`Dragging India into ship attack row unintentional mistake`

Harinder Mishra
Jerusalem, Jun 3 (PTI) In a damage control exercise,
Israel, which had compared violence in India to its globally-
condemned attack on an aid flotilla to the Gaza Strip, has
said it mentioned the country by mistake which was "totally
unintentional."
"India was mentioned in the press release by mistake. It
was totally unintentional", Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor
Lieberman's media adviser Tzachi Moshe told PTI.
"The moment it came to our notice, the release was
corrected and reference to India was dropped," Moshe said.
His comments came a day after an Israeli Foreign
Ministry statement quoting Lieberman as telling UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon said that incidents in countries like
India and Pakistan in the past one month which claimed over
500 lives have been "ignored" while the Jewish state is being
condemned for its "unmistakably defensive actions".
Earlier, Israeli Ambassador to India Mark Sofer said in
New Delhi Wednesday that this was a "regrettable error" and
that his country "does not see India in the same light as it
sees its enemies." India was a close friend, he emphasised.
Sofer said already the name of India has been removed
from the speech of his Foreign Minister and "we are taking
this up to make sure that any misunderstanding risen out of
this error of this nature will no longer be there."
He also said "Israel stands hook, line and sinker
behind India in its struggle in South Asia."
In an emergency session on Tuesday, the UN Security
Council had called for an investigation into Israel's deadly
commando raid on six ships taking humanitarian aid to the Gaza
Strip, condemning the act that resulted in the loss
of at least nine lives. PTI