JERUSALEM (JTA) — Turkey has asked the United States not to share intelligence from a new missile defense system with Israel.
Turkey received U.S. assurances that no intelligence will be shared, The Los Angeles Times reported, citing a report from the Turkish newspaper Today’s Zaman.
The United States is hoping that Turkey will vote in favor of a NATO plan to place missile defense systems in Turkey and in the Mediterranean, but is not pressuring, according to the Times.
“Turkey initially objected to the new missile shield on grounds that the wording of the agreement singled out Iran as a threat,” the Times reported Monday. “Not only does Turkey wish to maintain its friendship with Iran, but Iranian hostilities toward the West are increasingly seen as having roots in American and European support for Israel.”
As a non-member of NATO, Israel is not eligible for its protection, Today’s Zaman pointed out.
Enmity between Turkey and Israel began with the Gaza war in the winter of 2008-09, and has grown since the May 31 flotilla incident in which nine Turkish passengers on the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara were killed when Israeli Navy commandos boarded the ship in an effort to maintain the country’s maritime blockade of Gaza.
via Turkey to U.S: Don’t share intelligence with Israel | JTA – Jewish & Israel News.
Michael Oren speaks at event marking 25 years since establishment of Free Trade agreement between Israel and the U.S.
By Natasha Mozgovaya
Israel’s ambassador to the United States Michael Oren remarked on Tuesday that Israel would not allow anyone to dictate its borders.
Ambassador Michael Oren. Photo by: Natasha Mozgovaya
“Like Ben-Gurion, Netanyahu will not allow the United Nations, or any other organization, to dictate our borders. They will be determined through negotiations,” he said in Washington during an event at the Chamber of commerce celebrating 25 years since the establishment of the Free Trade agreement between the U.S. and Israel.
In September, Israel entered into U.S.-sponsored direct peace negotiations with the Palestinians, which subsequently broke down in the wake of the expiration of a temporary Israeli moratorium on construction in West Bank settlements. As part of the negotiations, Palestinian negotiators have demanded the establishment of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders.
“Today, too, Israel is blessed with principled and courageous leadership. While facing terrorist groups sworn to destroy every last one of us – women, children, senior citizens – and some 60,000 Hamas and Hezbollah rockets pointed directly at our homes; with so-called human rights organizations and boycott movements and campus coalitions denying our right to defend ourselves and even our right to exist, and with Iranian leaders swearing to wipe us off the map and striving to produce the nuclear means for doing that…. With all of those challenges, the Israeli government under PM Benjamin Netanyahu has not for a nanosecond reduced its commitment to peace,” Oren said.
“But not a peace at any price,” he added. “Not a peace that will impair Israel’s security or impugn its identity as the nation state of the Jewish people.
As Netanyahu said last year in his Bar-Ilan speech, he will not allow any future Palestinian state to become another Lebanon or Gaza.”
Speaking about Israel’s economic achievements, Oren went on to say that “you may also have heard that 2010 was Israel’s biggest tourism year ever, breaking last year’s record by 27 percent, or that Israel’s thriving film industry has produced two Oscar Best Foreign Picture nominations in the last two years. You might have heard that Israel’s wine industry, more than 140 wineries strong, has surpassed the 30 million bottle a year mark with annual export increase of 25 percent – to France – or that Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer has now been named the most successful National Bank Governor in the world.”
Hakan Fidan was chosen to lead Turkey's National Intelligence Organization.
Turkish newspaper reports agencies stopped exchanging intelligence and conducting joint operations following Turkish government decision.
By Zvi Bar’el and Barak Ravid
Amid the strained relations between Ankara and Jerusalem, Turkish intelligence has severed its working relations with the Mossad, the Turkish newspaper Sabah reported on Monday.
The report stated that the two agencies, which once enjoyed tight cooperation, had stopped exchanging intelligence and conducting joint operations following a Turkish government decision on the matter.
The report’s credibility remains unclear, but high-ranking Israeli officials privy to the matter neither confirmed nor denied it on Monday, and the prime minister’s bureau declined to comment.
In June, Amir Oren reported in Haaretz that Israeli security officials were deeply concerned by the appointment of Hakan Fidan to lead Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization. Fidan, a close associate of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is viewed as a proponent of closer relations between Turkey and Iran.
Meanwhile, Turkey has conditioned its consent to stationing a NATO missile-defense system on its territory on a guarantee that no information collected by the system be transferred to Israel.
Since the American-sponsored plan’s original purpose was to defend NATO countries against the possibility of an Iranian attack, this means Turkey is essentially demanding that Israel not be given vital information about Iranian missiles.
The previous U.S. administration had planned to station the system in eastern Europe. But due to fierce opposition from Russia, the Obama administration decided to relocate and scale back the system, which will now focus mainly on deterrence and on monitoring Iran’s missile program.
