Tag: Gaza

  • Turkish PM prepares to meet with Hamas

    Turkish PM prepares to meet with Hamas

    Turkish PM prepares to meet with terrorist group in Gaza Strip

    BY: Adam Kredo

    April 4, 2013 8:59 am

    Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh / AP
    Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh / AP

    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is preparing to meet the Hamas government in Gaza, a move that could further inflame regional tensions.

    Preparations for the visit come as Secretary of State John Kerry returns to the Middle East this weekend to patch up relations between Turkey and Israel. Kerry will spend Saturday visiting Israel, the West Bank, and Turkey as he seeks to find common ground between skeptical Middle East leaders, according to reports.

    Erdogan’s trip will follow a tenuous diplomatic breakthrough between the Islamist Turkish prime minister and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who recently apologized to Erdogan for a deadly 2010 incident between the two nations that claimed the lives of eight Turks.

    It remains unclear just how much headway Kerry will be able to make given Erdogan’s hesitance to embrace Israel fully and back away from his support for Iran and Hamas, according regional experts.

    Erdogan has long acted as one of Hamas’s top cheerleaders, leading the charge to legitimize the terrorist group. The relationship blossomed long before the deadly 2010 flotilla raid harmed relations between Turkey and Israel.

    “This certainly didn’t start with the flotilla,” said David Pollock, a former Middle East adviser at the State Department. “It goes back not only longer, but deeper because support for Hamas is not just against Israel but is in line with Erdogan’s overall Muslim Brotherhood orientation, his Islamic orientation.”

    “The question that I would ask is not only why does Erdogan support Hamas against Israel but also support Hamas against the Palestinian Authority and [PA President] Mahmoud Abbas,” said Pollock, who currently serves as a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

    The PA has opposed Erdogan’s planned trip to Israel, claiming it will only “deepen divisions among the Palestinians,” according to regional media reports.

    Erdogan announced he would visit Gaza and Hamas after Netanyahu offered his apology, leading State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell to express “deep concern” during a press briefing on March 27.

    Erdogan, recently dubbed by President Barack Obama as one of his top five international friends, is attempting to consolidate power by appealing to all sides, experts said.

    “He tries to play both sides,” Pollock said. “He patched things up supposedly with Netanyahu on Obama’s recent visit [to Israel], but he continues to show support for Hamas. It’s possible in his mind he actually believes Hamas can be brought around to accept peace with Israel, but if he does, it isn’t true. There’s a real contradiction here.”

    Erdogan has said he is Hamas’ champion, even claiming in the past that he wants to “represent Hamas on international platforms.”

    The Turkish prime minister remains committed to engaging Hamas at every opportunity despite its ongoing terrorist activities.

    “We should not be squeezing them into the corner,” he said in a 2009 speech before the European Union.

    Erdogan has even vowed to personally escort any flotilla that seeks to break Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip—a promise that was made well after the deadly 2010 incident.

    Hamas leaders also view Erdogan as a top ally.

    Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh named his grandson after Erdogan so that the Turkish leader’s name “reverberated on every tongue” in the Gaza Strip, according to a 2010 report in Today’s Zaman.

    Erdogan and Hamas have rallied around their opposition to Israel.

    Erdogan has dubbed Israeli military operations against Hamas fighters “state terror.”

    When Israel launched its 2008 military incursion into Gaza to combat ongoing terrorist rocket attacks, Erdogan described it as “an act of disrespect toward Turkey.”

    “The crucial break point for Erdogan in this area was not the flotilla, but the Gaza war in December of ’08,” said Pollock. “That was the turning point. He took it very personally.”

    Hamas attacks on Israel are justified in Erdogan’s view.

    “I do not think that Hamas is a terrorist organization,” he said in April 2010, according to the Hurriyet Daily News. “I said the same thing to the United States. I am still of the same opinion. They are Palestinians in resistance, fighting for their own land.”

    Erdogan’s recent bid to soften tensions with Israel are aimed at boosting his own image, according to Tony Badran, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).

    “Turkish officials are of the belief that, ‘We are going act as a mediator that is going to lead the [peace] process,’” Badran said. “That’s how they’re putting it out. He’s trying to raise the profile of Turkey as a mediator once again, specifically using the Palestinians as a platform”

    The United States has been left with few diplomatic options given the regional climate.

    “Realistically, we have to deal with this guy,” said Pollock. “He’s in charge of a very, very important country for the region and for us. I think he has his mishegas [craziness], but he’s demonstrated that he can be quite pragmatic toward us and even toward Israel. We have to make the best of not a great situation.”

    This entry was posted in Middle East and tagged Hamas, Israel, John Kerry, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey. Bookmark the permalink.

    via Turkish PM prepares to meet with Hamas | Washington Free Beacon.

