Category: World

Turkey and Israel by Abraham Foxman

Strained Relations between Israel and Turkey Undermines Bridge Between West and Muslim World

Abraham Foxman June 21st 2010

Cutting Edge commentator

These are sad times indeed for those with a strong attachment to Israel, and an equal and longstanding respect for Turkey. The unique relationship shared by these two countries, down through history and into the present, is being undermined in a stormy environment of disagreement, and charged rhetoric.

We need not go into a rehash of the much-discussed events and the diplomatic rows that brought us to this pass. The strongly critical remarks by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, first at Davos in response to Israel’s December 2008 invasion of Gaza, and more recently over the flotilla episode and the deaths of nine Turkish activists aboard the Mavi Marmara, have cast a deep pall over the Israeli-Turkish relationship.

The echoes of Davos and the flotilla affair seem to be prevailing over calm heads and good will, and we can only wonder, why?

Sadly, an historic era of cooperation may be slipping away, as Turkey appears on the verge of abandoning a role it so proudly played as a bridge between the Muslim world and the West. The inter-governmental and people-to-people relationships are fraying, and the tangible benefits they have brought to both sides are at serious risk.

This is a shared history based on mutual interests and concerns. In March 1949, Turkey became the first Muslim state to recognize Israel, and in 1958, Turkish Prime Minister Adnan Menderes and Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion met in secret to sign a military and intelligence cooperation agreement. Ben-Gurion later wrote to President Dwight D. Eisenhower that Israel’s “links with the Government of Turkey have grown more intimate in secret channels.”

Turkish-Israeli relations have always had ups and downs. Yet, until recently, the unmistakable trend for the prior two decades was growing trade and investment, more cultural exchanges, increased tourism, ever greater military and intelligence cooperation and more frequent political meetings.

The relationship was much more than strategic. Both Israeli and Turkish societies benefited from close ties that transcended the politics of the moment. Israelis found in Turkey a beautiful country for vacations and struck up close friendships in Turkey. After a disastrous earthquake struck Turkey in 1999, Israel was one of the first countries to extend emergency assistance by sending sophisticated equipment and search and rescue crews. The Israeli public launched a spontaneous campaign to assist the victims, as thousands of Israelis stood in line across the country to donate more than 25 tons blankets, clothing and food.

There was also the memory of history. Turkey, and the Ottoman Empire that preceded it, served as a safe haven for Jews, from the time of the expulsion from Spain and Portugal and into the Holocaust years. And Turkey’s protection of its own minority Jewish community was admirable and unique among the nations – and particularly in the aftermath of the 2003 bombing of two synagogues in Istanbul, when Turkish leaders stood up to publicly decry anti-Semitism.

Until recently, Turkey was held up as proof that a Muslim-majority country could have warm and significant relations with the Jewish state. Turkey now seems to shun that globally important role.

Today, the relationship is in steep decline. Turkish Foreign Minister Davutoglu compared the Gaza flotilla incident to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Turkey recalled its ambassador to Israel, and President Abdullah Gul has left open the possibility of breaking off relations altogether.

Israeli tourism to Turkey has plummeted, and Israeli supermarkets are boycotting Turkish products. Turkey has cancelled joint military exercises. Israel and Turkey have clashed over policies toward Iran, Hamas, and Syria. Erdogan is reported to have angrily proclaimed in public remarks that the Star of David is the same as the Nazi swastika. A Turkish delegation of teachers and scholars, scheduled to participate in an event at Yad Vashem on the lessons of the Holocaust, failed to show.

Beyond the bilateral relationship, Turkey is in the process of losing other roles and friends. For many years, Turkey has sought to leverage its geographic linking of the Middle East and Europe to create connections between different religions and cultures. Today, however, its rapprochement with Iran, Hamas, and Syria generates doubts, not confidence, in the U.S. and elsewhere.

The American Jewish community has long been supportive of Turkish interests in the United States, as a NATO ally and based on its strategic relationship with Israel, a premise that many politically active Jewish organizations may have to revisit.

