Obama administration seeks a fine line after Israel’s raid of Gaza flotilla turns deadly

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President Obama had planned to spend part of Tuesday meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a effort to push Mideast peace talks forward. Instead, his administration is struggling to deal with an Islamic world angered by what some see as an overly cautious response to the Israeli attack on ships carrying humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza.

Throughout the crisis that began over the Memorial Day weekend, the Obama administration has tried to walk a fine line in a part of the world where there is usually little political or physical space for any compromise. It is also an area where the U.S. hopes to play an important role in making peace despite the canceled meeting between Obama and Netanyahu.

The U.S. wants to support Israel, a traditional ally whose help Obama could use in dealing with the nuclear crisis in Iran, but it also wants to defuse the growing anger in much of the Islamic world, which sees the U.S. as having moved too cautiously in refusing to condemn Israel for the deadly raid. The Obama administration also needs the support of the Arab world to take any action against the Islamic Republic.

After a marathon session, 15 members of the U.N. Security Council agreed early Tuesday morning on a presidential statement on the incident, but the final product was far less than Islamic nations had sought.

Led by Turkey, the tougher measure would have condemned the incident “in the strongest terms” and called for “an independent international investigation.” After about 13 hours, the wording of the U.N. statement doesn’t mention Israel by name and allows Israel to conduct its own probe.

In his remarks to reporters Tuesday morning, the deputy U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Alejandro Wolff, insisted the U.S. was comfortable with Israel conducting its own investigation.

“We are convinced and support an Israeli investigation as I called for in my statement earlier and have every confidence that Israel can conduct a credible and impartial, transparent, prompt investigation internally,” Wolff told reporters, according to the official transcript.

“The important thing to bear in mind is this is an incident that is still being investigated. There’s a lot of questions about it,” Wolff said. “This sort of incident when you have statements coming from some of the participants in the flotilla, suggesting that maybe it was not solely to provide humanitarian assistance, but it may have been intended to provoke -- not that everyone on that flotilla had that intention -- give pause. And so that’s why an investigation is so important. And that’s why we thought it was important not to prejudge any outcomes or prejudge any conclusions before the Israeli government has an opportunity to do that full investigation.”

That go-slow approach has angered Islamic countries, especially Turkey, which backed the flotilla. Turkey is also a key player in the Iran crisis, having served as a negotiator for a plan to exchange Iran’s enriched uranium for other nuclear fuel to power reactors.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, in Washington for talks with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, said his country wanted the U.S. to condemn Israel’s actions. At least nine pro-Palestinian activists died in the incident, four of them Turks.

“We expect full solidarity with us,” Davutoglu said Tuesday morning before his meeting with Clinton. “It should not be a choice between Turkey and Israel. It should be a choice between right and wrong.”

The State Department closed coverage of the meeting to news reporters and cameras, even though it had earlier scheduled the usual photo opportunity.

“I have to be frank: I am not very happy with this statement from Washington yesterday,” Davutoglu said. “We expect a clear condemnation.”

The State Department on Monday issued a cautionary statement calling for an Israeli investigation into the deadly raid.

The current incident is the latest to hinder U.S. peace efforts for the region. Relations with Israel were strained over construction in east Jerusalem.

-- Michael Muskal

Twitter.com/LATimesmuskal