  • Israel is right to apologise to Turkey – though it leaves some Western commentators looking silly

    Israel is right to apologise to Turkey – though it leaves some Western commentators looking silly

    Daniel Hannan

    Daniel Hannan is a writer and journalist, and has been Conservative MEP for South East England since 1999. He speaks French and Spanish and loves Europe, but believes that the European Union is making its constituent nations poorer, less democratic and less free.

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    Israel is right to apologise to Turkey – though it leaves some Western commentators looking silly

    By Daniel Hannan Politics Last updated: March 23rd, 2013

    A good working relationship is essential for the region

    Israelis like to say that they live in a tough neighbourhood, and it’s true. Since its foundation, the Jewish state has been surrounded by hostile dictatorships. The fact that, through all its wars, it remained a democracy – and a gloriously messy, disputatious, cussed democracy, at that – is little short of miraculous.

    I remember, some years ago, seeing the place where the military authorities had originally placed part of the protective wall, and then the place to which it had been moved following a successful legal challenge. In how many Middle Eastern countries, I wondered, would the rule of law trump the generals’ decision?

    In tough neighbourhoods, you need friends. For a long time, Israel was able to weather the antagonism of surrounding states because it had a workmanlike relationship with Egypt and an entente – it stopped short of being an alliance – with Turkey.

    The worst foreign policy failure of the current government – a government which I broadly support – was to alienate these two countries in succession. In both cases, the rupture came about because of unplanned accidents of the sort that happen whenever soldiers are deployed. No one suggests that the Israeli government wanted its troops to shoot at Egyptian security forces, or to kill Turkish blockade-runners. In both cases, though, a swift and sincere apology would have helped smooth things over.

    Instead, the Israeli authorities became prickly and defensive, refusing to admit any fault and privately claiming that the other side was looking for an excuse to break off links. In the case of Egypt, these claims might have had an element of truth, though a more emollient attitude would none the less have strengthened the hand of Cairo moderates and attracted the goodwill of neutrals. In the case of Turkey, Israel’s reaction was incomprehensible. Turkey, the region’s chief military power, was the first Muslim country to recognise the Israeli state, and the armed forces of the two countries had long enjoyed close relations. It is true that, for some years before the flotilla incident in 2010, Ankara had been critical of Israeli policy in Gaza. All the more reason, then, not to vindicate the arguments of Turkey’s most anti-Israel elements.

    Binyamin Netanyahu deserves credit for having had the generosity and wisdom to correct his mistake. As the civil war in Syria drags on, Israel and Turkey have more reason than ever to work together. His apology has, inevitably, led to some Western writers complaining that the Israeli commandos who stormed the ship were victims rather than aggressors, but it is more than a little eccentric to keep insisting that there is nothing to apologise for when the Likud-led government has already apologised. Most of these writers perfunctorily tell us that Israel “shouldn’t be beyond criticism”; but, in practice, they never seem to allow such criticism.

    Few subjects create such with-us-or-against us sentiment. Simply taking the line I have – that Israel is entitled to defend itself, that it has every right to respond militarily to the Hamas rocket attacks, but that it was wrong to attack a Turkish-flagged vessel in international waters – will convince both sides that I am against them: watch the comment thread that follows.

    Israel needs to engage constructively with democratic forces in the region. It’s true that, in the cacophony that followed the Arab Spring, some previously suppressed anti-Israel voices dominated. But it is equally true that democracies tend to be less bellicose than dictatorships.

    In the long run, Israel’s security lies in cleaning up the neighbourhood – evicting the anti-social louts, so to speak, and replacing them with hard-working families. It won’t be easy. Some of those families will have awkward views, and conversations across the garden fence will often be fraught. But at least the teenagers will no longer be throwing bottles at your house.

    To put it more prosaically, Israel – like the West – needs to develop a decent working relationship with democratic Muslim parties. Repairing relations with Turkey was a vital first step.

    Tags: AK Parti, Bibi Netanyahu, Erdogan, flotilla, Gaza

    via Israel is right to apologise to Turkey – though it leaves some Western commentators looking silly – Telegraph Blogs.

  • Israel to allow Turkey to build Gaza hospital

    Israel to allow Turkey to build Gaza hospital

    ‘Israel to allow Turkey to build Gaza hospital’

    By JPOST.COM STAFF

    02/11/2013 20:05

    Turkish daily reports J’lem permits entry of construction materials as part of easing of blockade agreed, gesture to Turks.

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    Mashaal and Erdogan meet in Ankara

    Mashaal and Erdogan meet in Ankara Photo: REUTERS

    Israel has authorized Turkey to transport construction materials into the Gaza Strip in order to build a Turkish-funded hospital in the coastal territory, Turkish daily Hurriyet reported on Monday.

    According to the report, the hospital will be inaugurated within a year’s time, and the ceremony will be attended by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    Related:

    Official: Turkish tirades reveal ‘brazen hypocrisy’

    ‘Turkey hurting NATO by undermining Israel ties’

    The Israeli government gave the authorization earlier this month after studying a list of materials the Turks were asking to import to Gaza. Hurriyet stated that Israel gave permission to transport the construction materials to Gaza as a gesture of goodwill toward Turkey.