Turkey, Israel and the international community would benefit from a reversal of this downward spiral. An investigation into the flotilla affair with international observers has been commissioned by Israel, and hopefully it will provide a base from which to rebuild the relationship. Until then, both Israelis and Turks should exercise care with their rhetoric and their actions.

However, should that investigation uncover Turkish government involvement with Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH), the Istanbul-based charity that was one of the major sponsors the Free Gaza flotilla, and its preparations for violently confronting Israeli solders – as some information now suggests – the report could be the death knell for rebuilding the relationship.

Hopefully, what we are seeing today from Turkey is a temporary detour from the path it has pursued so successfully for years. Hopefully, the friendship we had come to know and to rely on will re-emerge.

Hopefully, the instincts of the Turkish people that wrote a magnificent chapter in Jewish history more than 500 years ago as a haven and refuge for those expelled from Spain will bring Turkey back from the brink.

Then we will be able to continue to celebrate our long-held affection and respect for Turkey.

Cutting Edge commentator Abraham H. Foxman is National Director of the Anti-Defamation League and author of “The Deadliest Lies: The Israel Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control.”

http://www.thecuttingedgenews.com/index.php?article=12293

June 21, 2010
BP was told of oil safety fault ‘weeks before blast’

A Deepwater Horizon rig worker has told the BBC that he identified a leak in the oil rig’s safety equipment weeks before the explosion.

Tyrone Benton said the leak was not fixed at the time, but that instead the faulty device was shut down and a second one relied on.

BP said rig owners Transocean were responsible for the operation and maintenance of that piece of equipment.

Transocean said it tested the device successfully before the accident.

Meanwhile, BP has said that its costs in tackling the disaster have now risen to $2bn (£1.34bn).

‘

‘Unacceptable

On 20 April, when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded killing 11 people, the blowout preventer, as the device is known, failed.

The most critical piece of safety equipment on the rig, they are designed to avert disasters just like the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The blowout preventer (BOP) has giant shears which are designed to cut and seal off the well’s main pipe. The control pods are effectively the brains of the blowout preventer and contain both electronics and hydraulics. This is where Mr Benton said the problem was found.

“We saw a leak on the pod, so by seeing the leak we informed the company men,” Mr Benton said of the earlier problem he had identified. “They have a control room where they could turn off that pod and turn on the other one, so that they don’t have to stop production.”

Professor Tad Patzek, petroleum expert at the University of Texas, was blunt in his assessment: “That is unacceptable. If you see any evidence of the blowout preventer not functioning properly, you should fix it by whatever means possible.”

Mr Benton said his supervisor e-mailed both BP and Transocean about the leaks when they were discovered.

Daily costs

He said he did not know whether the leaking pod was turned back on before the disaster or not.

He said to repair the control pod would have meant temporarily stopping drilling work on the rig at at time when it was costing BP $500,000 (£337,000) a day to operate the Deepwater Horizon.

Henry Waxman, a House of Representatives Democrat who is overseeing congressional investigations into the rig disaster, has accused BP of taking safety shortcuts to save money.

“BP appears to have made multiple decisions for economic reasons that increased the danger of a catastrophic well failure,” Mr Waxman said.

BP chief executive Tony Hayward, giving evidence to Congress, said: “There is nothing I have seen in the evidence so far that suggests that anyone put cost ahead of safety, if there are then we will take action.”

Congress has identified numerous other problems with the blowout preventer, including design problems, unexpected modifications and a flat battery.

Cement job

The other major problems on the rig, Congress has said, centred around the cement job. Cement in an oil well blocks explosive gases from escaping, and it appears the cement may not have set properly on the Deepwater Horizon.

BP said it had indications of a successful cementing operation and the company that was in charge of the cement job, Halliburton, has said it was consistent with that used in similar applications.

Several rig workers the BBC spoke to who were on the Deepwater Horizon said there was pressure in April to work fast.

Work to prepare and then seal the well was behind schedule and had to be completed before a production rig could move in and start turning profits.

