Category: Israel

Turkey Beats Israel in Politically Charged Soccer Match

By JOE PARKINSON

ISTANBUL—Fiyapi Inonu Stadium on Thursday showcased the latest sign of the deteriorating diplomatic relationship between longtime allies Turkey and Israel: 12 Israeli soccer fans.

Engulfed by a sea of empty white seats in the 32,000-capacity stadium and vastly outnumbered by battalions of riot police, the solitary Israelis had traveled to cheer their team, Maccabi Tel Aviv, against Istanbul’s Besiktas in a politically charged Europa league match.

Ricardo Quaresma of Besiktas reacted as he was stopped by Savo Pavicevic of Maccabi Tel Aviv during their match.

When the tournament schedule was announced, Istanbul authorities had expected thousands of Israeli supporters to attend, but just a dozen made it there amid rapidly escalating tensions between Ankara and Jerusalem and fears of violence.

Israeli fans were shepherded into the visitors’ stand at the far end of the stadium, which is covered by a special fireproof netting to shield spectators from projectiles.

“I’ve been to games between Israeli and Turkish teams many times and we usually see hundreds or thousands of visiting fans,” said Joseph Perez-Ari, a commentator for Tel Aviv Radio broadcasting at the stadium. “Today there’s so few. It’s because people are scared, because of the situation.”

Late Thursday, the match appeared to have passed largely without incident as Besiktas, the pre-game favorites, romped to a 5-1 victory.

But the dramatically increased police presence and sporadic protests by anti-Israeli demonstrators in the center of the city underscored that the relationship between the countries is being redefined.

Tensions escalated after Israel refused to apologize for a raid on a Gaza-bound ship last year that killed nine activists, prompting Turkey to expel top Israeli diplomats, cut military ties with the country and vow to send navy vessels to escort aid ships in the future.

That coincided with Turkey showing signs of trading its vaunted “zero problems with neighbors” foreign policy for a more muscular approach, bidding to become the leading power in the Middle East and North Africa. The shift, on display as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan approved a major aerial bombing campaign against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq and pressed Egypt to let him visit Hamas-run Gaza, could trigger clashes with Jerusalem and force Washington to choose between its closest allies in the region, analysts said.

At Thursday’s match, fans said Besiktas’s on-field domination may have diminished the potential for violence, which could have further fueled tensions.

Still, Thursday saw an escalation of diplomatic tensions in the eastern Mediterranean.

Turkey’s foreign ministry warned that it would sign a continental-shelf delimitation agreement with Turkish-backed Northern Cyprus if the Greeks of the divided island move ahead, following a December maritime-demarcation deal with Israel, to develop offshore natural-gas fields.

Athens responded by calling on Turkey to drop threats to Cyprus, warning the dispute could prove “dangerous” to the already tense eastern Mediterranean basin.

In Tunis, Prime Minister Erdogan, following a meeting with his Tunisian counterpart Beji Caid Essebsi, reiterated that Turkish warships would be deployed in the Mediterranean, stressing that Israel would “no longer be able to do what it wants” in those waters.

The buildup to Thursday’s match also reflected heightened diplomatic tension.

Before the evening kickoff, several hundred protesters gathered in Istanbul’s landmark Taxim Square, chanting anti-Israel and anti-American slogans and briefly halting traffic at one on the city’s busiest intersections.

The Israeli team arrived at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport on Wednesday under tight security and were escorted from the stadium by riot police after the match.

Istanbul police tried to calm fears, stressing that they had taken measures to thwart protests that were organized on social-networking websites, including possible plans to invade the pitch.

Amid fears over their citizen’s security, Israeli authorities had petitioned UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, to reschedule the game at a neutral venue, but Turkey’s government refused, last week offering guarantees for players’ and fans’ safety.

Turkish Sports Minister Suat Kilic told reporters at a televised news conference last week that “various issues” existed between Turkey and Israel, “but it is not a situation that could prevent this match. “The game would be played in the “highest level of [Turkish] hospitality,” and that Israeli players would “safely” return home, he added.

Write to Joe Parkinson at joe.parkinson@dowjones.com

via Turkey Beats Israel in Politically Charged Soccer Match – WSJ.com.