Turkey was initially reluctant to host the system at all, lest it damage Ankara’s relationship with Tehran. But since it is a NATO member, and since it faces growing criticism in the United States for its seeming turn away from the West, it said it would agree under certain conditions.
One was that the system officially be designated as aimed not against threats from Iran (or from Syria or Russia ), but against missile threats to Turkey and Europe in general. Another was direct Turkish access to any information gathered by the system. A third was full Turkish participation in any and all decisions stemming from information gathered by the system – which would enable it to work against any NATO move to attack Iran. And the fourth was that information gathered by the system not be given to any non-NATO member, and especially not to Israel.
Turkish sources said Washington has agreed to the demand that Iran not be designated as one of the system’s targets. They said it has also agreed that no information from the system will be shared with Israel, on the grounds that Israel has its own advanced missile-detection systems for tracking Iranian threats.
Washington, they noted, has little choice but to agree, since Turkey’s opposition would kill the plan: Aside from the fact that Washington needs Ankara’s consent to put the system on Turkish soil, the decision to establish the system requires unanimous consent by all NATO members. Moreover, Washington is under severe time pressure, as it hopes to get the project approved at the upcoming NATO summit on November 19.
At the outset of the nineteen eighties the State of Israel is in need of a new perspective as to its place, its aims and national targets, at home and abroad.
For more information on this subject please download the attached file.
As tensions with Turkey grow, Israel bolsters ties with neighboring Greece. Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas says friendship between two nations can only get stronger
Itamar Eichner
The relationship between Israel and Greece at this time can be described as a love affair. After a long period of cool relations, accompanied by harsh criticism of Israel, a new era has begun under the leadership of Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou. The reason for the rapprochement, and for the warm Israeli ties with Cyprus as well, has to do with the grave crisis in Israel-Turkey ties – with Ankara being a longtime rival of the two island states.
The love affair pertains to almost every aspect. Israeli tourists who abandoned Turkish resorts discovered Greece and saved the locals from the damages of the grave economic crisis. Meanwhile, Israeli and Greek gunships engaged in a joint maneuver last week, possibly as a hint to Turkish PM Erdogan, who put an end to such Israeli-Turkish cooperation. On another front, talks are underway on a future gas pipelines from Israel to Europe that would pass through Greece.
A multitude of ventures. Droutsas and Lieberman (Photo: AP)
In recent weeks, Greek media outlets have reported at length about the dramatic improvement in ties between the two countries. A Greek military source said that Israel is mostly interested in aviation cooperation, while the Greeks expected to receive defense technologies and embark on joint projects to develop defense systems.
In August, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Greece as PM Papandreou’s guest, and last week a senior Greek delegation visited Israel in order to identify areas for cooperation. In an unusual move, delegation members met with PM Netanyahu, as well as other senior officials.
In another development highlighting the current idyll, Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas landed in Israel Sunday for a two-day visit. Among other things, he was expected to sign a new aviation cooperation agreement with his counterpart, Avigdor Lieberman.
Strategic interests
Ties between the two nations were never cold and have been conflict-free, despite their long history, Droutsas told Yedioth Ahronoth in a special interview, adding that the current Greek government intends to bolster the renewed tied further.
When asked if Turkey should be concerned, Droutsas said that the cooperation between Jerusalem and Athens would never go against any other nation. On the contrary, he said, “One of the main parameters here is to stabilize the entire region. The Middle East is of vital interest for Greece.” Athens, he added, wishes to cultivate peaceful and neighborly relations in the region, which could only benefit its prosperity.
Israel and Greece share political, economic, cultural and defense ties, he continued, and also to create strategic ties which would span all areas equally. “One thing is very clear – Israel is a pioneering nation when it comes to high-tech and we would be thrilled if such cooperation proved fruitful.”
As for the rumored Israeli-Greek gas line, Droutsas said that energy, in any form, is of great significance to Greece and Europe, and naturally – for Israel as well. Nevertheless, he qualified, it is still too early to discuss specific plans.
The Greek economy has been slowly recovering from one of the worst recessions in its history, and the gradual process – and underlying potential – has not escaped the attention of Israeli investors, who are eying Greek investments. According to Droutsas, the biggest potential currently lies in the tourism and renewable energy industries and the government in doing its best to attract foreign investors.
The deepening crisis between Israel and Turkey had a resounding effect on the Turkish tourism industry, as tension between the two leading Israelis to practically abandon their once-favorite vacation destination, in favor of nearby Greece.
“There is a very impressive 60% growth in tourism from Israel. If in 2009 155,000 Israelis visited us, in 2010, so far, we’ve had over 250,000. We are delighted and flattered that Israelis prefer Greece now, and we hope it will not be a fleeting phenomenon, but one that keeps growing,” Droutsas said.
Greece’s beauty, he added, is one that takes a lifetime to experience. “Israelis should know that we welcome them. We want to cultivate these ties, because a touristic link is also a cultural one between our people,” he said.
