Israeli minister and former military chief Moshe Yaalon
Mr Yaalon was military chief of staff at the time of the Shehadeh attack
cancelled a UK visit because of fears of arrest for alleged war crimes, his office says.
Pro-Palestinian groups in Britain want Mr Yaalon to face trial over the 2002 killing of a Gaza militant, in which 14 others also died.
Mr Yaalon took legal advice and wanted “to avoid playing into the hands of anti-Israel propaganda”, an aide said.
A similar attempt last week failed to get Israel’s defence minister arrested.
Mr Yaalon, who is vice prime minister and strategic affairs minister, had been invited to attend a charity dinner held by the Jewish National Fund’s UK branch.
But his spokesman, Alon Ofek-Arnon, confirmed that the foreign ministry’s legal team had advised against it.
Israeli media reported that the advisers believed Mr Yaalon would not be accorded diplomatic immunity – in contrast to Defence Minister Ehud Barak who visited the Labour Party Conference in Brighton without interference.
“This is a campaign whose goal is to de-legitimise the state,” Mr Yaalon said in remarks quoted by Haaretz newspaper.
Allegations against Mr Yaalon date back to July 2002, when an Israel Air force jet dropped a one-tonne bomb in a densely populated area of Gaza to assassinate senior Hamas figure Salah Shehada.
The attack was part of Israel’s policy of “targeted killings” of Palestinian militants it blamed for plotting attacks against it.
At the time, the army expressed regret about the deaths of the 14 civilians, at least eight of them children. in addition to Mr Shehada and said they had come about as the result of faulty intelligence.
Britain has adopted the legal principle of “universal jurisdiction”, under which domestic courts in countries around the world can try war crimes suspects, even if the crime took place outside the country and the suspect is not a citizen.
Palestinian campaigners sought Mr Barak’s arrest last week, in connection with Israel’s controversial military operation in Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009, but judges declined to hear the case.
A UN report by international prosecutor Richard Goldstone accused both Israel and Hamas of war crimes. Israel rejected its findings.
Turkish Rabbi Yitzchak Haliva reportedly met with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, Kav HaChadash reports.
It appears Turkey’s prime minister invited religious leaders from Turkey to join him and al-Assad in Saudi Arabia to mark the end of Ramadan.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan explained he wanted local religious leaders to get to know the Syrian leader. Rabbi Haliva met with Assad together with Erdogan. Assad reportedly told the rav there is Jewish community in Syria, resulting in the rabbi replying that he is aware because his community sends them matzos for Pessach. In addition, he plays a vital role in providing “religious services” like schita and bris milah.
The rabbi reportedly called on the Syrian leader to do everything possible towards advancing peace with Israel to bring an end to the orphans on both sides. The Turkish leader added that he is doing his utmost towards achieving this goal.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
Source: theyeshivaworld.com, September 24, 2009
Turkey’s Chief Rabbi Meets Assad for Dinner
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
(IsraelNN.com) Turkey’s Chief Rabbi (or Hahambasi) Yitzchak Haleva met with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad at a Ramadan break-fast dinner earlier this month. Rabbi Haleva had what he felt was a heart-to-heart exchange with the dictator.
The meeting, which included leading Christian and Muslim clerics as well, was called by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Also in attendance at the upscale Istanbul hotel were diplomatic representatives from several nations, including Israel.
When Rabbi Haleva was introduced to Assad, the Syrian leader noted that his country also had a Jewish community. Haleva replied that the Turkish Jewish community provides for the Syrian one certain religious needs, such as kosher food and a mohel, as needed. In an exclusive interview with the Matzav HaRuach weekly Torah publication, Rabbi Haleva said that he informed Assad that his community has been sending wine for Shabbat and matzah for Passover to Damascus Jewish community for many years.
Assad, the rabbi said, replied that he was aware of the connection between the Turkish Rabbinate and the Jews of Damascus. He further promised that the relationship would continue.
Rabbi Haleva said that in his brief conversation with Assad, he expressed the hope of the Jewish people in Israel and in the Diaspora for true peace in the Middle East. The rabbi informed Assad that the Jewish people pray for peace during the Rosh HaShanah holiday at this time of year.
“Enough wars, enough mourning, enough destruction and loss,” Rabbi Haleva said, to which Assad expressed full agreement, according to the rabbi.
“I felt that he felt my words were from the heart, and I sensed that they entered his heart,” Rabbi Haleva told Matzav HaRuach. “And my prayer is that this year, whose arrival we just celebrated, will be a year of peace between Israel and Syria.”
