Domestic Israeli anger over botched raid will pass

Indonesian Muslim women activists shout anti-Israel slogans in front of the U.S. embassy in Jakarta June 1, 2010, as they condemn Israel's deadly attack on Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla on Monday.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Despite uproar in Israel on Tuesday over a raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship that brought international condemnation, there is unlikely to be any shake-up in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government.

The botched raid has led to a chorus of criticism at home, including a front-page call in the Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel's largest-circulated newspaper, for the resignation of Defense Minister Ehud Barak, a key member of Netanyahu's coalition.

While international critics have accused Israel of using disproportionate force in the raid that killed nine activists, most domestic critics do not fault the marines for opening fire.

Anger has instead been reserved for planners who conceived the raid, which saw Israeli commandos rappel to the deck into the thick of a crowd of hostile activists.

Still, many Israeli political analysts expect calls for resignations to go unanswered because the incident is not seen as a big enough blow to the leadership.

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange dropped on Monday, but experts saw that as a short-lived move on concerns Israeli companies and securities might suffer in international markets. They ruled out fears of domestic political uncertainty after the drama at sea.

"There is not enough force here to affect any change in the government," said Tamir Sheafer, a political scientist at Hebrew University.

Netanyahu said the activists were killed when commandos opened fire in self defense after storming from dinghies and helicopters onto a Turkish cruise ship headed to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip in defiance of an Israeli blockade.

As the first pictures emerged of Israeli marines being beaten and clubbed by activists, it was clear there would be anger in Israel over the mishandling.

It began with the lambasting of Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai on live television Monday night.

"How did you let the Israel Defense Forces into this trap?" one Channel 10 commentator bellowed. He blasted the decision to send a handful of commandos aboard a ship filled with hundreds of people, many known to be hostile toward Israel.

After a 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon during which about 150 Israelis and 1,200 Lebanese were killed, public pressure led to the resignations of Israel's defense minister and military chief.

So far, Monday's incident does not appear to have led to that scale of domestic pressure.

"We've had bigger failures without resignations," said Asher Cohen, a political scientist at Israel's Bar Ilan University. "Politically it's not at the same level."

Instead, he pointed at Israel's failure to show the world its side of the clash until late in the day, while news channels broadcast for hours video taken by the activists on board.

An article in Tuesday's Yedioth Ahronoth said: "Israel's public advocacy yesterday was hopeless, at times detached."

"Already last night officials in the foreign ministry, the national advocacy campaign and the military spokesperson's unit were passing off on each other responsibility for the jarring publicity failure."

(Editing by Peter Graff)