Turkey & Israel: Clashes over Iran, Lebanon, Gaza...and a TV Show

At the diplomatic level, Monday was the occasion for Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri to display ties between the two countries. Both leaders not only lifted visa requirements between each country and criticised Israel.

Following Hariri's statement, "Today, Israel continues its violation of our airspace and waters," Erdogan urged Israel to stop violating Lebanon's airspace and territorial waters and promised to support Lebanon's case against Israel at the United Nations, where Turkey is a temporary member of the Security Council.

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Then Erdogan went far beyond Lebanon:

We can never remain silent in the face of Israel's attitude. ... It has disproportionate power and it is using that at will while refusing to abide by UN resolutions. We can never accept this picture. These steps threaten global peace.

Erdogan moved to the case of Iran, calling on the Security Council to put the same pressure on Israel's nuclear programme as it does on Tehran's:

The region cannot accept a new Iraq syndrome. Those who are warning Iran over nuclear weapons are not making the same warnings to Israel. Five permanent members of the Security Council must be just. Israel has not denied the existence of its nuclear arsenal; on the contrary it has admitted it.

On Gaza, Erdogan reached his climax. Referring to the killings of three Hamas militants by Israeli forces last weekend, he asked: "What is your excuse this time?" He continued: "No one can claim that phosphorus shells are not weapons of mass destruction."

Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon called Erdogan's comments "damaging and one-sided," saying they certainly didn't aid Turkey's efforts to play a Middle East mediation role. Meanwhile, Ayalon summoned Turkish ambassador to Israel Oguz Celikkol to the Knesset to express outrage over a new Turkish television show that depicts Mossad agents as baby snatchers.

Following the crisis last year over the Turkish series, Ayrilik (Farewell), another dispute has erupted over the Turkish drama Kurtlar Vadisi (Valley of the Wolves). In an episode broadcast two weeks ago, a baby kidnapped by the Mafia is brought to the Israel Embassy. The leading actor enter the embassy to save the baby, protected by Mossad agents, and in the confrontation, blood spreads on the Star of David on the Israeli flag. When the would-be rescuer is told by an Israeli official that he is committing a war crime, since the Embassy is the land of a foreign country, he replies: "Are you always going to commit war crimes?"

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoYM663_N2k[/youtube]

After the meeting, Ayalon called the TV show as "intolerable" and said he had told Celikkol, "These things, against the background of the very, very anti-Israeli rhetoric by the most senior officials in Turkey, not only harm relations, but also endanger the Jewish community in Turkey, the Israeli diplomats there - to say nothing of the Israeli tourists who visit there."

Meanwhile, it was claimed by Israeli Channel 2 that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, in response to the broadcast of the controversial program, is seeking to torpedo Defense Minister Ehud Barak's upcoming trip to Turkey.