Palestine: Hamas to Recognize Israel?

The Jerusalem Post reports that, following a meeting in Hebron with British millionaire David Martin Abrahams on Wednesday, Aziz Dwaik, a Hamas senior representative and the elected speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council in the West Bank, said that Hamas has accepted Israel's right to exist and would be prepared to alter its charter.

Dwaik stated that all Hamas leaders, including Damascus-based leader Khaled Mashaal and Gaza-based leader Ismail Haniyeh, have voiced support for the idea of establishing an independent Palestinian state within the pre-1967 boundaries. He added: "The [Hamas] charter was drafted more than 20 years ago. No one wants to throw anyone into the sea."

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Meanwhile, Abrahams told the newspaper that he would urge British Foreign Minister David Milliband to "consider the implications of Hamas's positive overtures."

Israel-Palestine: US Envoy Mitchell Asking for Temporary Halt to Settlements

U.S. Mideast special envoy George Mitchell, coming to the region on Wednesday for four days, is reportedly raising the Palestinian Authority's proposal to re-start negotiations . This proposal, modifying Mahmoud Abbas's previous demand for a total halt to construction of Israeli settlement beyond 1967 borders, asks the Israeli side for a freeze in the West Bank and also in the East Jerusalem for three to six months.

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However, senior Israeli officials say Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will not agree to this demand. "This is not going to happen; it goes against everything Netanyahu says and believes in," one source in the Prime Minister's Office said. This follows Sunday's statement by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman that Israel had emptied out its "arsenal of gestures" and was now waiting for concessions from the Palestinians.

Israel and Turkey: "Ayalon Has Nothing to Apologize For"

The Jerusalem Post's Michael Freund has criticized public demands for Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon's apology and bombarded Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in an opinion piece, "Going Cold Turkey":

Since the start of the week, Israel's media have been in a tizzy. With all the frenzied fury at its disposal, the press has been relentlessly targeting Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, slamming one of the country's most talented diplomats for his handling of a meeting at the Knesset on Monday with the Turkish ambassador.

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Ayalon had called in Ankara's envoy to protest a new Turkish television show called The Valley of the Wolves which seems primarily designed to foment anti-Semitism. Among other things, it depicts Israeli agents abducting Muslim children in order to convert them to Judaism against their will.

The program comes just three months after a Turkish government-run station broadcast a series, Ayrilik, which portrayed IDF soldiers as callous murderers, shooting Palestinian children at point-blank range and massacring innocents by firing squad.

Aiming to underline Israel's justifiable displeasure with this crude incitement, Ayalon sought to choreograph the meeting so that the Turkish ambassador would understand that such shenanigans cannot and will not be tolerated.

SO HE kept the envoy waiting, seated him on a lower chair and did not smile obsequiously in their meeting, as diplomats are often expected to do.

And it is precisely that choreography which has now earned Ayalon the ire of various talking-heads and pundits, many of whom cannot seem to tolerate the idea of a proud Jew standing up for this country's honor.

"Humiliation is not a policy," screamed yesterday's Haaretz, as it blasted Ayalon for what it described as his "display of scorn" and "disgraceful theatrical language" toward Turkey.

Writing on Ynet, Alon Liel asserted that, "What we have seen here is causing damage to our Foreign Ministry and turning international diplomatic rules into a laughing stock." He accused Ayalon of carrying out "a new kind of diplomacy," and wondered rhetorically, "If next week we will see another anti-Israel TV show produced in Turkey, what will we do to the ambassador then? Ask him to crawl into the room? Beat him up?"

There is something truly pitiful about such responses, which say a lot about the limited Jewish self-esteem of those who proffered them. Rather than focusing on the outrageous anti-Semitic and anti-Israel rhetoric that Turkey's Islamist-oriented regime is whipping up with increasing frequency, they prefer to turn their fire on Ayalon for deviating from what is considered standard diplomatic practice.

Frankly, I don't think Ayalon has anything to apologize for. The days when Jews must cower in fear and fawn over those who spit in our faces are over. As a sovereign state, we have the right and the obligation to berate those who sully our honor, and Ayalon should be commended for standing up and demonstrating some good, old fashioned Jewish pride.

INDEED, HIS critics are missing the mark. Like it or not, Turkey has been steadily embracing a more radical stance ever since Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rise to power earlier this decade. Under his stewardship, the once proudly secular and pro-Western country has shifted gears, cozying up to the likes of radical states such as Iran and Syria. In the past year, Turkey has openly defended Teheran's nuclear program, signed various cooperation agreements with Damascus and moved to expand trade and cultural ties with the two rogue regimes.

And in the process, it has increasingly demonstrated outright hostility and antagonism toward the Jewish state. Take, for example, Erdogan's remarks this past Monday at a joint news conference in Ankara with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

With barely-concealed contempt, Erdogan said that Israel "threatens global peace" and enjoys "disproportionate power," and asserted that the IDF had attacked Palestinian civilians in Gaza with white phosphorus shells, which he labeled "weapons of mass destruction."

During his tirade, Erdogan also condemned Israel for defending itself by carrying out an air strike in Gaza Sunday in which three Islamic Jihad terrorists planning attacks against Israelis were killed. "What is your excuse this time?" he said, as if we owe him an explanation.

SOMEONE NEEDS to remind Erdogan that before he goes about lecturing Israel, he would do well to set his own country in order. Just ask the Kurds of southeastern Turkey, who have been targeted for decades by a policy of displacement and forced acculturation. Last month, Erdogan sent the Turkish police to arrest dozens of Kurdish political leaders and activists as part of an ongoing crackdown on the community.

He also detained Muharrem Erbey, the president of Turkey's national Human Rights Association, who has been an outspoken advocate on behalf of the Kurds. I wonder what Erdogan's "excuse" is for this.

And while the Turkish premier feels free to criticize Israel for its "occupation" of the Palestinians, he does not seem overly troubled by the fact that his own forces have been occupying part of Cyprus since July 1974. An estimated 30,000-40,000 Turkish troops are currently on the island, where they prop up the government of northern Cyprus in defiance of international law and have effectively severed the region in two.

Sure, Turkey is a powerful player in the eastern Mediterranean, and it once held out great promise as an example of a secular Muslim democracy. But those days appear to be over, as Erdogan and his Islamist colleagues are clearly leading the country in a very different, and far less friendly, direction.

For its own reasons, Turkey has gone cold on Israel, and there doesn't seem to be much we can do about it. However frustrating this might be, we must recognize the reality for what it is, rather than cling to what we might wish it to be.

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."

Iraq: Compensation for Israel's 1981 Osirak Airstrike?

Muhammad Naji Muhammad, an Iraqi Membeof Parliament, has claimed that the Iraqi Government is preparing to knock on the United Nations' door to demand compensation for Israel's bombing almost 30 years later: "Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and the Foreign Ministry turned to the UN and the Security Council demanding that Israel pay us reparations for damage caused to the reactor in 1981."

UN Security Council Resolution 487, which condemned Israel's pre-emptive aerial attack, gives Iraq the right to demand compensation over the damages. In Article 6, it says: "[The United Nations] Considers that Iraq is entitled to appropriate address for the destruction it has suffered, responsibility for which has been acknowledged by Israel."