While the United States has reserved judgment in the matter, a former Mossad agent is casting blame for the botched raid on a Gaza aid flotilla, pointing directly at Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for allegedly ordering forces to act without vital preparation.
The former Mossad agent is Victor Ostrovsky, who enlisted in the Israeli Defense Force at age 18 and has since written two books highly critical of Israel’s war-fighting apparatus. His first book, “By Way of Deception,” illustrates the brutal and often confusing nature of the Israeli spy service’s covert operations, casting the agency as a villain that engages in the drug trade to further their ambitions over the good of Israel. His other book, “The Other Side of Deception,” speculates as to Mossad’s greater agenda. The book is available online in its entirety.
If one were to ask him, he’d say that Israel’s raid on the Gaza aid flotilla was “so stupid it’s stupefying” — exactly the words he used speaking with Washington Post “Spy Talk” columnist Jeff Stein.
For one, Ostrovsky suggested, commandos could have approached the ship from under water and disabled the propellers, letting the activists drift for days until their food supplies ran out. He added that Israeli soldiers should not have fast-roped into a crowd as they had, instead suggesting that it would have been more productive to board the ship from the front and back, then work inward.
“The mistakes were on every level,” Ostrovsky told Stein, “from the order to forcefully board outside the territorial waters to the actual attack.”
He ultimately blamed the Israeli prime minister for giving an order to “do something now” instead of making adequate preparations for repelling the vessel from the Gaza shore. He also chastised the Israeli leadership for stopping the boat in international waters, even if its stated destination was beyond the military blockade.
US officials take no immediate stance on Gaza flotilla raid
Asked if President Barack Obama condemned Israel for the raid, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs stuck to the language of a UN Security Council statement issued late Sunday on the Israeli assault on a convoy headed to Gaza.
The statement condemns “those acts which resulted in the loss of at least ten civilians and many wounded,” but did not specifically say whether the Israeli raid or actions of pro-Palestinians supporters caused the violence.
“Let me simply restate what the international community and the United States supported early this morning at the UN Security Council through a presidential statement,” Gibbs said.
“The Security Council statement that I read calls for an investigation that is prompt, impartial, credible and transparent, conforming to international standards, of exactly what happened,” Gibbs said. “And we’re obviously supportive of that.”
With AFP.
By Stephen C. Webster
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 — 10:53 pm
Source: The Raw Story
More on Israel:
– Israeli soldiers murder at least 10 civilians on boat carrying aid to Gaza (Los Angeles Times)
– Israel stations nuclear missile submarines off Iran (Times)
– Gaza Aid Flotilla Delayed After Mystery Faults Hit Two Boats (Independent)
– Israeli Commandos Ordered To Stop Gaza Aid Ships (Times)
– Israel offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons (Guardian)
– Report: Israel threatens to ‘return Syria back to the Stone Age’ (Ynet)
– Discharged IDF Soldiers Sue For Millions Over Anthrax Vaccine Experiment (YNet News)
– The US Military now KNOWS Mossad carried out 9/11 Attacks:
Dr. Alan Sabrosky, former director of studies at the US Army War College says that the military brass now know that Israel “and those traitors within our nation” committed the 911 attack.
……”I have had long conversations over the last two weeks with contacts at the Army War College and the headquarters, Marine Corps and I’ve made it absolutely clear in both cases that it is 100% certain that 9/11 was a Mossad operation.” Period.
– New FBI Files Alleging AIPAC Theft of Government Property and Israeli Espionage Released (PRNewswire)
– Israel Threatening To Use Nuclear Weapons On Iran! (FOX NEWS)
– Ex-Mossad Agent Ostrovsky: The ‘Anti-Semite’ Label
– Former Israeli Minister: ‘It’s a Trick, We Always Use It.’ (calling people ‘anti-Semitic’)
– UK Jewish MP: Israel acting like Nazis in Gaza
– Palestinian children are stoned while walking to school (Christian Peacemaker Teams)
– Israel admits organ harvesting from Palestinians, and others, without consent (Guardian)
– UN assembly votes for probes of Gaza war crimes charges (Reuters)
– U.N. rights envoy: Israeli war crime of the greatest magnitude under international law in Gaza (Reuters)
– U.S. shipped 989 munitions containers to Israel week before Gaza invasion (Australien Herald)
– Paul Craig Roberts: Israel and the Goldstone Report – War Criminals Are Becoming Arbiters of the Law (CounterPunch)
– Israel’s war crimes in Gaza (Independent)
– Amnesty International: Gaza white phosphorus shells were US made (Times)
– Did Israeli soldiers kill unarmed civilians? (Toronto Star):
‘The most moral army in the world’ killed civilians without cause
– Israeli soldiers report abuses in Gaza (Los Angeles Times)
– Tony Benn to BBC: If you won’t broadcast the Gaza appeal then I will myself (BBC)
– Israel admits troops may have used phosphorus shells in Gaza (Guardian)
– Outcry over Israel’s reported use of phosphorus in Gaza (IHT)
– Israel accused of executing parents in front of children in Gaza (Telegraph)
– Gaza: ‘I watched an Israeli soldier shoot dead my two little girls’ (Independent)
– Israel ‘admits’ using white phosphorus munitions (Times)
– Gaza building apparently hit by phosphorus: UN (Vancouver Sun)
– Israeli use of white phosphorus ‘undeniable’: Amnesty International (The Age)
– Israel used phosphorus in heavily populated areas, doctors charge (Kansas City Star)
– Israeli army investigates use of white phosphorous in Gaza (Guardian)
– Israel shelled UK war graves in Gaza (Telegraph)
– Israel ‘will resume bombing’ of Gaza if Hamas reopens tunnels (Telegraph)
– Gideon Levy / Gaza war ended in utter failure for Israel (Ha’aretz)
– False Flag: The Attack on the USS Liberty
– Dead In The Water – The Sinking of the USS Liberty (BBC)
Israel calls this self-defense:
(Click on image to enlarge.)