According to the Yediot Aharonot newswebsite, Rabbi Haleva described Assad as “nice”. His meeting with Assad was part of his duties as a religious official of Turkey who was invited by his prime minister, he said. “It’s not a political matter, nor did it offend my Zionist principles,” the rabbi was quoted as saying. “I told him we wanted peace and asked him to make peace with Israel.”
Source: www.israelnationalnews.com, Tishrei 10, 5770 / September 28, ’09
ANKARA — Turkey and Jordan warned Israel Wednesday that settlements in east Jerusalem threatened peace efforts, amid press reports that the Jewish state is to revive construction plans in the annexed region.
“Israel needs to act with responsibility on the issue of settlers and especially developments in east Jerusalem,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference with his visiting Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh.
“If there is genuine will for peace, it is time to openly display it,” he added.
Judeh, for his part, said: “We agreed that unilateral moves in east Jerusalem will harm the peace process because such moves are not only confidence-shattering but also illegal.”
Israel’s hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday agreed to curtail construction in the occupied West Bank that fell short of US demands for a settlement freeze.
Critics, however, say construction continues on the ground in a number of settlements in Palestinian territory.
TheMarker, a supplement to the Haaretz newspaper, reported Wednesday that Israeli authorities reversed a decision to reject bids for a 2008 project in east Jerusalem, paving the way for the construction of 450 housing units.
Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Six Day War and subsequently annexed it in a move the international community has not recognized.
ANKARA, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) — Jordan’s Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said on Wednesday that Jordan attaches great importance to Turkey’s role in the Middle East peace process, Turkey’s semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.
Turkey should keep playing its role in the region, while Jordan highly values and is eager to boost its relations with Turkey, Judeh said at a press conference after meeting with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu during a visit to Ankara.
Judeh said he would present a letter from King Abdullah II of Jordan to Turkish President Abdullah Gul on Wednesday, which underlined the importance of continuation of peace talks in the Middle East.
He said there was currently a positive atmosphere in the region, while a solution to the Middle East issue would be possible with a comprehensive and fair peace as well as the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
He also noted that security and stability should be secured in Iraq, while restructuring works should continue.
On his part, Davutoglu urged Palestinian factions to act for unity to achieve peace in the Middle East.
“Our Palestinian brothers should come together with a common attitude and find a common ground of reconciliation in the shortest possible time,” Davutoglu said at the press conference.
He said he hoped the upcoming Palestinian presidential and parliamentary elections in January would help maintain unity and create political stability in the territories.
Judeh is on a visit to Turkey at the invitation of Davutoglu.
Analysis: Can Cyprus be a model for Middle East peace?
As he toured a series of European capitals in May, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told his audience at a dinner party in Rome that he believed Cyprus – which was divided between its Greek and Turkish citizens in 1975, after years of bloodshed – was a fitting model for ending the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
Turkish soldier opens door in temporary wall by UN buffer zone on Turkish-Cypriot side of Nicosia. Photo: AP
“We’re interested in this,” Lieberman said. “In Cyprus, it was the same situation as in Israel. Greeks and Turks were living together, and there was friction and tension and bloodshed.”
Greeks and Turks did live together, for hundreds of years, on the island, but Ottoman and later British rule kept a lid on violence between the sides. When the British left in 1960, the groups united in what was then called the Republic of Cyprus.
But in 1963, the Turks were pushed out of that government, and the following 11 years were marked by incessant violence. The Turks say that Greek actions in their towns and villages constituted nothing less than a coordinated campaign of ethnic cleansing.
On June 20, 1974, five days after a Greek Cypriot coup d’etat on the island, the Turkish army intervened – or invaded, depending on whom you ask – and pushed Greek forces back to the southern part of the island. A year later, the UN oversaw a population transfer – Greeks to the south and Turks to the north – completing the separation that lasts to this day.
And it was precisely this separation, Lieberman said, which had brought about peace and prosperity there. Now, he claimed in May, the Netanyahu government was basing its approach on the model provided by Cyprus.
But is Cyprus really a good example?
While the Greeks enjoy stability and international recognition, they continue to view the north as “occupied territory” that was “illegally invaded” by Turkey in 1974. Their motivation for a comprehensive agreement has been less robust than the Turks’, if only because they don’t need an agreement as much as do their neighbors to the north.
The Turkish Republic of North Cyprus goes unrecognized by every nation in the world except for Turkey, and has tough international restrictions on investors and developers that has local restaurants such as “Burger City” and “Pizza Hat” filling in for their original counterparts – since Burger King and Pizza Hut are not allowed to open branches, due to international embargoes.
Greece continues to use its EU membership and international weight to prevent the Turkish Cypriots from gaining international recognition, which would, first and foremost, allow the Turkish Cypriots to open their air and sea ports to international flights, a development that would render North Cyprus a formidable competitor for the island’s main source of income, tourism. As of now, every flight into the north must come from Turkey.