‘We understand Israel’s concerns’
But what about Turkey’s new affinity to Iran? According to the Greek FM, while naturally, every nation is free to prioritize policies as it sees fit, Greece’s foreign policy focuses on two avenues: pursuing a set of values and principles which promote stability, and participating in formulating European Union policies, in a way which would bolster the EU’s international standing and position. “Turkey’s position on Iran does not coincide with that of the EU,” Droutsas said – a point that cannot be taken lightly considering that Ankara wants to become a member nation.
Greece, he added, supports the EU’s position that every peaceful way to resolve the Iranian problem should be exhausted. “We are truly concerned by the fact that no such progress has been made. Things today are perilous.”
When asked where Athens stands on the issue of Gaza-bound flotillas – especially in view of recent report that it had prevented such sails from leaving its shores, Droutsas treads carefully: “Greece understands Israel’s legitimate security concerns perfectly. Simultaneously, we understand the humanitarian problems in Gaza. Israel’s decision on mitigations was a step in the right direction, but the difficult situation in Gaza does not contribute to the peace process.”
Gaza’s frustration, he continued, “Pushed parts of the Palestinian people to the extreme and fuels the fires of radical groups, which in turn has various implications on Israel’s security. The situation has prompted Greece and Cyprus to promote an initiative which may ease the flow of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.”
Greek public opinion of Israel, however, is less forgiving, but Droutsas believes that can be changed.
“Strengthening the ties between our countries reflects a sentiment shared by both nations…the harsh humanitarian situation in Gaza and the perpetuation of the Palestinian problem harm Israel’s international image, not just its image in Greece.
“That is why I feel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to pursue peace talks with Mahmou Abbas is so important. Both leaders deserve our support. They must develop mutual trust that would enable them to resolve the situation.”
Droutsas also believes that the differences between Israelis and Greeks are minute.
“We have so much in common, in all aspects of life,” he said. To illustrate, he points out that he has no idea how it is that the many successful Greek-style Israeli singers, such as iconic singer Yehuda Poliker, have yet to become mega-stars in Greece.
“I wish my visit had started on a Friday – I missed the chance to see Poliker at the Zapa Club in Tel Aviv,” he said.
Earlier this week the Israeli Air Force completed a series of exercises with its Greek counterpart – a sign of the growing links between the two countries.
Israel's storming of the Gaza-bound flotilla in May caused a storm of protests across Turkey
But more than this, it is an indication of the changing political geography of the eastern Mediterranean.
The exercise involved Israeli Apache and Black Hawk helicopters operating alongside Greek Air force helicopters and jets.
Israel relies heavily on its advanced air power but has very limited airspace of its own in which to train.
Israeli helicopters have flown in Romania – one large CH-53 helicopter crashed there in July with the loss of several lives – and the Israeli Air Force has held many exercises in Turkey.
But no longer.
Ever since Israeli commandos boarded the Turkish-owned, Gaza-bound vessel the Mavi Marmara back in May – killing several Turkish nationals in the ensuing struggle – relations between Israel and Ankara have been in the freezer.
Joint military exercises have been abandoned and this week a Turkish minister indicated his country would boycott an international tourism conference due to be held in Jerusalem.
Unless Israel bows to Turkish demands for a full apology and compensation, normal ties are unlikely to be resumed.
So over recent months Israel has been significantly reinforcing its friendship with Greece.
The prime ministers of each country have exchanged visits.
There are even hopes – you could call them maybe “pipe-dreams” – that one day Israeli natural gas might be exported to Europe via a terminal in Greece.
But this new friendship, while no doubt sincere, is prompted in large part by the worsening ties between Israel and Turkey.
The collapse of the strategic relationship with Turkey is bad news for Israel.
The full extent of the ties has never been revealed but they are known to have had military, intelligence and economic dimensions.
Turkey has been a major arms purchaser from Israel and it has drawn on Israel’s counter-insurgency doctrines for its own struggles against the Kurds.
Given Turkey’s geographical position, just to the north of Syria and with its western border just touching Iran, the undisclosed intelligence co-operation may be the element of the relationship that Israel misses most.
The strains between Tel Aviv and Ankara have caused alarm in Washington, which is far from happy to see its two main military allies in the region drifting apart.
But in truth things were changing even before the Mavi Marmara episode.
Israel’s strongest allies in Turkey were within the Turkish military and under the Islamist government of the AKP Party, their influence in the country is in decline.
Ties with Greece can provide vital exercise space for the Israeli Air Force.
They can provide tourism and other economic benefits for both countries.
Israeli commentators are trying to put the best face on it all.
Oded Eran of the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University noted in a recent paper that “perhaps the neo-Hellenist option (Greece) does not fully replace the strategic assets lost with the disintegration of the neo-Ottoman option (Turkey), but it embodies much interesting potential that is well worth cultivating”.
That may well be true. But it cannot compensate Israel for the loss of a key strategic partner in Ankara, whose gaze is now much more strongly directed towards the Arab world.
