Regarding “The revolution’s missing peace” (Views, April 22): President Abdullah Gul of Turkey presents a curious proposal regarding his country’s potential role as a peacemaker in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
While urging the United States “to act as an impartial and effective mediator between Israel and the Palestinians,” he views his own country as able to play a similar role, even as he qualifies Israel as an “apartheid island” and conditions Turkey’s possible peacemaking efforts on proof of Israel’s readiness to pursue peace with its neighbors.
One cannot but wonder how Turkey’s role in the incident involving a Turkish ship that tried to breach the blockade of Gaza last May and the announced plans for another similar “humanitarian” effort in coming months fits the author’s commitment on behalf of his country to act as an impartial mediator.
Klaus Netter, Collonge-Bellerive, Switzerland
I am amazed at the attempt by President Abdullah Gul of Turkey to draw the Israel-Palestine issue into the events of the Arab Spring. These uprisings are the direct result of years of neglect and persecution by Arab governments of Arab peoples, deprived of the most basic fundamentals of life — jobs, housing, freedom from persecution — and true democracy. The unrest and has nothing to do with the Israel-Palestine impasse.
Michael Dorian Goldberg, Rehovot, Israel
via Turkey as Peacemaker – NYTimes.com.
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