Greek Cypriots are unsatisfied with the current situation, but have a Western standard of living that allows them to wait, while Turkish Cypriots decry their international isolation as unbearable. And while both sides have been negotiating a comprehensive agreement for years, it remains unattainable, for now.
Therefore, another problem with Lieberman’s argument is that Cypriots themselves view their situation as a temporary one. Separation is viewed as a means to achieving a final, comprehensive agreement, not the end of the conflict.
While that agreement has historically been viewed through the prism of federation, an increasing number of Turkish Cypriots are awakening to the reality that such a deal could see Greek Cypriots return to the Turkish part of the island en masse, effectively ending Turkish autonomy there through demographics – an Israeli equivalent to a one-state solution.
Speaking to The Jerusalem Post at a reception on Monday evening to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the 1974 Turkish “Peace Operation,” Turkish Cypriot President Mehmet Ali Talat said, “Maybe your foreign minister was referring to the fact that there has been no violence here since 1974.
“With that I agree with him. But the central goal in North Cyprus is federation.”
But when asked how Turkish demographic integrity would be maintained after federation, Talat said, “[Greek Cypriots] will be able to come here, but with restrictions. They will not be able to settle here freely.”
Not only are Cypriots’ wishes regarding their political fate different from those of Israelis and Palestinians, their conflict remains unresolved.
So could the Cyprus model be an example for Israel? And if so, is Lieberman referring to a 35-year-old military standoff as his vision for ending the conflict? Or is it simply a separation of two peoples, in which one is recognized, and the other is not?
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid a one-day visit to Syria, which involved discussions on Turkey’s mediator role between Israel and Syria. Erdogan and the Syrian President Bashar Assad discussed bilateral relations, regional developments and Turkey’s peacemaking role in the region. Assad requested Turkey’s mediating services and Erdogan announced Ankara’s readiness to facilitate the Israeli-Syrian talks. They also agreed to initiate a “high-level strategic council” to bolster economic, political and cultural ties. Moreover, Erdogan addressed a large audience at the University of Aleppo, where he was warmly received. He praised the normalization of ties between Ankara and Damascus and argued that there is a need to address other problems in the region. He called for the re-launching of Israeli-Syrian talks on the basis of the restoration of Syria’s rights (www.cnnturk.com, July 22).Turkish diplomats facilitated indirect talks between Syrian and Israeli delegations, which appeared to be the most viable effort in recent years. Following Israel’s offensive against Gaza in late December, its relations with both Syria and Turkey became more strained. Syria suspended talks with Israel to protest against Israel’s military action. Ankara’s growing criticism toward Tel Aviv and the severing of their bilateral ties also led to questions over Turkey’s role, as Israel’s government had reportedly lost trust in Ankara and questioned its future as an impartial peace broker (EDM, January 30). As a result, these indirect talks moderated by Turkey came to a premature end.
Erdogan’s visit came against the background of renewed international efforts to refocus on the stalled peace process in the Middle East. The United States and European countries have intensified their work recently to bring Israel and Syria to the negotiating table, but substantial differences remain between both parties. Syria wants to start negotiations on the precondition that the Golan Heights will be returned. Assad earlier maintained that the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was willing to return the Golan Heights in full. “Only when he declared this to Erdogan did we start the indirect talks,” Assad added. However, he blamed the breakdown in the talks on Israel’s unwillingness to commit to an agreement on the definition of borders. He also expressed his willingness to see a more proactive U.S. involvement in the issue (www.ynetnews.com, March 25).
U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell visited Israel and Syria in an effort to resume peace talks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered to start the talks without preconditions, meaning he would not “commit in advance to a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights.” Mitchell relayed this message to Assad, who rejected it and emphasized that the talks should start from the point at which they were suspended. Asad underlined that an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights would be the basis of any future talks. Whereas Assad conveyed to Mitchell his willingness to resume indirect talks under Turkish mediation, Netanyahu reportedly opposed this proposal by pointing to Ankara’s position during the Gaza crisis (Haaretz, June 21).
In contrast to Syria, Israel wants to avoid opening any talks based on the precondition of withdrawal. Moreover, the Israeli side constantly emphasizes that as long as Damascus does not end its support for Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah, Israel will have difficulties in commencing negotiations with Syria (Jerusalem Post, July 20).
Fred Hof, an adviser to Mitchell, also held talks in the region last week, but reportedly he could not convince the two parties to change their positions (Hurriyet Daily News, July 22). Since that trip came on the eve of Erdogan’s visit, the Turkish press speculated that Hof was gauging the parties’ interest in Turkish mediation (Sabah, July 20). Mitchell is also scheduled to visit the region later this week (www.state.gov, July 20).
