Israel Matzav

Israel won't lift Gaza blockade for sake of restoring relations with Turkey

You kind of knew this would be the answer. The government of Israel says that it will not lift its 'blockade,' which is keeping these 'poor' Gazans millionaires, in order to restore relations with Turkey.

Lifting the blockade on Gaza to improve relations with Turkey is not on the agenda, diplomatic sources in Jerusalem said Wednesday, responding to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s making this a condition for ending the Mavi Marmara saga.

The issue of easing the blockade has not been on the table in the talks with the Turks to come to an agreement that would normalize ties between the two erstwhile allies, and will not be on the table in the future, the sources said.

One government official said that the naval blockade of Gaza was a fundamental national security issue.

Erdogan said at a press conference Tuesday that the talks on compensation to the families of the nine Turks killed in the Mavi Marmara incident “have not concluded,” and that “in the final stages there will be a need to include a clause in the protocol that calls for the lifting of the siege on Gaza.”

Frequent reports over the past two weeks in the Turkish press indicated an imminent deal on compensation payments, a deal that – coupled with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s apology to Erdogan for operative errors that may have caused the loss of life in the incident – would lead to a renewal of full ties. A Turkish delegation was here just over a week ago for discussions on the matter.

Erdogan’s remarks took much of the air out of the reports, just two days after his Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in a television interview that the sides were as close as ever to reaching an agreement.

 Bye, bye Turkey. Sorry we wasted so much time on this.

Labels: Gaza blockade, Gaza plenty, Mavi Marmara, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish obsession with Israel

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:56 AM