materials for them)

...whitewashing, denial and refusing to hold Israeli soldiers accountable in situations where they are so far out of line it is ridiculous? This actually makes me wonder how much worse the situation really is when they actually fess up to doing something wrong.

Has ANY military conducted an enquiry against hersel? USA, French; English, Spanish? And on Arab Armies we are not talking at all.

Obviously,you want to hear the truth that suits your need and Goldstone and his team that was selected for their criticism of Israel will do exactly that.They will blame Israel as they blamed it before Goldstone gave them the chance to repeat it in the name of inquiry.

We all seen the videos and not one video about this spraying of bullets. We also saw the videos about Jihad on the boats. Give it a rest. Don't send ships into closed military areas.

I'm not sure about you, "Mr. Cohen", but I find tangible evidence to be much more persuasive and to portray the actual truth much more frequently than I do the testimonies of inherently biased and overtly agenda-driven participants. Evidence, reason, and objectivity is much more reliable than selected witness testimony,

The IDF confiscated them, then edited together a few fragments.. If you want to see the videos, join in on the damand that the IDF release them all, undedited.

A journalist on board uploaded an hour long video to Youtube which clearly shows the Turks arming themselves in advance and discussing how they're going to throw the soldiers overboard. It also clearly shows the ship being sprayed with PAINT from paintball guns and this is confirmed on the video by another journalist on board. Of course, anyone who simply wants to rearrange their prejudices is free to ignore the facts - I realize they can be upsetting when they don't agree with what you've already decided.

I've watched every scrap of video from the flotilla that I can find, and I have not seen or heard any evidence that anything except paintballs were shot at the ship before the commandos rappelled onto its deck. I"m skeptical of the flotilla participants' testimony for several reasons, but here is the main one. All said that there intentions were entirely peaceful. But there own video footage clearly shows that their intent was to foment a crisis, to throw any Israelis who boarded the ship into the sea, and to become martyrs in their effort to reach Gaza. None of them, even after the fact, was willing to admit that some among them may have had non-peaceful and non-humanitarian goals. Those who swore that real bullets were fired from the helicopters were in no position to see what went on. So nothing they say is credible. BTW a bullet recovered from the leg from one commando was not from an IDF gun, and the ship's captain said that the flotilla agitators had thrown weapons overboard before the IDF had secured the entire ship.

...for once...

this is an internal "Israeli military" investigation whose mandate is to evaluate the performance of the IDF. It's mandate did not extend to the political echelons. The "big picture" inquiry will by Turkel's job. If you weren't so eager to blindly criticize, you might have caught this very simple distinction.

Why didn't the people on board the other ships "fight back"? There was no aid on board the ship your heroes sailed on. Why not? There was however a group of shahid instigators looking for glory and the cowards as usual made sure to take innocent civilialns along for cover. One has to be quite slow or disingenuous to concoct things as you have done to blame only the IDF.

They were on a civilian vessel in an international body of water. They were illegally raided and under law had the right to defend themselves against illegal search and seizure. Your need to prove yourself through violence is so disturbing to me.

At least in that case you'd be right. However, here you're trying to justify the right for Islamic shahids to attempt and break Israel's blockade of a violent Hamas in a war zone that's bent on Israel's destruction. If the flotilla was successful, then the top "aid" would not be rice and medicine but even more deadly weapons for Hamas's use in the next round. Now, tell me you didn't know that already.

Whether they were in international waters or not, whether Israel had a right to do what it did or not is not the point. Real peace activists like MLK or Mahatma Gandhi never, ever, ever beat, punched or kicked any of their attackers. And that's why they were so effective and respected. The Turkish perpetrators on this boaat were certainly no Martin Luther Kings.

Armed lunatics ranting about how they want to martyr themselves to kill Jews, trying to charge a Justified blockade, hoping to write propaganda with their blood and smash in the brains of their enemies, deserve to die. They can have their paradise in death and we can live and everyone will be happy.

Don't try running the Middle East from the comfort and safety of your distant armchair or you'll draft nonsensical statements as you have been doing.

under every law in the book the belligerents were the idf. you can victim-blame all ya want, you geniuses have been doing it for 60 years now, but be aware that much of the world has had enough with these sorry-ass excuses.

It was a horribly executed op and should be reviewed as to how not make the same mistakes again.

Why can you not accept the responsibility for your governments actions. It is pathetic to blame others for your own mess. It is quite obvious you are no brain surgeon, just

You'd be right if the commission's mandate was to examine the operational mistakes and the role played by the Turkish government. There's no question that the raid was poorly planned and executed and several IDF commandos were badly hurt as a result.

The ilegal comando operation was a failure from the begining, any inteligence cant save them ...violates all international law in the planet ....