It is difficult to establish whether Erdogan’s visit was indeed planned in accordance with American diplomatic contacts, but there is a growing convergence between Turkish and American initiatives. Since Mitchell’s visit to Turkey (EDM, March 2), the need for coordinated action between Ankara and Washington toward the Middle East has been emphasized by both sides. During his visit to Turkey, President Barack Obama also acknowledged Ankara’s role in the region and heralded a new era of cooperation between the two countries, which he called a “model partnership” (EDM, April 7).
However, such abstract titles require more concrete definition, and Ankara perceives its mediator role as a means to revitalize its relations with Washington and give substance to the new era of partnership. Through its new openings in the Middle East, Ankara has developed important diplomatic assets to address the challenging issues in the region. As one Turkish scholar, Bulent Aras, points out, through its constructive role in the Palestine and Syria issues, Turkey can not only facilitate a solution but also make the “model partnership” a reality (Sabah, May 27).
For Ankara, a comprehensive peace in the Middle East, among other factors, depends on the resolution of Israel’s twin problems with the Palestinians and Syria, and the integration of Damascus within the international community. In Ankara’s view, given Damascus’s deep rooted connections and leverage in the region, Syria holds a key role for developing stability in the Middle East, especially in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine. For instance, in Ankara’s view, without resolving Israeli-Syrian relations in a manner that is agreeable to all parties, and ending the diplomatic isolation of Damascus, it will not be easy to limit the perceived influence of Iran over Damascus.
How Israel will respond to Turkey’s renewed mediation offer remains to be seen, particularly considering that Erdogan appeared to support Damascus’s position on the restoration of Syrian sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Since his appointment as Obama’s special envoy to the region, Mitchell has held talks with Turkish officials and heard Ankara’s perspective and concerns on this issue. It will be interesting to observe if he will now exert pressure on Tel Aviv to give the Turkish mediation efforts another chance.
ONE MINUTE’E RAGMEN TURKIYE’NIN KAPISINDA
Thursday, 23 July 2009 08:30
ISRAIL’DEN TURKIYE’YE YENI RICA
El Vatan Gazetesi, Turk Diplomatlarina Dayanarak “Israil’in Turkiye’den Suriye ile Gorusmelerinde Araci Rolunu Yeniden Ustlenmesini Istedigini” Yazdi.
Israil’in Turkiye’den Suriye ile gorusmelerde araci rolunu yeniden ustlenmesini istedigi one suruldu.
Katar’da yayimlanan El Vatan gazetesi, Turk diplomatlarina dayanarak Israil’in, Turkiye’den Suriye ile gorusmelerinde yeniden araci olmasini istedigini” yazdi.
El Vatan, Turk diplomatik kaynaklarina dayandirdigi haberinde Basbakan Recep Tayyip Erdogan’in, Suriye-Israil gorusmelerinde yeniden aracilik yapmaya baslamasi yonunde aldigi taleplerin Kudus’ten kaynakladigini belirtti.
Israil basinina da yansitilan haberde Erdogan’in Suriye ziyareti sirasinda Devlet Baskani Besar Esad’a Turkiye’nin yeniden aracilik yapmasi icin talepler aldigini anlattigi belirtilirken, Erdogan’in Esad’a bu yondeki mesajlarin icerigi konusunda bilgi verdigi kaydedildi.
Bu arada ayni kaynaklarin, Erdogan’in Turkiye’nin, Gazze operasyonunun ardindan Israil ile iliskilerinde ortaya cikan krizi asmayi basardigini, Suriye ve Israil’in Ankara’nin araciligina guvenmeyi surdurdugunu soylediklerine de dikkat cekildi.
Turk diplomatik kaynaklarinin, barisin saglanmasinin Suriye, Israil, ABD’nin yanisina Turkiye icin bir ihtiyac haline geldigini ifade ettiklerine isaret edilen haberde Ankara’nin, dort turu yapilan, Israil ile Suriye arasinda dolayli gorusmelerde dogrudan muzakerelere gecilmesi icin gerekli temeller atildigi, bu nedenle Kudus ile Sam arasinda barisa daha kolayca varilabilecegine inandigi da ifade edildi.
Cabalarin yeniden baslanmak istemesinde diger bir faktorun de Suriye’de faaliyet gosteren buyuk Turk sirketlerinin kalici istikrara olan ihtiyaclarinin da oldugu one suruldu.
Turkish Rabbi Yitzchak Haliva reportedly met with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, Kav HaChadash reports.
