Turkey needs to take move to reach normalization of relations with Israel
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail Xinhua, April 10, 2013
The road to restore the ties between Israel and Turkey got off to a bad start as a meeting to discuss several critical issues regarding reconciliation had been postponed from April 12 for ten days.
In addition, on Monday, the families of the Turkish activists killed in an Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May 2010 announced that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's apology on March 22 was insufficient and that they would continue to seek legal actions against Israeli officials and military officers whom they argue were responsible for the events on the ship.
Israel wanted the lawsuits would be dropped in return for compensation to the victims' families and the amount of the compensation was one of the issues that would be discussed during the now postponed meeting.
"Now if (Turkey) pushed Israel into this legal corner of compensation and courts and so on, the whole thing may collapse because the idea was to change the atmosphere in relations and what they are doing isn't changing the atmosphere,"" Dr. Alon Liel, of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told Xinhua Tuesday.
In May 2010, the Mavi Marmara was intercepted and raided by Israeli forces as it was on its way to break the Israeli maritime blockade of the Hamas controlled Gaza strip, leaving nine dead.
Turkey then expelled the Israeli ambassador to Turkey and ended all military cooperation with Israel. The Turkish ambassador to Israel was recalled immediately after the incident, indicating the deteriorating in Israeli-Turkish relations.
Since the election of Erdogan in 2003 Turkey has changed its foreign policy to focus more on Middle East instead of Europe and the United States.
Efraim Inbar, a professor at the Bar-Ilan University, said that he was very skeptical of the Turkish desire for normalization and added that "unless the Turks change their foreign policy they won' t improve relations with Israel."
Inbar argued that Turkey, once a very close ally of Israel, wants "to be a major factor in the Arab and Islamic world and as a result of that they are engaging in Israel bashing."
Liel warned that if the Turkish government doesn't want the reconciliation collapse, "they need to respond by a political move, which is to appoint an ambassador."
Netanyahu made announcement that Israel has been willing to apologize for the Mavi Marmara incident during the last hour of the visit by U.S. President Barack Obama to Israel. It's thought that Netanyahu decided to make the call after being asked to do so by Obama.
Liel argued that Israel should use the fact that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is visiting the region at the moment, including turning to the United States and ask them to point out the need for a confidence gesture from Turkey to Israel, such as appointing a new ambassador to Israel as this would indicate that Turkey truly is set on changing the atmosphere, experts say.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)