September 16, 2011
U.S. Ambassador to Syria in charge of recruiting Arab/Muslim death squads

Robert Ford, US Ambassador to Syria

by Wayne Madsen

WMR has been informed by reliable sources that the U.S. ambassador to Syria, Robert S. Ford, is the key State Department official who has been responsible for recruiting Arab “death squads” from Al Qaeda-affiliated units in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and Chechnya to fight against Syrian military and police forces in embattled Syria. Ford served as the Political Officer at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad from 2004 to 2006 under Ambassador John Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985. Negroponte was a key figure in the covert U.S. program to arm the Nicaraguan contras and his support for vicious paramilitary units in El Salvador and Honduras earned him the nickname of “Mr. Death Squad.”

Negroponte tasked Ford with implementing the “El Salvador option” in Iraq, the use of Iraqi Shi’a irregulars and Kurdish Pesh Merga paramilitary forces to target for assassination and kidnapping/torture Iraqi insurgency leaders in Iraq and across the border in Syria. The operation was named for Negroponte’s death squad operation in Central America in the 1980s.

Ford has become the point man in the recruitment of Arabs and Muslims from the Middle Eastand beyond to battle against the security forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad. The U.S.-backed terrorists have not only carried out attacks on Syrian security forces but have also massacred civilians in “false flag” operations later blamed on Syrian government forces. WMR has been informed that Ford’s operations in Syria are being carried out with the assistance of Israel’s Mossad.

The “El Salvador” option has also been used in Libya, where Al Qaeda irregulars, drawn from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen, have been carrying out murders of Libyan civilians, especially black Libyans and African guest workers, on behalf of the Libyan rebel government. Some of the murders of civilians have been blamed on pro-Muammar Qaddafi forces but they have, in fact, been carried out by Al Qaeda units fighting with the rebels and which are being directed by CIA and MI-6 advisers. Ford has been providing advice to the Libyan rebels on how to carry out their death squad attacks.

From 2006 to 2008, Ford served as U.S. ambassador to Algeria, a nation that opposes the Libyan rebel government and a nation that has begun to see a re-surgence of “Al Qaeda” terrorist attacks against Algerian government targets. In fact, Algeria is viewed as the next domino to fall as the U.S. seeks to establish total military and political hegemony over North Africa.

WMR has learned from a source who was recently in Libya that the Libyan rebel transitional government has agreed to allow the U.S. to establish permanent military bases in Libya, including on the Algerian border. The rebels have also agreed to permit an American to serve as the chief political officer for the planned Libyan transitional advisory body due to be organized by NATO and the United Nations. The body will be modeled on the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.

www.opinion-maker.org, 12. Sep, 2011

September 15, 2011
Israel is paying for Gaza war with Turkey and Egypt crises

During Hanukkah 2008, Israel attacked Gaza in Operation Cast Lead. Now it is eating the bitter fruit of that operation, which was the turning point in the attitude of the world and the region toward Israel and its belligerent and violent policies. The shock waves take time to arrive, but now they are coming, and they are big. Every day has new dangers. Some are the result of Israel’s actions, its aggression, its euphoria, its arrogance and carelessness. The outcome: The only two countries that ever accepted it in the region, Turkey and Egypt, are burning their relations with Israel. The first was via a government decision, the second that of an angry mob.

During that fateful Hanukkah, the Israel Defense Forces attacked Gaza and its defenseless population. Israelis did not see that war on their televisions as people saw it in Istanbul and Cairo. Here they made do with an army of pundits who reported fighting in Gaza when there was almost none. Here they hid from us most of the horrific pictures that were broadcast elsewhere in the world – including, of course, Istanbul and Cairo. At the time, they only counted the numbers of the (many) Palestinian dead and the numbers of the (few) Israelis, and therefore the operation was seen as a colossal military, diplomatic and even moral success.

IDF soldiers during Gaza war

IDF soldiers during Operation Cast Lead.

Photo by: AP

But it was a resounding failure. What is happening now in Egypt and Turkey must be added to the balance of Operation Cast Lead. Not that it’s all because of Cast Lead. Hatred for Israel flared before it, but Cast Lead was the turning point when a good deal of the world reversed its attitude toward Israel.

