Turkey-Israel: A High-Ranking Objection to the "Strategic" Relationship

On Tuesday, speaking at the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Knesset, Israel's military intelligence chief, Maj. General Amos Yadlin, said that Ankara's turn away from secularism and toward more radical Islam had led to a rift between two countries, "They are currently in the midst of a fundamental process of moving further away from the secular Ataturk approach, closer to a radical approach." And, referring to the mutual references of a "strategic relationship" during Defense Minister Ehud Barak's visit to Ankara, Yadlin added, "Turkey no longer needs a close relationship with Israel. There are still joint interests, but not the kind of close relationship today as there was in the past."

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UPDATED Israel & Turkey: A Reset in Relations?

UPDATE 14 January: On Wednesday evening, Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon sent a letter of apology to the Turkish Ambassador to Israel, Ahmet Oguz Celikkol.



Ayalon wrote: "The disputes between Israel and Turkey will be solved in a respectful and mutual manner between the two governments. There was no intention to humiliate the ambassador personally. I apologize for the way Israel's protest was presented."

UPDATE 1655 GMT: Another twist in the tale, according to Haaretz:

The Turkish media reported Wednesday that Ankara has recalled its ambassador to Israel on Wednesday after Jerusalem said it would not issue a second, formal apology for Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon's treatment of the Turkish envoy.

"This is the final decision on the matter," said a senior Foreign Ministry official earlier Wednesday. The decision was made during consultations between the Foreign Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office, officials said.

Turkish ambassador to Israel Ahmet Oguz Celikkol will depart at 10:30 A.M. on Thursday. It is unclear when, or if, he will return.

On Tuesday, Ankara called in the Israeli Ambassador to Turkey, Gabby Levy, to clarify the statement of Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon's, "The Turks are the last ones who can preach morality to Israel." The message was clear: Turkey wanted a public apology from Ayalon.

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Relations had been inflamed when Turkey's Ambassador, Ahmet Oguz Celikkol, had been received in Israel's Parliament, the Knesset, with the press taking pictures of him sitting "lower" than Ayalon. Indeed, those pictures were taken as Celikkol waited outside the meeting room. Ayalon then said: "I won't apologize. It's the Turks who should --- for what [Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan said and for the television series [allegedly slandering Israeli officials and denigrating the Israeli flag]....We are merely setting boundaries."


However, the tension seems to be ebbing. Until late Tuesday, Ankara was sending messages to West Jerusalem that measures would could be taken if Ayalon did not offer an apology, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood behind his Deputy Foreign Minister.

Then Celikkol was recalled to Ankara. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that it was not possible to continue dialogue with Israel. The Jerusalem Post alleged that Celikikol might not return.

Why the shift? Criticisms over Ayalon's "undiplomatic manner" were increasing, as even many officials in Ayalon's party, Israel Beiteinu, said the incident would greatly harm his chances of succeeding party head Avigdor Lieberman as Foreign Minister."He is finished politically," an Israel Beiteinu official said. "This ruins his reputation as a diplomat. It is a stain that cannot be erased. He damaged Lieberman and first and foremost himself."

Labor MK Daniel Ben-Simon called upon Netanyahu to summon Ayalon to his office and put him on a low chair "so he will see how low Israeli diplomacy has stooped." The Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said, "We have enough problems with the Muslim world without picking a fight with a country that has 72 million Muslims."

And Ayalon's behaviour elevated the possibility that Lieberman was trying to torpedo Defense Minister Ehud Barak's scheduled meeting to Turkey next week, in particular preventing Ankara from mediating Israel's peace talks with Syria. "We get the sense that Lieberman wants to heat things up before Barak's visit," a senior Foreign Ministry source said. "All of the recent activities were part of Lieberman's political agenda."

With the moves of the last 24 hours, Netanyahu has checked Lieberman's and attempted to give a "positive" image to the world while maintaining concerns over Turkey's regional manoeuvres. Netanyahu said: "Turkey is consistently gravitating eastward to Syria and Iran rather than westward [over the last two years]. This is a trend that certainly has to worry Israel."

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.

UPDATED Israel: Loyalty, Lives, and the Arab Population

UPDATE 7 January: The bill proposing that the state enforce equal allocation of land to Jews and Arabs was not only rejected by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation but also by the Knesset on Wednesday.

Therefore, the Reception Committees of Israeli Communities can decide who will reside in their towns and can prevent Israeli Arabs from living in the same town.

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On Sunday, the Ministerial Legislation Committee of the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, discussed a bill for legislators to swear a "loyalty oath" to the Jewish character of Israel. At the end, the bill was passed to the coalition leaders due to the fear that the Labor Party would veto it.

The bill, proposed by Israel Beiteinu MK David Rotem, would change the oath from "I pledge loyalty to the State of Israel," to "I pledge loyalty to the State of Israel as a Jewish, Zionist, democratic state, and to its symbols and values". Rotem explained the aim of the proposal: "It is to make sure MKs are loyal to Israel as a Jewish state. Anyone who doesn't want to be faithful should not be an MK."

The bill emerged after MK Taleb a-Sanaa (United Arab List-Ta'al) allowed, via his cellphone, Gaza leader Ismail Haniya to address the protesters at the Erez crossing of Israel. Rotem added:

Anyone who saw and heard recently remarks made be MKs [Taleb] A-Sana and [Jamal] Zehalka who vilified the defense minister and allowed the biggest enemy of the State of Israel to speak to the public via a mobile phone owned by the Knesset and the state, understands intuitively that there is a need to bring MKs to be loyal to the state.

More importantly, another bill proposing that the state enforce equal allocation of land to Jews and Arabs was rejected. The measure was intended to counter a bill, passed two weeks ago, which states that reception committees of Israeli communities can decide who will reside in their towns. The author of the bill, MK Ahmed Tibi, said:

Yet again, the Israeli government has proven that it is avoiding the principle of civil equality.... [The Government] ignores Arabs' rights, and hasn't approved the building of a new Arab village since 1948. The government failed at the challenge I placed before it, and that saddens me.

Since the foundation of the state, the Israel Lands Administration is solely used as Jewish land administration. The director of the Israel Lands Administration has used all the tactics, with the help of the Jewish Agency, to allocate state land only to Jews. Despite the bitter attempt over the decades, not even one Arab town has been established since the state's foundation. Therefore a bill must be passed which stipulates that the Israel Lands Administration will serve all the state's citizens without discrimination on religion or nationality, and will promise an equal allocation of land to better the Arab population of Israel.