The State Comptroller and Ombudsman´s report released Wednesday finds fault with the way in which the Prime Minister´s Office, Ministry of Defense and the IDF prepared for the attempt by the Mavi Marmara to reach Gaza in 2010.

Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss´s report determines that the decision- making process led by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu suffered from "substantial and significant deficiencies."

"The prime minister´s decision-making process included no systematic, summarized, coordinated and documented staff work." Although the prime minister and other senior ministers were aware of the exceptional nature of the Turkish flotilla compared to previous flotillas, as were the army, intelligence community and National Security Council, "the prime minister did not give instructions for the implementation of a proper integrated policy for dealing with the flotilla, and instead held a separate private meetings with the defense minister and foreign minister."

The Comptroller and Ombudsman reports that there was no record of the content of these meetings and no written summaries of them were produced. The only discussion that seems to meet the Ombudsman´s standards for governing was a meeting of the ministerial "Octet" that was held a few days before the arrival of the flotilla.

The Comptroller and Ombudsman states that his report should not be seen as an attempt to say that better planning would have yielded better results in the case of the Marmara. Rather, he says, implementing his recommendations will lead to better handling of future crises. (IsraelNationalNews © 2012 06/13/12)