Tag: Netanyahu

Israel, Turkey begin raid compensation talks after apology

Monday, 25 March 2013

A billboard on a main street by the Ankara municipality to thank Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reads: “ We are grateful to you ” – three days after Israel’s appology. (AFP)

AFP, Ankara –

Israel and Turkey began talks Monday on compensation for the families of victims of a deadly 2010 flotilla raid, for which the Jewish state apologized last week, ending a near three-year diplomatic rift.

“Officials delegated by the two sides will work on the compensation issue. We gave the kick start for it today,” Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc told reporters after a weekly cabinet meeting.

Ties between Israel and Turkey plummeted in May 2010 when Israeli commandos staged a botched pre-dawn raid on a six-ship flotilla to the Gaza Strip, killing nine Turkish nationals.

The assault triggered an international outcry and a bitter diplomatic crisis between Turkey and Israel, with Ankara demanding a formal apology and compensation for the families of the victims.

Until last week, Israel had refused. But on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to Turkey for the raid — a breakthrough brokered by US President Barack Obama during his visit to the Jewish state.

“This is a big success of Turkish foreign policy,” Arinc said.

He said that Turkey’s foreign minister “held talks with the other party and expressed the necessity to swiftly solve the issue.”

In remarks over the weekend, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the country’s future diplomatic relationship with Israel — including the appointment of a new ambassador to Israel — would depend on the Jewish state.

March 27, 2013
‘Turkey rejected past reconciliation efforts’

Erdogan tells Turkish news outlet conditions for reconciliation with Israel included using word “apology,” end to Gaza embargo.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan turned down previous attempts at reconciliation by Israel due to a failure by the Israeli government to meet his pre-conditions, Turkish news outlet Hurriyet reported Tuesday.

Erdogan told Hurriyet that one condition was the use of the word “apology.” He said. “They wanted to express sorrow, but we said no. We wanted the word apology,” Hurriyet quoted him as saying.

Israeli officials reportedly agreed to financially compensate Mavi Marmara victims’ families in light of the 2010 flotilla incident, but Erdogan insisted that a reconciliation would also require an apology and an end to the Gaza embargo, according to Hurriyet.

Erdogan also told Hurriyet that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu promised to start work on easing the embargo on Gaza.

“We will monitor the situation to see if the promises are kept or not,” Hurriyet quoted him as saying.

Meanwhile, Erdogan said on Tuesday that he is planning to visit Gaza and the West Bank to see if Israel is holding up its end of the deal to lift the Gaza blockade, one of the conditions set by Ankara to normalize ties with Jerusalem, Turkish paper Today’s Zaman reported.

Erdogan, who announced over the weekend plans to visit the Strip next month, told ministers in a parliamentary meeting on Tuesday that he will travel to the Palestinian territories with Turkish relief organizations in order to work to improve the current humanitarian condition.

On Friday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke with Erdogan for the first time since coming into power in 2009, and voiced regret for the loss of life in the Mavi Marmara incident, apologizing for any operational mistakes that led to the death of nine Turkish activists. Breaking a three-year deadlock, the two agreed to normalize relations.

However, National Security Council head Yaakov Amidror said on Sunday that Netanyahu’s apology did not obligate Israel to end the blockade of Gaza, and it could clamp down harder on the Palestinian enclave if it needed to because of security considerations.

Following the conversation, Erdogan said Israel had met his demands to apologize for killing nine Turks aboard the ship, pay compensation to those bereaved or hurt and lift the blockade by allowing in more consumer goods.

That fell well short, however, of an end to the blockade – which Erdogan had routinely insisted on during the almost three-year-old rift as a condition for rapprochement.

Erdogan, meanwhile, told a crowd of supporters on Sunday that normalization of ties would only take place if Israel implemented the conditions of the deal discussed in the conversation with Netanyahu. The only firm condition mentioned in the statement following that conversation was payment of compensation.

“If there is quiet, the processes easing the lives of Gazan residents will continue. And if there is Katyusha fire, then these moves will be slowed and even stopped and, if necessary, even reversed,” Amidror said on Army Radio.

“We did not agree to promise that under any condition we would continue to transfer all the things into Gaza and ease up on the residents of Gaza if there is shooting from there,” Amidror added. “We do not intend to give up on our right to respond to what happens in Gaza because of the agreement with the Turks.”

Meanwhile, on Monday signs were put up in Ankara to thank Erdogan for getting Netanyahu to apologize for the Gaza flotilla incident. The billboards in Turkish read: “Israel apologized to Turkey. Dear Prime Minister, We are grateful that you let our country experience this pride.”

