Israel-Turkey diplomatic spat worsens, despite end of Gaza fighting

HAARETZ.COM

The crisis in relations between Israel and Turkey, which began when the Gaza operation began three weeks ago, is getting worse. A political source in Jerusalem said that the head of the political-security bureau at the Defense Ministry, Amos Gilad, refused to meet with Ahmet Davutoglu, the senior foreign policy adviser to Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, while the two were in Cairo last week.

Last Thursday, Amos Gilad visited Cairo for talks with Egypt’s Omar Suleiman on a cease-fire agreement. At the time, Davutoglu, who had served as a mediator in Israel’s talks with Syria in Istanbul, was in touch with Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshal, who is based on Damascus.

At the start of the Gaza operation, Erdogan instructed Davutoglu to serve as a conduit between Hamas and the West and also try to involve Turkey in the cease-fire negotiations. Egypt expressed its reservations at Turkey’s involvement and refused even to allow Davutoglu to sit in on talks with senior Hamas officials in Cairo.

But it turns out that not only Egypt refused to have exchanges with Davutoglu. So did Israel. A political source in Jerusalem said that on Thursday, when Gilad was in Cairo, the Turkish ambassador to Egypt called his Israeli counterpart, Shalom Cohen. The Turkish ambassador asked for a meeting between Davutoglu and Gilad to deliver a message from Hamas. The political source said the Turks “asked for even a five-minute meeting” and that the ambassador called back several times.

The Turkish request was relayed to Gilad by the Israeli ambassador, but he refused to meet with Davutoglu. The Israeli political source said the reason for the refusal was the deterioration in relations between Jerusalem and Ankara, stemming from the unprecedented verbal attacks by Erdogan on Israel.

The source added that another reason was the unwillingness to allow the Turks to intervene in the cease-fire talks and the wish to rely solely on the Egyptian channel.

Erdogan’s attacks on Israel in recent weeks have been particularly fierce, with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert specifically targeted for what the Turkish leader called “lying to him and acting behind his back.”

The words of the leader of the AKP, Turkey’s ruling Islamist party, were a source of anger among Turkey’s military, where there is concern that the rift would undermine the strategic ties with Israel.