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Tag: Mavi Marmara

  • ‘Israel and Turkey meet to reduce tensions’

    ‘Israel and Turkey meet to reduce tensions’

    Erdogan says Israel must show “sincerity” by apologizing, paying damages for raid on “Mavi Marmara,” before ties with Turkey can improve.

    Officials from Israel and Turkey met in Geneva on Sunday to help reduce tensions, according to a CNN  report, as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan demanded an apology for the IDF raid on the Mavi Marmara. Erdogan also stated on Sunday that Israel must pay damages to those wounded and the families of those killed during the operation.

    Yosef Ciechanover, the Israeli representative on the UN flotilla probe, was reportedly asked by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to travel to Geneva to attend the meeting.

    “The two met in order to find ways to promote appeasement and diminish the tension between the two countries,” an Israeli official told CNN.

    “We regretted the deterioration of the relationship between the two countries and we of course like to see an improvement of the relations,” he added.

    On Sunday, Erdogan stated that despite Turkey’s recent provision of firefighting assistance to Israel’s efforts to the control the blazes that broke out in the Carmel region, a new page in Turco-Israeli relations would be possible without addressing the outstanding Turkish requests made in the aftermath of the failed May 31 attempt to break the Gaza blockade.”If a hand is outstretched towards us, we will not leave it hanging in the air,” Erdogan was quoted by Israel Radio as saying in a speech delivered in central Turkey. He continued, ” but we want to see an indication that it is a sincere gesture.”

    Also on Sunday, Army Radio reported on a Turkish CNN interview with Erdogan, where the leader explained Ankara’s decision to send aid to Israel.

    “We will not stand aside at a time when people are being killed and nature destroyed,” Erdogan was quoted as saying. “A day will come when we will turn the page [on diplomatic relations], but first Israel must apologize for the incidents of the Gaza flotilla and compensate [the families] of those killed.”

    On Friday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu thanked Erdogan for sending airplanes to help battle the Carmel brush-fire which had already claimed more than 40 lives.

    “I really appreciate Turkey’s help, we will find a way to express our appreciation.” The prime minister’s comments came during a visit to the Carmel fire injured at Rambam hospital in Haifa.

    He later added that he believed Ankara’s granting of aid to Israel “will serve as an opening to improve relations between Israel and Turkey.”

  • Thank you, Turkey

    Thank you, Turkey

    Were it not for the Mavi Marmara affair, it is doubtful whether Israel would have reversed its closure on the Gaza Strip.

    By Amos Harel

    How is this for a paradox? The military takeover of the Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May of this year did indeed entangle Israel in an international imbroglio. But in at least one respect, it seems that Israel owes a small debt of gratitude to the organizers of the flotilla, particularly the members of the Turkish Islamist organization IHH.

    Were it not for the brouhaha surrounding the Mavi Marmara affair, it is doubtful whether Israel would have reversed its policy of the airtight closure it had imposed on the Gaza Strip. For almost two years, the Netanyahu government (and the Olmert government before that ) not only insisted on preventing ships from reaching Gaza, but also continued to impose strict restrictions on the goods allowed in via the border crossings. Only the bare essentials were permitted, while goods deemed luxury items were banned.

    This policy was foolish and ineffectual, and it cost Israel countless condemnations abroad. Meanwhile, the influx of weapons through underground tunnels connecting Rafah with the Sinai Peninsula continued unabated. Rockets, some of which are reported to have a range that exceeds 70 kilometers, were smuggled into Gaza, even as the Israel Defense Forces remained steadfast in its battle against the entry of coriander. The army’s demand that ships be searched, for fear that they might be smuggling weapons, is understandable, but it is difficult to find a plausible explanation for turning away “luxury items.” The return of captive soldier Gilad Shalit, which was cited as the pretext used to explain the imposition of the closure, was not facilitated as a result of this policy.