Not that everything was Israel’s fault, but its governments – both former and current – have done too little to lower the flames and a great deal to raise them. Yes to settlements and no to peace arrangements; no to apologies and yes to a light trigger finger for Sinai and the Mavi Marmara. As British journalist Robert Fisk put it so well on Saturday: “Israel thinks too little and shoots too much.”

The decline in relations with Turkey doubtless began following Operation Cast Lead. The attacks on the Israeli Embassy in Cairo came at first following the killing of the five Egyptian soldiers by Israel last month, but was spurred by Israel’s deteriorating ties with Turkey. Last week it was clear that if Turkey is all but cutting its relations with Israel, Egypt cannot stand by and do nothing.

In the new Egypt the street speaks, and the street had its violent and unequivocal say over the weekend. This is the street that had practically nothing against Israel during the Tahrir uprising in the spring, but after the killing of the five soldiers, Israel’s lack of apology for doing so and the Turkish fiasco, it is coming out against Israel now.

The street saw the brutal scenes from Operation Cast Lead not shown in Israel, and they became enemies, more than ever. Then came the attack on the Mavi Marmara, a miniature version of Operation Cast Lead.

The former prime minister, Ehud Olmert, the current defense minister, Ehud Barak, and the former foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, should be held accountable for the diplomatic destruction they brought on Israel.

A very dangerous fire broke out in the shabby office building where, until Friday, Israel had its embassy. That is black news. The original sin: Operation Cast Lead.

via Israel is paying for Gaza war with Turkey and Egypt crises – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

September 14, 2011
Turkey says it won’t send gunboats to Gaza any time soon

By HERB KEINON

09/11/2011 07:28

Officials say prime minister Erdogan’s quotes were misinterpreted; Israel says no decision has been made about assisting Kurds fighting Anakara.

Turkey and Israel took baby-steps back over the weekend from a further dramatic deterioration in ties, with Turkish officials saying Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s threats of sending gunboats to Gaza were misinterpreted – and Israel made clear it had not decided to support the Kurdish militants fighting Turkey.

According to officials quoted in Istanbul’s Today’s Zaman newspaper over the weekend, remarks Erdogan made during an interview on Al Jazeera Thursday about the gunboats were “quoted out of context.”

RELATED:

Erdogan threatens to send gunboats with next flotilla

According to the paper, in the Turkish version of the interview, Erdogan said: “At the moment, no doubt, Turkish warships are first of all liable to protect their own ships. This is the first step. And there is humanitarian aid, which we will extend. Our humanitarian assistance will no longer be attacked as happened in the case of the Mavi Marmara.”

A senior government official quoted by Today’s Zaman on Friday said Erdogan’s remarks did not mean Ankara was preparing to send humanitarian-aid ships to Gaza, escorted by Turkish gunboats.

“As long as Israel does not interfere in the freedom of navigation, we do not plan on sending any warships to escort humanitarian-aid ships,” the official was quoted as saying.

“The misquoted remarks suggest that we have been readying to provide a warship to escort each humanitarian aid ship. This is not the case. However, Turkey will protect its citizens’ rights in the event of any interference in international waters.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Saturday night Israel wanted to prevent a further deterioration of ties with Turkey.

“We didn’t choose this, and we will work to lower the flames, and if possible to rebuild the ties.”

Also on Saturday night, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in a Channel 2 interview that there was no Israeli proposal on the agenda to help or have contact with the PKK Kurdish militant organization.

Lieberman was referring to a story in Yediot Aharonot on Friday that this was one of the steps the government was discussing as a response to threats from Ankara.

Among the other steps reportedly under consideration in the Foreign Ministry were issuing a travel advisory warning Israelis – especially those who served in the IDF – against visits to Turkey; strengthening cooperation with the Armenians, Turkey’s historical rivals, and with their powerful lobby in Washington; and waging diplomatic warfare against Turkey in the international community by focusing the world’s attention on its human-rights violations in its ongoing battle with the Kurds.

“The Foreign Ministry has had many discussions and brainstorming sessions, and there are many ideas,” Lieberman said. “We are looking at all the scenarios. I think that regarding Turkey, both sides have an interest in strengthening the ties and returning to normalization. We don’t want a conflict with the Turks, but we also will not raise the white flag.”

