Israel Matzav: The Turkish obsession with Israel continues

Monday, August 22, 2011

The Turkish obsession with Israel continues

Having failed to extort an 'apology' from Israel for the IDF's defending itself against Islamist terrorists aboard the Mavi Marmara 15 months ago, Turkey is now planning to go to 'Plan B' (Hat Tip: Joshua I).

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated on July 23 that Turkey now intends to move on to “Plan B,” which will include a campaign against Israel to be carried out at UN institutions, legal action against senior Israeli figures in European courts, and military cooperation between Turkey and Israel being put on hold.

What 'military cooperation'? The only military cooperation there has been in the last two and a half years is the sale of modern Israeli weapons systems to Turkey. And why should we continue to sell those to them?

As to the European courts, the Europeans will have to choose between finding yet another way to get at Israel, or doing the bidding of the Islamists in Turkey whom they have specifically excluded from the EU for the last ten years or so. Which will they choose? I'd say that's debatable at best.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu warned Israel yesterday while on a trip to South Africa that relations between Turkey and Israel would only worsen if an apology was not forthcoming following the release of the Palmer report. He declared, “Relations will not remain as they are now. They will deteriorate even more, as the current situation cannot be sustained.”

What relations are there now? A few Israeli friers (suckers) who still travel to Turkey for vacation (apparently there aren't very many of them because this summer, for the first time that I can recall, the Turks took huge display ads on the buses in Jerusalem) and some trade that is mostly to Turkey's benefit. They want to boycott Israel? Go right ahead. They're a small market compared to the US and the EU.

The US is also not pleased with the deteriorated relationship between Israel and Turkey, and the Obama administration has been keen to see Israel and Turkey repair relations. The UN report was repeatedly delayed to allow Israel and Turkey to try to mend their fences. There are major questions over the next step to be taken.

There may not be such 'major questions' once the Palmer Report is released. We're looking forward to it.

If you can stand the taste of sour grapes, read the whole thing. It should be noted that the case of Egypt is quite different (as far as anyone knows now, the Egyptians were not attacking us, but they let al-Qaeda do so). Israel apologized, but the Egyptians called that insufficient. A team of Israeli negotiators visited Egypt on Sunday, but so far there has been silence about what they accomplished. Israel has agreed to a joint investigation with the Egyptians, and it may be that is quietly happening. Note this.

On Saturday, Egypt's government posted a statement saying its ambassador would be withdrawn until Israel conducted an investigation into the deaths. Later in the day, the statement was taken down without explanation.

Top-level Israel security officials met Saturday with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who quickly issued a statement vowing that Israel would conduct a military investigation, followed by a joint examination with the Egyptian military, of the incident.

It sounds to me like Israel will investigate and then the two sides will either accept those findings or conduct another joint investigation.

I saw somewhere yesterday that the Egyptians insisted that an investigation has to happen quickly. Investigations can either be quick or thorough but usually not both. As long as we are making progress and the army is still in charge in Egypt, I think a lid will be kept on this.

Labels: Egypt, Egyptian army, Egyptian-Israeli border, Turkey, Turkish obsession with Israel