UN Flotilla Report Leaked.

On May 31st 2010 a flotilla of boats attempted to break Israel's naval blockade of Gaza. The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) responded by boarding these boats outside of the blockade zone. On board one of these boats - the Turkish ferry the Mavi Marmara - Israeli commandos opened fire killing 8 Turkish nationals and 1 Turkish/US dual national. The office of the Secretary General of the United Nations responded by setting up a panel to examine the incident and publish a report.

That report was completed in July 2011 and both the Turkish and Israeli governments have had access to the report and the panel throughout the process. However both nations agreed to delay the publication of the report to allow them to negotiate compensation payments to the victim's families and avoid escalating the diplomatic situation ahead of the upcoming UN vote on Palestinian statehood. Yesterday (1/9/11) American newspaper The New York Times published a leaked copy of that report on their website; http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/world/Palmer-Committee-Final-report.pdf and it is explosive stuff. Although the report criticises Israel for using excessive force during the boarding and mistreating detainees afterwards it accepts the legality of the naval blockade and Israels use of force to maintain it. The report is widely seen as a vindication of Israel's actions.

The fact that the leak has made this report public has forced Turkey into responding strongly by expelling the Israeli ambassador and cutting off all military links with Israel. So it seems to me that the leaking of the report was an American attempt to increase anti-Israeli feeling ahead of the vote on Palestinian statehood in order to make sure the motion passes. Although America is officially against the idea and will abstain from the vote in secret both it and Israel want the motion to pass because it will remove the Palestinians right to return and the Israelis will simply ignore it in the same way it ignored most other UN resolutions.

Also both Turkey and Israel share land borders with Syria and both have played an important role in response to the recent unrest in the country. By breaking off diplomatic ties Turkey and Israel are now no longer able to co-ordinate their efforts and we could well see a shift away from a united diplomatic effort towards an Arab track and an Israeli track. Israel will stop at nothing to collapse the Syrian government in as chaotic way as possible because they want to use the chaos to attack Lebanon on the pre-text of destroying Hezbollah. So it looks like Israel's big summer war is evolving into Israel's big winter war.