Neither commission nor inquiry

Israel should want to know more than what the law is: 1. What intelligence was there about the passengers and cargo? 2. What options were there for accomplishing the Israeli goals? 3. How and why was it decided that the helicopter raid method should be used? 4. Were the troops trained well for the mission, including awareness of possible civilian responses? 5. What actually happened. 6. Were the military action and Gaza "siege" legal. Netanyahu's commission of legal experts will only answer the last two questions (assuming they could accept the hearsay testimony of IDF investigators instead of the commandos themselves) which the "world" is most interested in (if they will accept a strictly Israeli commission), but will not be able to answer the first four, which have to do with the competence of the political level that decided on the military raid. Israel must find the answers to these questions if it wants such a clumsy operation not to be repeated, but this may hurt the politicians and they are trying to divert the public's attention. Incidentally, all the legal questions were probably raised already before the fact with the attorney general and he must have approved the "siege" and the operation from a legal point of view. Here, the political level is already protected by his opinion, so no problem for them with such a commission.

Inccident happened in International waters so only International body has jurisdiction to conduct enquire and it wll be accepted by international community.Impartial enquiry will be one step for buidling peace and it will give hope the desperate and angry people in the region and it will uphold the example of law

Turkish citizens were killed by Israeli soldiers on a Turksih boat in international waters. And israel, on its own, with token northern Irish and Canadian obesrvers is going to investigate that? Ludicrous. No country in the world would put up with having its citizens on its boat in international waters, shot by foreign sodliers, and it not having a full role in the investigation. Bibi might as well forget this sham. It's a dead duck, and it's a dead duck that's beginning to stink.

Israel's about to make exactly the same mistake it made with Goldstone. By refusing arrogantly to talk to Goldstone, despite requests to do so, it lost the chance to have its side of the story told to the world. Now it's about to do exactly the same thing again. There WILL be an international investigation with or without Bibi's little sideshow here. If israel again, arrogantly refuses to take part, again the report will be written without a chance for Israel to put its side of the story. Is that really what Israel wants?

there is a famous saying goes like this "if you want to 'kill' some thing, create a panel of investigations with no teeth" since the 1967 war and subsequent ISraeli's control over the West Bank & Gaza, Israel had committed thousands of cold bloody murders against unarmed civilians, and every and each bloody cold murder that Israel committed in broad day light and could not get away with it, it opened "investigations and inquiries" to such "incidents" most, thousands of them, were not concluded, few were concluded and found the victims responsible for their demise, and those very few soldiers that was found guilty were sent to clean the beaches of Tel Aviv on the Weekend. I can name hundreds, if not thousands of bloody murders of unarmed innocent civilians, such as, for example, the Salah Shehade household, when 22 children (many were infants) and their moms murdered by a 1 ton F-16 Jet fighter in Al Daraj Gaza Neighborhood, all to kill a Hamas politician, although the Israel knew what she did, the Israel air force's chief, then, when asked "how do you feel about dropping a ton bomb on civilians" her replied "a little shake of the jet fighter, but I move on" this is how the Israelis value and understand Arab lives

... a scapegoat for all our ills...

..... in a format similar to Goldstone (doesn't need to be identical), that is, ensuring beforehand what the final result must be. If not, then it will NOT SATISFY INTERNATIONAL LEADERS. Therefore the result will be that Israel will get out of it only like a rodeo rider after riding with his hands tied in the back. In other words, providing an Iranian military port on the Mediterranean. In which case, what would be the use of all those American rockets and radar systems protecting Europe from the Iranian atom bomb?

Inquiries and yet more inquiries. What are they good for, other than confirming much of what is already known? Many of them blame Israel for most of the Middle East's troubles. Others claim it's the Palestinians, with Hamas now featured as the local bad boy. Whatever the reason, it's safe to say much more than words or opinions will be needed to move this business forward toward any satisfactory conclusion. So, considering the dearth of available options, why not do it this way? http://yorketowers.blogspot.com Quicker than waiting for the umpteenth inquiry to apportion blame and then having the whole thing relegated to the back burner whenever the next round of violence and mayhem erupts. Cheaper than handing over millions in money and assets just to fuel more opportunities for continuing the conflict. Produces a definite end to the matter, with honour broadly satisfied on all sides. Also, a palpable feeling that the business has now been settled and it's all over bar the shouting. It will make us all look good; we were able to figure out the whole thing at long last and were then seen to take action, thus ending a saga that had looked well able to run on into the next generation. It will prevent the future becoming ever again hostage to the past. It will make some sense of all that's happened. It will work because that's what it's designed to do. So, in these matters of life and death, it seems we may have had the power to make a choice all along: we just didn't realise it.

At the end of the day, what determines the closure of the story, is not the Tirkel Commission conclusions, but the cumulative weight of the testimonies of eyewitnesses on what happened on the ferry, and the hard facts: The bullet riddled bodies of nine passengers and three missing, and on the Israeli side, in contrast, three very slightly wounded soldiers. All this, in addition to the fact that commando raid took place before the ship reached the territorial waters of the Gaza Strip, will determine History's verdict upon the Mavi Marmara case.

...are the three commission members of sufficient statue in the Israeli public's eye that--should one or two of their many conclusions not be 100% supportive of the government's actions--they do not risk being vilified and shunned for the rest of their lives?

I am sorry to say this, but another "goldstone" report must be avoided at all costs. The UN is intrisically biased against Israel, so a UN report would not be of any value, if you want independence and objectivity. The international observers are solid people, David Trimble with his experience in Northern Ireland is a heavyweight. Also, the Goldstone report basically gave Hamas a carte balnche to murder and terrorize - so this should not be repeated, and the world must not forget that the perpetrators of this conflict are in Gaza, not in Jerusalem.