Beyond the flotilla: Turkey’s anti-Israel turn
David Ignatius trivialized the seriousness of Turkey’s distancing itself from Israel by suggesting that the action is simply a product of Turkey’s unhappiness over Israel’s level of apology for the flotilla tragedy [“Obama’s Turkish alliance,” op-ed, Dec. 8].
Turkey apparently made a strategic decision long before the flotilla episode to diminish the warm and strategic relations that existed between the two countries. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s treatment of Israeli President Shimon Peres at Davos in 2009 was one of numerous examples of this. Indeed, the flotilla event would not have taken place in the first place if the old Turkish-Israeli relationship were intact.
It is not only Israel but the United States that is concerned about Turkey’s growing enmity toward Israel. If Turkey is going to be the positive model for the Arab Spring, it needs to include in its outlook a return to the historic friendship of the Jewish and Turkish states.
Kenneth Jacobson, New York
The writer is deputy national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
via Beyond the flotilla: Turkey’s anti-Israel turn – The Washington Post.
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