“Too many jobs were being done at one time. It should have just really slowed down and just took one job at a time, to make sure everything was done the way it should have been,” said Mr Benton, who is now suing BP and Transocean for negligence.

BP has responded to Mr Benton’s account saying Transocean was responsible for both the maintenance and operation of the blowout preventer.

BBC

June 21, 2010
Iraq police shoot dead power cuts protester

By SAAD ABDUL-KADIR (AP)

Iraqis chant slogans demanding more electricity in Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city, 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, June 19, 2010.

BAGHDAD — A protest over electricity shortages in Iraq’s southern port city of Basra turned deadly on Saturday when troops fatally shot a demonstrator, police officials said, underscoring rising tension over the country’s lack of basic services.

Police in Basra said one protester died and three were wounded when security forces opened fire on the demonstrators. They said five protesters were arrested.

Hundreds rallied outside Basra’s provincial council building, demanding a more consistent electricity supply to their homes and businesses and carrying banners reading: “Return electricity to us” and “Prison is more comfortable than our homes.”

Police said they tried to control the crowd but protesters started throwing stones at the council building and set fire to a guard’s cabin, prompting the troops to open fire. They said the first shots were in the air to disperse the crowd, but that failed to quell the unruly crowd.

In a statement on Saturday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki asked the people of Basra to remain calm and said he was sending a delegation of officials to Basra to address the city’s electricity problems.

Iraqis are increasingly angry over the government’s failure to provide adequate public services more than seven years after the U.S.-led invasion.

There have been severe electricity outages as summer temperatures soar above 120 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius). Iraqis have also been suffering from water shortages and poor water quality due to an ongoing drought.

On Friday, gunmen killed an employee of the local irrigation department and three of his family members in an apparent tribal dispute over water distribution west of Baghdad.

Irrigation department employees have increasingly been targeted in the area as rival tribal factions battle over the dwindling water resources.

Also on Saturday, officials said gunmen killed three anti-al-Qaida fighters after opening fire at a checkpoint south of Baghdad manned by a local government-backed group known as an Awakening Council.

The Council is part of a movement that has been key to a sharp drop in violence in recent years.

Nobody claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack in Jibala, 40 miles (65 kilometers) south of Baghdad, but al-Qaida and other insurgents frequently target Awakening Council members as revenge or to discourage others from joining.

Police and hospital officials also raised the death toll to 12 in Friday’s car bombing targeting an ethnic Turkomen provincial council member in the northern city of Tuz Khormato.

More than 30 people were killed Friday in a wave of violence targeting government officials, Iraqi security forces and those seen as allied with them.

The violence highlights fears of growing unrest as the country remains deadlocked months after March’s inconclusive parliamentary elections have failed to produce a new government.

The putative winner of the contests, former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, announced Saturday that “international intelligence” services had told him that he was the target of an assassination plot.

He can no longer use a special airport for VIPs in central Baghdad because he was told snipers are on a lookout to kill him.

While Allawi acknowledged that there has yet to be an actual attempt on his life, he was taking the latest warnings seriously.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said that his government was ready to offer Allawi the necessary security to protect him from any assassination attempt, but criticized the former prime minister for going to the media with the news first.

“The Iraqi government is ready to hear from Ayad Allawi about the threats against him and will provide him with the necessary protection,” al-Dabbagh told an Arabic satellite channel on Saturday.

Allawi’s Sunni-backed Iraqi bloc won slim victory in the elections, but his main conservative Shiite opponents have united into a larger coalition that has good chance of heading the new government.

Associated Press Writers Hadeel al-Shalchi and Bushra Juhi contributed to this report.

European Turkmen Friendship

June 20, 2010
Armada Of U.S. And Israeli Warships Head For Iran

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
June 19, 2010

More than twelve U.S. and Israeli warships, including an aircraft carrier, passed through the Suez Canal on Friday and are headed for the Red Sea. “According to eyewitnesses, the U.S. battleships were the largest to have crossed the Canal in many years,” reported the London-based newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi on Saturday.