Herb Keinon contributed to this report.

via ‘Turkey rejected past reconciliation efforts’ | JPost | Israel News.

March 27, 2013
Turkey reconciliation won’t come between us

Netanyahu reassures Greeks: Turkey reconciliation won’t come between us

Israel’s security and economic ties with Greece have strengthened over the past three years as relations with Turkey have floundered.

By Barak Ravid and Agencies

Source: Haaretz

On Friday, shortly after his conversation with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that brought about the end of the crisis with Turkey, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, to reassure him that the reconciliation with Turkey will not come at the expense of ties with Greece.

The two also agreed to hold a summit meeting between the two governments in the coming months.

Over the past three years, as relations with Turkey floundered, Netanyahu worked to strengthen relations with its historic rival, Greece. Security cooperation between Israel and Greece was upgraded, and the two countries’ military forces held joint air force and naval exercises. The Israel Air Force conducted training exercises in Greek air space after years in which they had been held in Turkish air space.

Similarly, economic collaboration was tightened, particularly in the area of gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean; diplomatic understandings were reached regarding flotillas to Gaza, and tourism to Greece was boosted. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis who in the past had vacationed annually in Turkey began to spend their holidays in Greece, funneling much-need funds into Greece’s collapsing economy.

Immediately after Passover, diplomats and jurists from Turkey and Israel are to begin talks on the compensation Israel is to pay to the families of the nine Turkish nationals killed during the Israeli Defense Forces raid on the Mavi Marmara, which was part of aflotilla trying to break Israel’s Gaza blockade in May 2010.

Erdogan suggested Sunday that relations with Israel would normalize only after the compensation is paid. But Israel did not commit to ending its Gaza blockade as part of the reconciliation with Turkey, and could clamp down even harder on the Palestinian enclave if security is threatened, Israeli officials said Sunday.

Erdogan on Friday said Israel had met his demands to apologize for the Mavi Marmara, pay compensation to those bereaved or hurt and lift the blockade by allowing in more consumer goods. That fell well short, however, of an end to the blockade – which Erdogan had routinely insisted on during the almost three-year-old rift as a condition for rapprochement.

Although Israel has relaxed curbs on overland civilian imports to impoverished Gaza, it signaled that the naval cordon, imposed during Operation Cast Lead in 2009, would remain.

“We have nothing against the Palestinian people. The maritime blockade derives from security considerations only, as terrorist groups can smuggle huge amounts of weaponry by sea,” senior defense official Amos Gilad told Army Radio. Another official told Reuters that Hamas was still trying to bring in arms into Gaza, and that this made “the blockade as necessary as always.”

“If there is quiet, the processes easing the lives of Gaza residents will continue. And if there is Katyusha fire, then these moves will be slowed and even stopped and, if necessary, even reversed,” National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror told Army Radio. “We do not intend to give up on our right to respond to what happens in Gaza because of the agreement with the Turks.”

Amidror also insisted that U.S. President Barack Obama did not force Israel to apologize to Turkey.

“There was no pressure at all, not even a hint of pressure,” Amidror told Israel Radio. “The president asked us. He saw it also as an American interest that the U.S.’s two allies in the Middle East settle their differences.”

Amidror said Netanyahu made the apology, both “as a gesture to the president and also so that we can better cope with regional threats, especially the Syrian danger.” He added: “We have 500 years of friendship between the Jewish people and the Turkish people, and there is no reason why we shouldn’t go back to being good friends and partners in an effort to achieve more security and stability in the Middle East.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called the reconciliation “a very important development that will help advance the cause of peace and stability in the region.”

Netanyahu and Erdogan “deserve great credit for showing the leadership necessary to make this possible,” Kerry said.

President Shimon Peres told CNN in Turkish and the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet that “there are a thousand reasons why Israel and Turkey should be friends, and one can’t think of a single reason they should be enemies. The countries have a mutual history and Turkey was the first Muslim country to recognize the State of Israel.”

Chief of General Staff Benny Gantz, who had supported wrapping up the crisis with Turkey, said yesterday while touring the Binyamin Brigade base with Peres that the decision to apologize to Turkey was the right one. “We have to look after the interests of the State of Israel, particularly when we consider the Syrian arena,” said Gantz.

