Israel Matzav

Great news: Erdogan plans to 'balance' trip to Gaza with trip to 'West Bank'

In a bid to ensure that his trip to Gaza does not harm 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced at a joint press conference with President Hussein Obama on Thursday, that he will 'balance' the trip to Gaza with a trip to the 'West Bank.'

Erdogan again says he will visit Gaza. This is something that he has long promised on and never delivered. The U.S. has expressed its concern as Washington worries that any trip to Gaza to visit the Hamas administration could undermine the Palestinian authority of Mahmood Abbas.

Erdogan said he will also visit the West Bank, which would go someway to appease the Obama administration over the visit. "I hope this visit will contribute to unity," Erdogan said.

The Obama administration has an interest in there being no unity between Fatah and Hamas.  But Obama does not respond, and instead we see this observation:

More on the Erdogan statement that he is going to Gaza and the West Bank, possibly in June: Erdogan has been discussing a trip to Gaza, but the U.S. has concerns about that without corresponding visits to the West Bank and Tel Aviv. So,  small concession by the Turkish leader to Obama.

And even worse, this one:

So, a news conference billed in Turkey as box office didn't yield much in the way of surprises. Besides Erdogan appearing to get U.S. acceptance, if not blessing, to go to Gaza, there seems to have been little substantive movement on Syria or Iraq.

Erdogan can get to Gaza through Egypt if the Egyptians are willing to let him in. But how does he plan to get to the 'West Bank'? Is Netanyahu going to play along with this show? Now that Obama has apparently agreed to it, does Netanyahu still see that Israel has a sovereign country, which controls the borders and airways and can decide whether or not to let Erdogan go to Ramallah and how he will get there?

What could go wrong?

Labels: Abu Mazen, Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Fatah, Gaza, Hamas, Hamas-Fatah reconciliation, Judea and Samaria, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish obsession with Israel

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:14 AM