The Israeli newspaperHaaretz reported Egyptian opposition members criticized the government for cooperating with the U.S. and Israeli forces and allowing the passage of the ships through Egyptian territorial waters. The Red Sea is the most direct route to the Persian Gulf from the Mediterranean.

Retired Egyptian General Amin Radi, chairman of the national security affairs committee, told the paper that “the decision to declare war on Iran is not easy, and Israel, due to its wild nature, may start a war just to remain the sole nuclear power in the region,” according to Yedioth Internet, an Israeli news site.

The passage of a warship armada through the Suez Canal and headed for the Persian Gulf and Iran is apparently not deemed important enough to be reported by the corporate media in the United States.

Egypt recently rejected an Israeli request to prevent Gaza aid ships from passing through the Suez Canal. According to a report by al-Jazeera, Israel appealed to Egyptians asking them to prevent the passage of Iranian ships through the Suez Canal. The Egyptians responded that due to international agreements on movement through the Suez Canal, Egypt cannot prevent ships from passing through the canal unless a ship belongs to a state that is at war with Egypt. Iran and Egypt are not at war.

The United States and Israel, the sole nuclear-armed power in the Middle East, have not ruled out a military strike to destroy Iran’s nuclear program.

A number of Israeli politicians and scholars have admitted Israel has used its nuclear weapons for “compellent purposes,” in short forcing others to accept Israeli political demands.

Israel’s threats to use nuclear weapons have increased significantly since it was discovered in 2002 that Iran was building uranium enrichment facilities. Israel’s former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon “called on the international community to target Iran as soon as the imminent conflict with Iraq is complete,” the Sunday Times reported on November 5, 2002. The United States invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003.

Earlier this month Israel leaked to the press that they had permission from Saudi Arabia to use their air space to attack Iran. “In the week that the UN Security Council imposed a new round of sanctions on Tehran, defence sources in the Gulf say that Riyadh has agreed to allow Israel to use a narrow corridor of its airspace in the north of the country to shorten the distance for a bombing run on Iran,” the Sunday Times reported on June 12. On June 14, the ambassador of Saudi Arabia to UK Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf issued a categorical denial of the report.

On June 17, Iran’s parliament warned it will respond in kind to inspection of its ships under a fourth round of sanctions imposed on the country by the UN Security Council. “Even if one Iranian ship is stopped for security-check, we will act likewise and thoroughly inspect any (western) ship passing through the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz,” member of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Hossein Ebrahimi said.

Also on Saturday, Iran accused the United States of “deception” and insisted its missile program is for self-defense after a top U.S. official claimed that Iran had the capacity to attack Europe. “The Islamic Republic’s missile capability has been designed and implemented to defend against any military aggression and it does not threaten any nation,” Defense MinisterAhmad Vahidi said in a statement carried by state media.

Vahidi announced on April 10 that Iran will use all available options to defend itself if the country comes under a military attack. “Americans have said they will use all options against Iran, we announce that we will use all options to defend ourselves,” Vahidi told the Tehran Times.

Info Wars

June 19, 2010
Israel owes Turkey an apology over killings

ALTAY CENGIZER

OPINION: Turkey has not become anti-Israel but Israel steadily alienates people around the world by its conduct. Future historians may have a different perspective to the one predicted on these pages recently by the Israeli ambassador

IT WAS only a few months ago that Israel placed the Turkish ambassador in a lower seat and banished the Turkish flag. The incident was childish more than anything else, but Israel had the good sense to apologise for it.

Now, more than a fortnight after the killing of nine compatriots of mine on the high seas aboard the Mavi Marmara , carrying much needed humanitarian aid to the besieged people of Gaza, Israel has yet to apologise. The Israeli government seems to think it does not owe us, at the very least, an apology for what it believes was an act of self-defence.

This is exactly where the crux of the problem lies: Israel’s self-image and its doctrine of self-defence. The reaction of the Israeli authorities to this grave event has been appalling. Instead of showing genuine remorse for what took place in international waters in the early hours of May 31st, and not even feigning concern, they initiated a wide-ranging campaign to depict the activists as terrorists with links to al-Qaeda.