March 26, 2013
How Obama Is Reuniting Turkey and Israel

U.S. President Barack Obama at the Jerusalem Convention Center on March 21, 2013

From almost the moment President Obama touched down at Ben Gurion International Airport, he began to push Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make up with Turkey. The previously good relations broke down in 2010 after the Israelis raided a Turkish flotilla taking aid to the Gaza Strip. Nine activists were killed.

Since then, the U.S. has pushed Israel and Turkey — both close allies — to work through their issues. Officials at meetings at nearly every level from the President down brought up rapprochement. Secretary of State John Kerry pressed Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Israel on March 1 on a trip to Ankara.

By day two of Obama’s visit, Netanyahu had agreed to set up a call with Erdogan. Given the two leaders’ busy schedules, it was not until just as Obama and Netanyahu were arriving back at the airport for the President’s departure to Jordan a day later that a call was possible. Obama and Netanyahu ducked into a trailer off of the red carpet set up for the departure ceremony.

JASON REED / REUTERS

President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu

For nearly half an hour, Netanyahu and Erdogan spoke through translators. Obama briefly got on the phone to say hello to Erdogan and ask that they follow up with another call soon. Netanyahu offered Turkey an official apology for the flotilla incident and promised compensation to the victims’ families. He said a subsequent Israeli investigation into the incident revealed “several operational errors,” according a statement released by the Israeli embassy in Washington.

Netanyahu also thanked Erdogan for his remarks condemning anti-Semitism to a Danish paper on March 20. Erdogan had been quoted last month calling Zionism “a crime against humanity,” and he told the Danish paper those remarks had been misinterpreted. During his Ankara visit, Kerry had condemned Erdogan’s statement on Zionism, urging the Turkish Prime Minister both publicly and privately to clarify them.

The deal was a coup for Obama, on his first foreign visit of his second term. It re-established diplomatic relations between Israel and Turkey at a time when the region around them is in turmoil. Both Turkey and Israel border Syria, which is entering its third year of civil war. “We have regretted for a couple of years now the absence of normal relations between those two countries,” a senior Administration official told reporters on Air Force One en route to Jordan. “And we have worked with them and urged them both to reach out and try to put their differences between them.”

Netanyahu on Saturday said the deteriorating situation in Syria and both countries’ concerns about its regime’s chemical and biological weapons prompted the reconciliation. Still, Erdogan warned on Sunday that normalization of relations would not be immediate. Turkey will wait for Israel to pay the families compensation before embassies in either country reopen. Netanyahu told Erdogan that Obama had spent the past two days convincing him of “the importance of regional relations, the importance of Turkey-Israel cooperation, and that is what led him to take this initiative now,” the Administration official said. Up until the flotilla incident, Turkey and Israel had enjoyed close relations. Turkey was the first Muslim country to recognize Israel, though tensions began to fray in 2003 after Erdogan, who has Islamist ties, was elected Prime Minister of Turkey.

via How Obama Is Reuniting Turkey and Israel | TIME.com.

March 26, 2013
Iran mostly speechless after Israel, Turkey agree to restore ties

Iran mostly speechless after Israel, Turkey agree to restore ties

“This is just a game the U.S., Israel and Turkey are playing to influence the Islamic awakening,” says Iranian deputy chief of staff in only comments out of Iran on Israel-Turkey reconciliation • Abbas welcomes deal • Erdoğan to visit West Bank, Gaza.

Daniel Siryoti, Israel Hayom Staff and Reuters

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (left) with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. [archive] | Photo credit: Reuters

Iran was left scrambling for ways to deal with the news of Israel and Turkey’s reconciliation, with one senior official accusing the U.S. of playing a “game” in the Middle East.

“This is just a game the U.S., Israel and Turkey are playing to influence the Islamic awakening,” said Iran’s Deputy Chief of Staff Brig. Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, the senior-most official to respond to news that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had apologized to his Turkish counterpart over the 2010 flotilla incident, paving the way for full reconciliation and the normalization of diplomatic relations that had been severed after Israeli Navy commandos killed nine Turks aboard the Mavi Marmara.

Jazayeri said on Saturday that the U.S. sought to “find a replacement for the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Muslim world,” official Iranian Press TV reported Saturday.

Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and the Arab League received a full report on the Israeli-Turkish reconciliation.

The Arab League opposed to the agreement, which PA President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has confirmed that he plans to visit the West Bank and Gaza Strip in April.

“We are entering a new period in both Turkey and the region,” said Erdoğan on Saturday. “We are at the beginning of a process of elevating Turkey to a position so that it will again have a say, initiative and power, as it did in the past.”

via Israel Hayom | Iran mostly speechless after Israel, Turkey agree to restore ties.