    Turkey has long opposed Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip and relations between the countries deteriorated in the aftermath of the IDF’s raid of the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara vessel in May 2010, in which nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists were killed.

    The hospital is slated to contain 150 beds, making it Gaza’s biggest hospital, Hurriyet reported.

    In addition to serving as a goodwill gesture to Ankara, the Israeli move was also described by Hurriyet as part of Israel’s softening of the Gaza blockade in the aftermath of Operation Pillar of Defense.

    Turkey has called for the lifting of the Gaza blockade, as well as an apology to Turkey for the Mavi Marmara raid and compensation for the families of those killed, as conditions to normalize relations between the countries.

    Hurriyet quoted diplomatic sources in Ankara as saying the January 22 Knesset election in Israel could provide a new opportunity to pacify relations between the countries.

    “Although I do not want to seem too optimistic over reconciliation between the two countries, I see a window of opportunity in light of the election results,” the sources told Hurriyet.

    via ‘Israel to allow Turkey to build … JPost – Diplomacy & Politics.

  • ‫الذي لا تراه عن غزة في الأعلام – What you don’t see in media about Gaza‬‎ – YouTube

    ‫الذي لا تراه عن غزة في الأعلام – What you don’t see in media about Gaza‬‎ – YouTube

    الذي لا تراه عن غزة في الأعلام – What you don’t see in media about Gaza

    via ‫الذي لا تراه عن غزة في الأعلام – What you don’t see in media about Gaza‬‎ – YouTube.

  • Protests held worldwide against IDF op

    Protests held worldwide against IDF op

    WASHINGTON – Pro-Palestinian activists protested Friday in several world capitals against Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza under the banner, “Free Palestine.”

    Hundreds demonstrated in Istanbul and Ankara, in Australia, outside the parliament in Rome, and opposite Israeli embassies in South Korea, Istanbul and Madrid. Protest rallies were also held in the Arab world – in Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt and Algeria.

    1 WA

     

    Ali Golin, who protested in Istanbul, said: “I believe that all Muslims should show solidarity. Factions and differences destroy our goal. If we want to answer Israel we must do it together. We won’t achieve anything by condemning Israel. We must take real action.”

    A South Korean human rights activist who took part in the protest outside the Israeli Embassy in Seoul said, “You must not force the Palestinians to sacrifice. You must not kill children anywhere. Children are precious whether in Palestine or in Israel. They must not die in a massacre. We are calling on the Israeli government to come back to its senses.”

    Sylvia Hale, a former parliament member on behalf of Australia’s Greens protested in Sydney. “The Israelis are adopting a policy of slaughtering the people in Gaza,” she said.

    via Protests held worldwide against IDF op – Israel News, Ynetnews.

  • IHH Calls People Around the World for Help for Palestinians

    IHH Calls People Around the World for Help for Palestinians

    It is time for the world to stand up for what is right.

    Gaza murders protest

    gaza protest350

    People from all walks of life protesting Israel’s war crimes against Palestine in Downtown Chicago. 11/15/12 Protests took place in front of Obama’s headquarters and the Israeli Consulate. Photo by Exposing The Truth team member Dana S Hamed

    (Istanbul, TR) – Gaza is under Israeli attack since last Wednesday. As death toll rises hour by hour the humanitarian crisis is also increasing in Gaza Strip.

    The Istanbul-based Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (İHH) makes a call for people around the world to urgently take action against Israeli attacks targeting civilians and to supply humanitarian aid for Gazan people.

    Israeli Occupation Forces has escalated military attacks on the Gaza since Wednesday evening, 14 November 2012.

    They first extra-judicially executed the leader of the Izziddin alQassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas) and his bodyguard. This attack was followed by a series of aerial, ground and sea attacks on civilian and paramilitary targets throughout the Gaza Strip.

    As a result of these attacks, so far 39 Palestinians including 9 children have been killed and more than 345 injured. Beside, a number of houses and schools have been extensively damaged and the rest of the schools closed for days.

    Gazan people are now living without electricity and deprived of right to communication.

    The people of Gaza who have already been facing tremendous hardship now need more help. With the increasing number of wounded, hospitals which already have inadequate resources are in drastic need of emergency medical supplies including antibiotics, anesthetics and disposable sterile supplies such as tubing, surgical gloves, needles and syringes.

    IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation which has been carrying out relief efforts for Palestinians for 20 years caring more than ten thousands Palestinian orphans primarily sends a team to Gaza with relief items which include mainly drastic need of emergency medical supplies and food (1 million Turkish Lira in value).

    IHH calls upon people around the world urgently to take action to prevent Israeli attacks targeting civilians and to supply humanitarian aid for Gazan people.

    via IHH Calls People Around the World for Help for Palestinians – Salem-News.Com.