A 19-year-old boy and men in their 50s and 60s hardly make for a terrorist gang.

Are we not to feel strongly any more about anything, without the threat of being labelled as terrorists? After all, the urge for a humanitarian aid flotilla was already there as world opinion continued to witness the perilously deteriorating conditions in the open-air prison that is Gaza.

A year ago, the Middle East quartet – the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia – called for the unimpeded provision of humanitarian aid to Gaza, where even house plants, cocoa powder and coriander are banned from entry for reasons that are anyone’s guess.

The victims had multiple gunshot wounds, they were shot in the back or in the back of the head. A total of 32 bullets were extracted from their bodies. It took more than an hour for medical help to arrive while the wounded bled. The ship was carrying no weapons at all. There was absolutely no need to employ the Shaiatet 13 elite commandos.

Thanks to recent research, we now know that even bottlenose dolphins use short vocal bursts to send messages to avoid conflict at times of high excitement and aggression. But Israel stormed a civilian vessel 72 nautical miles off Gaza, nowhere near the blockade zone.

Hours passed, and the Israeli authorities did nothing to alleviate the gravity of the situation. They handcuffed everyone, and imposed a blackout on communications. This is why we did not see the video footage of Dr Uysal on the Mavi Marmara cleaning and treating the bruises of an Israeli commando.

Contrary to what Israel is saying, Turks from all walks of life and of different political persuasions were part of the humanitarian aid group. It is not that the Turks are becoming more radical vis-a-vis Israel, but that Israel steadily alienates large segments of public opinion, almost everywhere, including Turkey.

Now, if we are to believe the general tone emanating from Israel, Turkey is no longer a member of the comity of western nations, just on account of its diplomacy. Pretty much nonsense!

There is nothing un-western or un-European in asking for the lifting of the inhumane blockade on Gaza.

Neither is it un-western to try to exhaust diplomacy and all legitimate means at the international community’s disposal before punishing Iran, which would be a step with unpredictable consequences.

In its defence, the government of Israel refers to an obscure document called the San Remo manual.

This is not an international convention. Nobody was requested to sign up to it, and it relates specifically to legal practice in time of war. Israel is not at war with Turkey, but it attacked a ship flying the Turkish flag in international waters. This is precisely why there must be an international commission of inquiry. Then we can talk of credibility and transparency.

Only in 2008, the Israeli-Turkish trade reached a record high of $3.5 billion. Only in 2008, Turkey was just about to broker a historic political deal between Israel and Syria. One should wonder what took place to warrant this crisis. Israel’s assault on Gaza in December 2008 that killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, 431 of them children, lies at the centre of this chasm. Sadly, it has deepened even further with the killing of nine innocent Turks.

Historians may well ask what kind of hubris, what degree of intransigence and what levels of indifference caused Israel to lose Turkey, a land where Jews have felt a genuine welcome for so many centuries, and a traditional friend.

Whether May 31st, 2010, comes to signify a positive or a negative turning point for this important relationship, as well as for the whole region, depends on what Israel chooses to do now.

Altay Cengizer is Turkish ambassador to Ireland

June 18, 2010
U.S. Jewish groups skip meet with Turkish officials

ADL National Director Abraham Foxman says ‘there comes a point at which it becomes useless to have a conversation.’

By Natasha Mozgovaya

On the fringes of the Washington meetings of Turkish official delegations, there is usually a special place for outreach with the American Jewish community. But several Jewish groups intend to skip the meeting Wednesday evening with members of the Turkish ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party). The America Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC), B’nai Brith International and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) have decided to decline the invitation to protest the deteriorating relations between Ankara and Jerusalem.

Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League. Photo by: Haaretz

Ties between Israel and Turkey have been in decline since Israel launched a three-week military operation in Gaza in December 2008, aimed at halting rocket fire on its southern communities. Tensions between the two formerly strong allies were exacerbated when nine people were killed during violent clashes with Israeli troops aboard a ship carrying aid to Gaza.