    The government held firm to its policy – that is, until the arrival of the Mavi Marmara. Afterward, it executed an astounding, lightning-quick retraction of its policy and lifted restrictions over most of the items it had previously banned. This was a humiliation, the final straw in a serious of missteps that are still being investigated by a number of committees. But it did free Israel from further entrenching itself in a policy that yielded no advantages.

    The issue came to the fore last week, when Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini paid a visit to the Gaza Strip. Prior to entering the Hamas-ruled territory, Frattini was briefed at the Erez checkpoint by the coordinator for government activities in the territories, IDF Maj. Gen. Eitan Dangot. Perhaps it was a forgone conclusion that the guest would not ask too many difficult questions. When Silvio Berlusconi is in power, the Italian government takes a clear pro-Israel stance (and the visiting minister surely felt at home on the day he arrived, since the front pages of the newspapers were devoted to a sex scandal ).

    Dangot did not end up having to justify or apologize for Israel’s actions. The figures he presented to Frattini seemed quite reasonable: 250 trucks capable of loading two containers’ worth of goods are free to cross into the Gaza Strip on a daily basis via the Kerem Shalom crossing, more than double the amount that was permitted before the flotilla episode. The UN Relief and Works Agency has been given the green light to build 26 new infrastructure projects. In two instances, Israel requested that UNRWA alter its plans to build schools due to their proximity to Hamas-run installations in the Gaza City neighborhood of Tel al-Hawa. Goods will begin to be exported from Gaza next year.

    Since January of this year, just a short time after taking up his post, Dangot began the painstaking process of lifting some of the restrictions placed on the entry of goods into Gaza. The Mavi Marmara crisis significantly expedited the pace of change.

    Of course, one could argue that this is all just a drop in the bucket. Gazans remain trapped between the Israeli rock and the hard place that is the fanatic, dictatorial Hamas regime. But Israel is no longer considered solely responsible for the hardships of Gazans and criticism against it has waned, as was evident during a September conference of donor nations willing to provide funding for the Palestinians.

    In the meantime, the number of Gaza-bound flotillas has also dropped. The organizers of these missions have never bothered with the facts. Their top priority was never to provide food and medicine to Gazans, but to confront Israel. Now, however, the international community is less receptive to their claims, making it far more difficult for them to muster up new momentum for another onslaught of maritime convoys.

    via Thank you, Turkey – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

  • Turkish-Israeli business meeting canceled

    Turkish-Israeli business meeting canceled

    ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News

    Turkish ship Mavi Marmara (L) is tugged by a Turkish tug-boat (R) as it leaves the port in the Israeli coastal city of Haifa on Aug. 5, 2010 on its way back to Turkey. AFP photo
    Turkish ship Mavi Marmara (L) is tugged by a Turkish tug-boat (R) as it leaves the port in the Israeli coastal city of Haifa on Aug. 5, 2010 on its way back to Turkey. AFP photo

    A Turkish-Israeli Business Council meeting scheduled for Dec. 1 has been postponed, demonstrating that tensions between the two countries that peaked following Israeli soldiers’ killing of nine Turkish activists in May have not abated.

    The council meeting, which took place in November last year when Israel’s Trade, Economy and Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer visited Turkey, was set to take place in Tel Aviv this time around.

    Officials from Turkey’s Foreign Economic Relations Board, or DEİK, the organizer of the meeting, declined to elaborate on the reasons for the postponement and said they hoped to hold the meeting with broader participation in the future. However, an Israeli official questioned whether the postponement was a result of government pressure on business.

    Israeli Consul for Economic Affairs Doron Abrahami said the organizers of the event did not state any reason for the cancellation. “Maybe there’s a government influence to cancel it, but I really don’t know,” he told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Friday.

    Organizers, contacted by the Daily News, gave the example of a previous Turkish-American Business Council meeting, which was canceled after the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a resolution describing the killings of Armenians in 1915 as genocide. That meeting, they said, was going to take place last April, but following the Turkish decision to cancel it was held seven months later in November.

