Israeli Navy insiders deplore Gaza flotilla raid

Mike Eldar

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A day after a former Mossad officer described last week’s Israeli raid on a fleet of Gaza-bound aid ships as “stupid”, former and current Israeli Navy insiders have strongly criticized the bloody operation. Speaking from Israel, Mike Eldar, a 20-year veteran of an elite Israeli Navy special missions unit, said the only explanation for the Israel Defense Forces’ attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla was “stupidity [and] super egos”. He was echoing the words of former Mossad case officer Victor Ostrovsky, who last week described the raid as an act that was “so stupid it is stupefying”. The operation, carried by the IDF’s elite Shayetet 13 amphibious unit, resulted in the deaths of nine and the injuries of over 60 flotilla passengers. Elgar added that the botched raid’s result “made no sense”, considering that there must have been Mossad agents on board the ships, and that the IDF “had at least two weeks to prepare, with lots of practice”. The former Special Forces member also called for the resignation of Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak. In a separate development, a team of senior officers in the Israeli Navy reserves have also condemned the botched raid and issued a public call for an external investigation in line with United Nations demands. The officers sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and to Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazii, in which they described the raid as a “tragedy both at the military and diplomatic levels”, which was “doomed to failure from the beginning”. The Israeli government has already said it plans to reject calls for an independent inquiry into the attack.