March 25, 2013
Did Israel `Apologize’ to Turkey? Well, No, Not Exactly

By Barry Rubin

Israel apologizes to Turkey, reads every headline. That simply isn’t true in the sense it is taken to imply. To understand what happened one must examine the long negotiations on this issue.

[..]

It is important to understand that the flotilla issue was not the cause of Israel-Turkish problems, which had begun long before. The real basis was the election of an Islamist government in Turkey. Discussions inside the Israeli government for years had known Prime Minister Mehdi Erdogan’s hatred for Israel but did not want to be seen as responsible for any breakdown of relations.

During the talks, Erdogan made three demands:

–Israel must apologize completely.

–Such an apology implies a legal responsibility to pay reparations.

–Erdogan insisted that Israel drop the embargo against the Gaza Strip.

Israel rejected these demands and instead offered:

–To say it regretted the clash and the loss of life. This is like saying: If I offended anyone I’m sorry.

–It offered to pay voluntarily, as a humanitarian gesture not as part of a guilty plea, the families of those killed.

–Israel rejected any change on its policy toward the Gaza Strip.

Erdogan angrily rejected Israel’s offer.

Now, a compromise has been reached, apparently with some help from President Barack Obama. The agreement, which includes restoring normal bilateral relations, has been portrayed as some sort of Israeli surrender.

That is simply not true. The agreement is much closer to Israel’s position. There is no change on Israel’s strategic policy toward the Gaza Strip at all. While the word “apology” appears in Netanyahu’s statement, it is notably directed at the Turkish people, not the government and is of the sorry if your feelings were hurt variety.

Moreover, Israel denied that it killed the Turkish citizens intentionally, a situation quite different from what Erdogan wanted, and offered to pay humanitarian assistance to families.

Should Israel have expressed regret when it should instead receive an apology from the Turkish government for helping to send terrorists to create a confrontation? On purely moral grounds, no. Yet as I pointed out Israel did not abandon its long-standing position on the issue. It does not want an antagonism with the Turkish people nor one that will continue long after Erdogan and his regime are long out of office. Perhaps this was undertaken to make Obama happy and in exchange for U.S. benefits. But what has happened is far more complex than onlookers seem to be realizing.

Perhaps these seeming word games and niceties are beyond the interest or comprehension of many people, but everyone involved directly on this issue knows exactly what is happening. Erdogan knows very well that this was not a Turkish victory—except in public relations– though Israel won’t object to letting it be claimed as such.

Israel acted to try to reduce the tension with Turkey but without any illusions that the Erdogan regime would now be friendly. Indeed, there were implications that Erdogan was breaking his commitment on the deal.

Immediately afterward, he said that a legal case against Israeli officers for alleged responsibility in the death of the Turks would continue and he was not yet sending back his ambassador to Israel. This might be posturing for a few hours or a real deal-breaker. We will see.

Obama’s role in this deal is not clear. (I have made clear to readers that I’m not just bashing Obama reflexively but I will also continue to analyze his actions as accurately as possible.) Did he put any pressure on Erdogan or Netranyahu? Did he promise either or both sides some benefits for making a deal? Not yet clear.

The danger is that this is the kind of arrangement that is all too common in the region. The media proclaim progress; the political leaders say what they want; but nothing changes in reality. One possibility is that Obama doesn’t understand (or doesn’t care) how deeply Erdogan’s anti-Israel feeling runs just as he doesn’t understand how deeply that is true for the Muslim Brotherhood.

Still, this deal is clearly in U.S. interests since it supposedly heals a rift between two countries that are close allies to itself in Washington’s eyes. As I said above, let’s see if this deal sticks or if there is any progress in fixing Israel-Turkey relations in the coming weeks.

—————-Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest book, Israel: An Introduction, has just been published by Yale University Press. Other recent books include The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). The website of the GLORIA Center and of his blog, Rubin Reports. His original articles are published at PJMedia.

Professor Barry Rubin, Director, Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center

The Rubin Report blog http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/

He is a featured columnist at PJM .

Editor, Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal Turkish Studies,http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=t713636933%22

Elliott Green Mar 23 10:53PM +0200

Barry, in the third paragraph from the end, you write Obama where I think

you meant Netanyahu.

I hope you’re right in that Netanyahu has made no strategic change. But

paying compensation suggests to other people, outside parties, that you are

admitting guilt.

via Israpundit » Blog Archive » Did Israel `Apologize’ to Turkey? Well, No, Not Exactly.

March 25, 2013