    The Turkish-Israeli Business Council meeting may take place in the forthcoming period, organizers said on condition of anonymity.

    Abrahami, however, said the justification of linking the Turkish-American business meeting’s postponement with the Turk-Israeli council was not a good example. “That meeting was also canceled because of political reasons,” he said.

    The cancellation comes as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Lebanon repeated calls to establish a kind of a Schengen zone with Middle Eastern countries, excluding Israel. Turkey wants to establish a free trade zone with Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, whose government leaders are expected to meet in January to realize the plans.

    Analysts expressed fears that political tension in Turkish-Israeli ties is now spreading to business relations. “I think it is very unfortunate that the government of Turkey allows political disagreements with Israel to affect business relations,” said Ariel Cohen of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation.

    Cohen told the Daily News he had predicted for a while “deliberate undermining” of the ties that took both sides a lot of effort to build would eventually come. “Military and diplomatic ties are being derailed. Sooner or later it will start affecting business. It is very unfortunate,” he said. “I hope that this will be reversed and the business community has enough sense to appeal to the government of Turkey … not to derail business ties. But I am not optimistic,” he said.

  • Stephen Kinzer: “Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America’s Future”

    Stephen Kinzer: “Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America’s Future”

    We turn now to America’s role in a changing Middle East. Israel has set up an internal inquiry into its deadly attack last month on the Gaza-bound flotilla of humanitarian aid ships. The attack left eight Turks and one Turkish American dead. Meanwhile, Turkey, along with Brazil, negotiated a nuclear fuel swap agreement with Iran and then voted against a UN Security Council resolution last week that imposed another round of sanctions on Iran. Award-winning journalist and bestselling author Stephen Kinzer is out with a new book that looks back into history to make sense of some of these shifting alliances in the Middle East and to chart a new vision for US foreign policy in the region.

  • Turkish president: I don’t have a problem with Israelis

    Turkish president: I don’t have a problem with Israelis

    By JPOST.COM STAFF

    11/15/2010 13:23

    Photo by: AP
    Photo by: AP

    “Jews are praying for me in their synagogues every Saturday, all of them are our citizens,” Turkish newspaper quotes Gul as saying.

    Turkish President Abdullah Gul has said Turkey does not have a problem with the people of Israel, but rather that the problems with Israel stem from the policies that are employed by its government, according to a report by the Turkish daily Hurriyet published Sunday.

    “I have learned that [Turkish] Jews are praying for me in their synagogues every Saturday. All of them are our citizens. Our problem is not with the people of Israel, but with the policies pursued by the government of Israel,” Gül said, in remarks that were published Sunday in another publication, Milliyet.

    Tensions between Israel and Turkey rose in the wake of the IDF raid on the Turkish Mavi Mamara ship trying to break the Gaza blockade, during which nine Turks were killed on May 31.

    However Turkish officials have reiterated that they are committed to maintaining friendly ties with Israel despite ongoing diplomatic tensions between the two countries.

  • Israel should take first step to settle flotilla issue

    Israel should take first step to settle flotilla issue

    A former deputy chief of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad has said his country should take the first step in mending ties with Turkey over Israel’s attack on an international aid convoy in late May.
    Denying, however, that Turkey’s demands for an apology and compensation for the families of those killed in the attack are appropriate, Ilan Mizrahi, in an interview with Sunday’s Zaman last week in İstanbul, said Israel should rather make a gesture to ease the present tension in between the two countries. “I would prefer and suggest that some kind of gesture, not an apology, should be initiated by Israel,” he noted during the interview. He did not specify as to what that “gesture” might be.

    Israeli commandos stormed the Gaza bound Mavi Marmara aid ship and killed one American and eight Turkish activists, triggering a diplomatic crisis between Turkey and Israel.
    Israeli commandos stormed the Gaza bound Mavi Marmara aid ship and killed one American and eight Turkish activists, triggering a diplomatic crisis between Turkey and Israel.

