United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has conveyed a proposal to Israel to set up an international commission of inquiry into the raid on the Gaza-bound aid flotilla a week ago.

The head of the committee would be former New Zealand prime minister Geoffrey Palmer, an expert on maritime law. Committee members would include representatives from the United States, Turkey and Israel.

At least it’s not Helen Clark.

Meanwhile, Israeli officials don’t think it’s a bad idea.

Senior officials at the Foreign Ministry said Israel should consider the idea favorably.

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Senior government officials said the Foreign Ministry recommends responding favorably to establishing the committee because Turkey will probably oppose it.

“Such a committee will reveal many details about the link between [Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, the flotilla organizers and the IHH,” a senior official said. He was referring to a Turkish Islamic nongovernmental organization that reportedly has ties to terror groups.

“If the mandate is reasonable and does not include questioning IDF soldiers, such a committee could remove the sting from the affair and neutralize similar future flotillas,” the official added.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

5:00PM: The Pixies have gone all Elvis Costello on us.

4:56PM: Oops!

4:14PM: Detailed breakdown of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip in 2009-2010.

Gaza Strip Merchandise and Humanitarian Aid 2009-2010

4:04PM: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit response to Turkish photos:

The “published pictures serve as clear and unequivocal proof of Israel’s repeated arguments that aboard [the Mavi Marmara] were mercenaries who intended to kill Israeli soldiers.”

“The photos would have looked different if the soldiers had chosen to shoot every citizen that came their way,” the statement continued. “It was only out of empowerment and a deep understanding of the event that the navy commandos were able to tell the difference between peace activists and terrorists.”

3:35PM: The Turkish paper Hurriyet has released photos from the Mavi Marmara, which clearly show flotillarists being anything but “peaceful”, as well as captured and beaten IDF soldiers.

Such as the below. Notice the knife being held by the “activist”, bottom right.

Again, this is from a Turkish newspaper. They are hardly our friends, and can’t be accused of “doctoring” photos.

I wonder how Free Gaza and friends are going to explain this away.

9:15AM: Speaking about the terror enablers being bothered, here’s something else that got up their nose.

As Israeli naval operators engaged in radio communications with the MV Rachel Corrie this morning, they refused to address the ship by its current name — the name linked to its permanent International Maritime Organization identification number, IMO 6715281. Instead, in both communications released by the IDF, the ship is referred to as “Motor Vessel Linda” — the name used by the ship’s previous owner.

The Israeli military apparently not only refuses to accept responsibility for killing unarmed civilians — it refuses to even utter their names.

9:12AM: Despite the lack of violence involved in the seizing of the latest ship headed to Gaza, the MV Rachel Corrie, the Free Gaza terror supporters are doing their best to insinuate there was violence involved.

Via the Free Gaza mailing list:

(Off the Gaza coast, 5 JUNE) – Just before 9am this morning, the Israeli military forcibly siezed the Irish-owned humanitarian relief ship, the MV Rachel Corrie, from delivering over 1000 tons of medical and construction supplies to besieged Gaza. For the second time in less then a week, Israeli naval commandos stormed an unarmed aid ship, brutally taking its passengers hostage and towing the ship toward Ashdod port in Southern Israel. It is not yet known whether any of the Rachel Corrie’s passengers were killed or injured during the attack, but they are believed to be unharmed.

I think they are bothered there was no violence.

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New Zealand looks certain to have a new government after about 3 million Kiwis – almost 10% of whom live in Australia – cast their votes tomorrow.

National polls yesterday gave the National Party of John Key a strong lead over the incumbent Labour Party of Helen Clark, who has been prime minister since 1999.

With the economy officially in recession and its budget plunging into deficit last month, most commentators have been tipping for weeks that Miss Clark’s four-term period at the top is coming to an end.

You may recall that John Key is Jewish and has an interest in Israel.

Helen Clark is simply a disgrace.

I’m guessing that there will be more consensus amongst Israellycool readers regarding their preferred candidate in these elections.

This could be about to change, with New Zealand likely to elect a Jewish Prime Minister with ostensibly warm feelings towards Israel.

It has fewer than 10,000 Jews, less than 0.2 percent of its four million inhabitants. But New Zealand is set to elect its third Jewish prime minister.

Opposition National Party leader John Key, whose mother is an Austrian Jew, is far ahead of the Labor incumbent, Helen Clark, in the polls. An election may be called at any moment, but must be held by November 15.

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post this week, Key, who turns 47 on August 9, said he was “not a deeply religious person,” but still saw himself as part of the Jewish community, and had an interest in Israel because of his heritage.

“If I become prime minister, I would like to visit… I am definitely keen to go,” Key said. It would be his first trip to the Jewish state.

“New Zealand has a warm relationship with Israel,” he said, adding that “there is quite a lot of synergy” between the two countries, citing their small size.

Key’s mother, Ruth Key (née Lazar), escaped the Holocaust as a child by fleeing to Britain. In a profile published in the New Zealand Herald, it was reported that “the person who has undoubtedly had the biggest impact on John Key is his mother.”

Key told the Post that “Mum didn’t practice the Jewish faith when I was at home, but she sometimes took me to synagogue, and she was always very active in the Jewish community.”

Ruth came to New Zealand after WWII with Key’s father, George, but became a single mother of three in 1969 when he suffered a fatal heart attack.

“I have been involved in fund-raising for Hadassah [Medical Organization in Israel], and we had a celebration for the 60th anniversary of Israel,” Key said.

According to the Herald, Key’s party has had a consistent 20-point advantage over Labor in polls taken since August 2007.

“We are running a very positive campaign,” Key said. “They are starting to look quite tired… And we have been leading in the polls for about 15 months now.”

Julius Vogel, a practicing Jew, served two terms as New Zealand’s premier in the 1870s. And Sir Francis Henry Dillon Bell, a non-practicing Jew and later convert to Christianity, became the country’s 20th prime minister in 1925.

If Key does indeed becomes the country’s third Jewish premier, he says there are lessons to be adopted from the Israeli experience.

“We hear great things about how strong the [Israeli] economy is,” he said. “We are worried about the academic and economic performance of New Zealand and we have been looking at some of the things that Israelis have been doing with mentoring programs, hi-tech and venture capital.”

In reference to his views on Israel’s role in the Middle East, Key said, “Most New Zealanders who are aware of foreign politics understand the threat to Israel from Iran.” As prime minister, he said, he “would make the case that it is in the world’s interest if we could have a peaceful solution to the nuclear situation in Iran and North Korea.”