Soon after the Yediot article appeared on Friday, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement saying Israel’s policy “was and remains to prevent deterioration in ties with Turkey and [to promote] a calming of the tensions between the two countries.”

The statement said the prime minister and the government discussed numerous theoretical possibilities in the event of an escalation.

“But a decision will only be made when it is needed. Israel acted, and will act, responsibly, and hopes that Turkey will do the same.”

via Turkey says it won’t send gunboat… JPost – Diplomacy & Politics.

September 14, 2011
Turkey to take legal battle for Gaza flotilla dead to The Hague

Istanbul – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan Saturday vowed to carry his country’s spat with Israel over last year’s killing of Turkish nationals aboard Gaza flotilla ship the Mavi Marmara to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Speaking a convention of businessmen in the central Turkish city of Kayseri broadcast live on Turkey’s state news channel TRT Erdogan vowed to continue the legal struggle for justice for the nine people killed on the ship.

‘We will carry this struggle to the Hague and the world will again see who is standing alongside the victims,’ he said, criticising Turkish opposition leaders for what he described as ‘acting as advocates for Israel’.

Erdogan was also deeply critical of the United States position on the Mavi Marmara incident, relating how he had to point out to US President Barack Obama how the attack had left nine Turks dead from wounds inflicted by 35 bullets mostly fired from close range, one of them an American passport holder.

‘I asked President Obama whether the reason he showed no interest in one of his nationals being killed was because (the victim) was (ethnically) Turkish – he didn’t reply,’ said Erdogan.

However, despite that rhetoric, Erdogan made no repeat mention of his remarks from an interview Thursday with Al Jazeera in which he warned that Turkey could send warships to protect future aid convoys sent to break the Israeli blockade against Gaza.

Turkey’s state Anatolian News Agency quoted Erdogan as telling Al Jazeera that ‘Turkish vessels are obliged to protect their own ships. We are going to send humanitarian aid to the region. And Turkish vessels carrying humanitarian aid will never be subject to any attack again.’

‘Turkey does not make the same mistakes with Israel in the international waters. Turkey’s state and military decency do not allow such mistakes.’

Those remarks, the first time that a Turkish official has warned of possible military intervention in the year long spat with Israel, caused international concern when aired late Thursday prompting warnings from both Israel and the US of the possible consequences of escalating tensions between the two former allies.

via Turkey to take legal battle for Gaza flotilla dead to The Hague – Monsters and Critics.

September 14, 2011
Israel considers sponsoring terrorists to ‘punish’ Turkey

by Paul Woodward on September 10, 2011

Ynet reports:

The [Israel] Foreign Ministry has now decided to proceed with the formulation of a diplomatic and security “toolbox” to be used against the Turks. The first move would be to issue a travel warning urging all Israeli military veterans to refrain from traveling to Turkey. The advisory will be especially harsh as it will also urge Israelis to refrain from boarding connections in Turkey.

Another planned Israeli move is the facilitation of cooperation with Turkey’s historic rivals, the Armenians. During Lieberman’s visit to the United States this month, the foreign minister is expected to meet with leaders of the Armenian lobby and propose anti-Turkish cooperation in Congress.

The implication of this move could be Israeli assistance in promoting international recognition of the Armenian holocaust, a measure that would gravely harm Turkey. Israel may also back Armenia in its dispute vis-à-vis Turkey over control of Mount Ararat.

Lieberman is also planning to set meetings with the heads of Kurdish rebel group PKK in Europe in order to “cooperate with them and boost them in every possible area.” In these meetings, the Kurds may ask Israel for military aid in the form of training and arms supplies, a move that would constitute a major anti-Turkish position should it materialize.

The PKK is a “U.S. Government Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations” in the State Department’s current list of foreign terrorist organizations. In the event that Israel starts providing the PKK with weapons, Israel itself will need to be considered for inclusion in the State Department’s list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. Were it to be listed, this would mean that it would be illegal for the United States to continue providing military aid and economic assistance to Israel.

via Israel considers sponsoring terrorists to ‘punish’ Turkey — War in Context.

September 14, 2011