Israel's flotilla raid probe aims at restoring image
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Inside and outside
In the meanwhile, Sheafer downplays the importance of how Netanyahu and Barak handled themselves before the panel. "How they looked and acted isn't that significant. People tend to forget after ten minutes," he said.
"What will come out of this whole story is the commission's final report, which will include their conflicting testimonies," he added.
Analysts believe that the Turkel Commission was set up, first and foremost, as a response to international pressure. The overwhelming majority of the Israeli public has rallied behind the government and the IDF in the immediate aftermath of the naval raid aboard the Turkish ship.
However, Sheafer said, "Israel's main PR problem is that we usually always think inside and not out. What interests the government and the military from the media perspective is the Israeli audience, not the international audience."
This problem, in the eyes of Sheafer, is evident in the flotilla affair and likewise characterized Operation Cast Lead in 2008, when Israel launched the military operation against the Gaza Strip with the aim of putting an end to Hamas rocket attacks.
"(U.S. Secretary of State) Henry Kissinger had already said in the past that Israel doesn't have a foreign policy but only a domestic policy," Sheafer said, adding that "the same can be said about this committee."
And here, he continues, "the right thing to have done was to agree to cooperate with an international investigation right from the onset. Instead, we were eventually hit with global criticism, agreed to cooperate with an international probe and opened up the blockade." Israel last week agreed to take part in the United Nations probe, a reversal of a previous stance towards the investigation.
As the Turkel Commission continues and, before which, more Israel officials might testify, some analysts sighed that the very same seriousness and meticulousness were not applied in the preparations to stop the flotilla from reaching the Palestinian enclave.
