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.

Middle East Arms Triangle: The US, “Moderate” Arabs, & Israel

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.

Israel and Gaza: Another War Possible?

After twenty rockets and mortar shells were fired at Israel from Gaza in the past week, three Palestinian militants were killed in an Israel Air Force strike in Gaza. "The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] will not allow any attempts to attack Israel and will continue to forcefully foil any such attacks," a military spokesman said following the strike.

The IDF operation came hours after an Israeli cabinet meeting and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's declaration, "I view this very seriously. The government's policy is clear, any shooting at our territory will receive an immediate and powerful response." Former Israeli commander Major-General Yom Tov Samia went farther, asserting another war against Hamas is needed and on the way:

Israel: Netanyahu’s Post-Cabinet Declarations on Gaza, Settlements, Egypt Fence
Israel: The Reaction to A “More Committed” Washington

We are before another round in Gaza. I am very skeptical about the possibility that Hamas will suddenly surrender or change its ways without being hit much more seriously than it was during Cast Lead.

We must create a situation in which Hamas runs out of oxygen...[including] a more focused strike with long-lasting results...taking control of certain areas in Gaza.

Samia's words followed those of the current head of Israel's Southern Command, Major-General Yoav Galant. Galant said, "It's true that we are after the first rains and the sun is shining --- but one can see dark clouds in the distance."

Israel: Netanyahu's Post-Cabinet Declarations on Gaza, Settlements, Egypt Fence

On Saturday night, a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office declared: "It is the Palestinian Authority that needs to change its ways --- certainly not the Israeli government." On the following day, Netanyahu made his mark at the Cabinet meeting.

Concerning the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu asserted, "I view this very seriously. The government's policy is clear, any shooting at our territory will receive an immediate and powerful response." His tone did not change in discussion on settlements. While claiming that the 10-month moratorium on construction has been implemented, he said the freeze on West Bank settlements is only temporary: "In another eight months, we'll start building again."

Israel and Gaza: Another War Possible?
Israel: The Reaction to A “More Committed” Washington

Lastly, Netanyahu ordered construction of a fence, at a cost of $1.5 billion, along two segments of Israel's border with Egypt, in an attempt to stem the infiltration of migrant workers as well as terrorist elements into Israel. The Prime Minister said, "I took the decision to close Israel's southern border to infiltrators and terrorists. This is a strategic decision to secure Israel's Jewish and democratic character."

Israel-Palestine: Gideon Levy "The Time for Words is Over"

Haaretz's Gideon Levy has written another powerful article on the peace process between Israel and Palestine,  criticising the Israeli government for talking and talking but taking no action:

Well, here we are. A new year begins at midnight, and for the Middle East, 2010 will be a year of negotiations. Peace envoys are warming up at the starting line, document writers are polishing draft agreements for the envoys, advisers are coming up with their own phraseology, pundits are piling up verbiage, photographers are aiming their cameras, and diplomats are packing their bags and sharpening their tongues. George Mitchell will be here soon, Benjamin Netanyahu has already been to Cairo, Mahmoud Abbas is on his way. In the end there will be a summit. In Washington they'll be elated, in Europe they'll be exhilarated, the settlers will fulminate and the leftists will somnambulate. Yet another scene in the theater of the absurd, another act in the endless grotesque burlesque. Here we are again: The season of negotiations is upon us, negotiations that amount to nothing.

Already the archives are bursting at the seams with plans and initiatives, outlines and parameters, all already thick with dust. Never before has there been so dangerous and so protracted a conflict with so many wars and so many peace plans. From the first Rogers Plan [named after the US Secretary of State William Rogers] of December 1969 to the second and third Rogers plans and up to the present, it's been a horrifyingly dreary tale of sterile diplomacy, a 40-year journey to nowhere.

Everything has already been written and all the plans are amazingly similar, which isn't surprising. If you want peace, just go to one of the drawers and randomly pluck out any of the plans, it really doesn't matter which, and start implementing it. And if you want a "peace process," you're invited to join the coming festivities, including the killer hangover.

One could, for example, pull the original Rogers Plan out of the mothballs. William Rogers himself has been dead for years, but everything is right there in his plan: withdrawal to the 1967 borders, recognition, sovereignty, peace. It was Israel that rejected it. Forty years on, and we are wallowing in the exact same spot. You want to be a little more up-to-date? Take Bill Clinton's plan - everything's there too. So why start off yet again on another campaign of tortuous language? Why do all the Uzi Arads [National Security Advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu] and George Mitchells have to wear themselves out?

Benjamin Netanyahu has already undergone his "historic turnabout," he's reportedly ready to discuss, certainly discuss, the '67 borders, with territory swaps and security arrangements. Even the timetable has already been set - two years, of course it's two years, it's always two years, two years more. At the end, Israel's ultimate triumph will be declared: There's no partner. Again we'll hear that the Palestinian president is "a chicken with no feathers" or that the Palestinian leaders are "a gang of terrorists," and again we'll hear that there's no one to talk to.

There is no Palestinian partner, because there is no Israeli partner who is ready to take action. The day that Israel starts acting, together with the Palestinians, the partner will be there. Even Nelson Mandela wasn't the Mandela we know until he was freed from prison and South Africa was placed in his hands. He too refused to give up armed resistance for decades, but when he was given a true opportunity, he followed a path of peace. The key was in the hands of F.W. de Clerk, not those of Mandela. Israel, too, has that key. Now that it is no longer possible to halt everything because of terrorism, since there is almost none, Israel has lost one of its best weapons. When there is terrorism, one cannot act, and when there is no terrorism, there's no reason to act. But don't worry, it will be back, if nothing happens. The experience of the disengagement won't help either, because the continued imprisonment of the Gazans means that nothing has changed in their lives.

The last person to touch the dream was Ehud Olmert. Countless "excellent" meetings with Abbas, photo ops and bold speeches in abundance. Almost courage, nearly accord, a "shelf agreement" any minute now. Meanwhile, at the edge of the shelf are two lost wars and more settlement construction. All the fine words were rendered worthless by the action on the ground. Because this is the supreme test: It doesn't matter what the Israelis say, it matters what they do.

The time for words is over. Stop negotiating, start doing. Lifting the blockade on Gaza and declaring a perpetual freeze on building in the settlements would do more than a thousand formulations. Someone who wants two states doesn't build even one more balcony. This is the litmus test of Israel's true intentions. Without taking these steps, everything else is a waste of time, the time of the negotiators and of all of us. Does Netanyahu mean to take any of these steps? That is very doubtful, troublingly so.

Palestine: Protesters Meet at Gaza's Border

Approximately 1000 Israeli Arabs, including members of the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, gathered Thursday on the Israeli side of the Gaza border to protest Israel's continuing blockade of the area. They were "met" by about 500 people, including 100 international activists, on the Gaza side.

The rhetoric was far from muted. Israeli Arab MK Jamal Zahalka said that Defense Minister Ehud Barak enjoys "classical music and killing children in Gaza" Following his criticism, Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh declared that Gazans were "much stronger" a year after Israeli's invasion in Operation Cast Lead. He added, "We have overcome the occupation, and will meet at the Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem, which will remain Arab and Muslim."