“I believe in dialogue and meetings but there is a point at which it becomes useless to have a conversation,” ADL National Director Abraham Foxman told Haaretz on Wednesday.

“You can disagree with Israeli government and its policies but why should you cancel visit of Turkish teachers and scholars to Yad Vashem [Israel’s national Holocaust memorial]? I read that the prime minister of Turkey compared the Star of David to a swastika – it’s ugly and anti-Semitic, it’s what our enemies did. So ‘yesh gvul [there’s a limit].”

Foxman said that he would be happy to resume the outreach meetings once the Turkish government restored ties with Israel.

“Let them first reconcile with Israeli government, and them I’ll be delighted to talk to them,” he said. “But at the moment they’ve decided to use Israel as a whipping boy and provoke negative attitudes in Israel”

The American Jewish Committee (AJC), however, decided to attend the meeting, believing that traditional ties should not be abandoned hastily.

“We’ve had an increasingly rough dialogue with leaders in Turkey, but we believe that we want to take an opportunity to deliver a tough message”, AJC spokeswoman Alex Weininger told Haaretz. “There is a history of relations between the U.S. and Turkey and Israel and it shouldn’t be easily discarded.”

Turkey was also the subject of strong words from Congress on Wednesday, at a bipartisan press conference on the Hill in support of Israel’s right to defend itself.
Rep. Mike Pence (R-Indiana) warned Ankara that “There will be a cost” if Turkey keeps on its current course of “growing closer to Iran and more antagonistic to the State of Israel”.

Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nevada) added that, “If Israel is at fault in any way, it is for falling into the trap that was set for them by Turkey. The Turks have extraordinary nerve to lecture the State of Israel, when they are occupiers of the island of Cyprus, where they systematically discriminate against the ecumenical patriarch, and they refuse to recognize Armenian genocide. And this is the country that not only funded but sanctioned the flotilla. They did not do this for humanitarian reasons. They did this to provoke an international confrontation. As far as I’m concerned, Turkey is responsible for the nine deaths aboard that ship. It is not Israel that is responsible. Israel’s troops were attacked”.

A letter currently circulating these days on the Hill in support of Israel in the wake of the flotilla raid has now provoked another letter, by the J Street organization, urging Congressmen not to rush to sign the original letter of support.

“The blockade of Gaza was instituted to stop terrorists from smuggling weapons into Gaza to murder innocent civilians,” said the first petition. “The several dozen who attacked the Israeli soldiers were not peaceful aid workers, but extremists who sought to aid the Iran-backed terrorist Hamas regime in Gaza. The U.S. should make every effort to thwart international condemnation and focus the international community on the crimes of the Iran-backed Hamas leadership against Israel and the Palestinian people”.

J Street has urged Congressmen not to sign the letter, saying it is counterproductive and does not deal with the issue of the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip.

“J Street – the pro-Israel, pro-peace lobby – is not supporting sign-on letters to the President now circulating in the [House] regarding the Gaza flotilla,” wrote J-Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami.

“As is far too often the case, these letters have been drafted primarily for domestic political consumption rather than to advance the U.S. interest in peace and security in the Middle East. With tensions in the region already high and vital American and Israeli interests at stake, J Street urges members of Congress to seek changes to the letters currently circulating before signing – or to write their own.

“The petitions now circulating in the House and Senate, while expressing strong American support for Israel – a position we endorse – fail to address the impact of the present closure of Gaza on the civilian population, the deep American interest in resolving this conflict diplomatically, or the urgency of moving forward with diplomacy before it is too late”.

Meanwhile, the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations has urged lawmakers to sign the petition. The organization’s vice-chairman Malcolm Hoenlein told Haaretz that his organization was not scheduled to take part in a meeting of Jewish leaders with Turkish lawmakers, but added that it is “clearly not the right time for a constructive dialogue.”

www.haaretz.com, 17.06.10

June 17, 2010