    Mizrahi spent over 30 years at Mossad as an intelligence officer starting in 1972 and became the agency’s deputy director in 2003. He was later promoted to head the country’s National Security Council (NSC) in 2006 under then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for about a year and a half.

    Turkey, which was Israel’s closest ally in the region for decades, has grown increasingly critical of its policies beginning in late 2008 when Israel launched the 22-day-long Operation Cast Lead in the densely populated Gaza Strip, which is home to an estimated 1.5 million people in an area of only 360 square kilometers. The operation began at a time when Turkey was mediating peace talks between Israel and Syria and only days after then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited Turkey and met with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in Ankara. As a result of the operation, over 1,400 Gazans, almost half of whom were women and children, were killed. Not long after that fatal Israeli military intervention, Erdoğan left a panel at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Switzerland after lambasting Israeli President Shimon Peres for the killings. A year later, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon summoned the then-Turkish ambassador in Tel Aviv, Oğuz Çelikkol, and had him sit in a lower seat than his own with only the Israeli flag on the table, denying him a handshake before the press. And lastly came the Jewish state’s flotilla attack in May 31 of this year when Israeli naval commandos boarded an aid convoy carrying humanitarian supplies to impoverished Gaza — on which Israel and Egypt are imposing a severe blockade — killing eight Turkish and one Turkish-American civilians. Turkey withdrew its ambassador over the attack and still has reduced representation in the Israeli capital.

    ‘Putting Israeli policies in Red Book a hidden ultimatum’

    On the specific issue of the flotilla attack, Mizrahi said if the two countries come together and discuss how to overcome the problem he is “sure they will find a formula.” However, the retired intelligence and security manager who refused to be photographed by Sunday’s Zaman because of his background also noted that he is not optimistic for overall Turkish-Israeli relations. The reason for him to have very little hope to that end is Turkey’s recent decision to put Israel’s instability-inducing actions in the Middle East as a threat in its National Security Policy Document (MGSB), or as it is more commonly known, the Red Book. Mizrahi said he had positive meetings at the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv before he came to Turkey, but his impression has changed with that latest development. “What made me really pessimistic is your Red Book. This was a shock to me. It makes me understand that maybe nothing will help on your side,” he said, adding that the act was “a hidden ultimatum.”

    “The flotilla issue should not be the case [for arriving at] the present bad relationship between the two countries. We want very much to have good relations with Turkey, but if Turkey does not want it, then let it be. We will survive. We are a strong nation,” he also said during the interview.

    Mizrahi, however, later drew a very thin line and switched from putting the entire blame for the bad relations on the Turkish government. “I would be a fool to think that what happened is only because of the new policy. My government made mistakes, your government made mistakes. We are all making mistakes. I don’t know any country or government that does not make any mistakes. Nobody is immune from mistakes but the pope in the Vatican,” he explained. “I have huge respect for your government and security and intelligence agency,” he also said, further expressing his feelings and past efforts for Turkey as: “I am friend of Turkey. I love Turkey. I respect Turkey. When I was heading the NSC, I was pushing for a dialogue with Syria via Turkey and also pushing the very strong Israeli community in Washington to do their best vis-à-vis Europe to accept Turkey to the European Union because I thought it was the right thing to do. So I care about Turkey, I care a lot about my country. I am very unhappy to see the present situation.”

    When asked what the mistakes are that the Israeli side made, which apparently caused its bilateral relations with Turkey to sour to historic lows, he said Olmert’s visit just a few days before Operation Cast Lead was launched was one of them “because it might have given the impression that the operation was coordinated.” Answering the same question, he added that “the humiliation of the Turkish ambassador was also a mistake.” He, however, said both Operation Cast Lead and the flotilla attack were justified. When asked if he also thinks the operation in Gaza almost two years ago was successful, he said it is too early to make a judgment. “To make a real judgment, it will be a huge mistake to do it immediately after the operation. You have to have several years to do that. We can talk if an operation in 2006 was successful or not only now,” he explained.