An Israeli Snub to "Very Valuable" Turkey?

Israel and Syria: Can Turkey Be a Mediator?

Receive our latest updates by email or RSS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FEED
Buy Us A Cup of Coffee? Help Enduring America Expand Its Coverage and Analysis

Maybe it's because Israeli leaders had a busy day on Thursday --- debating Palestine, considering the economy, getting their hair done --- but I can't help thinking that this may be a snub. At Turkey's Republic Day reception in Israel, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, the Industry, Trade and Labor Minister, was the only Israeli politician to be found. President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon all declined their invitations.

Asked whether this was a form of protest, a spokesman for Peres said she had nothing to add. Lieberman's spokesman stated only that the Foreign Minister would not attend and did not give any detail. A spokesman for Netanyahu said the prime minister had other obligations Thursday night. A spokeswoman for Ayalon said on Wednesday that he was not able to attend due to "scheduling problems".

Ben-Eliezer did speak at the reception on the "very valuable" Israeli-Turkish relationship and said that it was a "great privilege to be here to today with good friends and to commemorate the 86th Republic Day of Turkey". Then he added, "Both [Israel and Turkey] cooperate strategically - we must make the utmost of efforts to put the train of our friendship back on track."

Bring It On: Israel Counter-attacks UN over Gaza Enquiry

Palestine: Suffering Life at Israeli Checkpoints

Receive our latest updates by email or RSS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FEED
Buy Us A Cup of Coffee? Help Enduring America Expand Its Coverage and Analysis

Under the terms of the Goldstone Report on the Gaza War, now approved by the UN Human Rights Council, Israel and Hamas are required to conduct internal enquiries into the conduct of their military forces.

Fat chance.

On Tuesday, Israel's President Shimon Peres told CNN that the Goldstone Report "one-sided" and "unfair".





Peres' statement was mere prelude to the full Israeli resistance. In fact, for resistance, insert "counter-attack". On Tuesday, the Israeli Cabinet and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, promising a lengthy battle to "delegitimize" the findings of the United Nations commission, established a committee to deal with the prospect of "legal proceedings abroad against the state of Israel or its citizens."

Even Defense Minister Ehud Barak, seen as the moderate amongst senior Israeli ministers, refused to discuss the possibility of a Governmental investigation: "There is no need for a committee of inquiry. The Israeli military knows to examine itself better than anyone else."

Meanwhile Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman chose a diversionary strategy of undermining the Israel-Palestine peace process. He told his European Union counterpart Javier Solana:

The policy of subversion carried out by the Palestinian Authority against the State of Israel, which follows decisions at the Fatah conference in August in which there were calls for the resumption of the armed struggle, raises serious questions about the real aims of the Palestinians. The question now is whether the Palestinians want to establish a state, or to destroy the state of Israel.

Israel: Can Netanyahu Really Escape US Pressure?

Israel-Palestine: UN Council Endorses Goldstone Report — What Now?
Video: Protests over former Israel PM Olmert in Chicago

Receive our latest updates by email or RSS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FEED
Buy Us A Cup of Coffee? Help Enduring America Expand Its Coverage and Analysis

On Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the endorsement by the United Nations Human Rights Council of the Goldstone Report, which claimed both Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes during the Gaza War in December-January. Netanyahu warned the Israeli nation to be prepared for a protracted struggle. Declaring "the delegitimization [of Israel] must be delegitimized", he added, "The UN has returned to the dark days during which it equated Zionism with racism."

Netanyahu's statement is in line with his Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's leaked memorandum calling for a “zero-tolerance” policy for anti-Semitic expression around the world. But does the Prime Minister also back Lieberman's strategy of a move from “lone dependence” on Washington to the "neglected" parts of the world?

The was the only Security Council member that voted against the Goldstone resolution in the UNHRC. Yet Ha'aretz correspondent Aluf Benn believes the Obama Administration will use the diplomatic arena to get more Israeli concessions on the expansion of settlements:

Operation Cast Lead in Gaza was perceived in Israel as a shining victory. Rocket fire from Gaza was brought to a halt almost completely. The Israel Defense Forces emerged from its failure during the Second Lebanon War and deployed ground forces with few casualties. "The world" let the operation continue and did not impose a cease-fire. A wonderful war.

Ten months later, it seems the victory was a Pyrrhic one. Israel did not realize that the rules have changed with Barack Obama's election as U.S. president. Prime minister Ehud Olmert timed Cast Lead to take place during the twilight period between the outgoing and incoming U.S. administrations, and rightly assumed that the incumbent, George W. Bush, would fully back Israel. However, in contrast to the Lebanon war of 2006, which ended with a cease-fire, the Gaza campaign continues being fought - in the diplomatic arena and in public opinion - and Israel must cope with its consequences in a less-friendly Obama era.

During the first, military round, Israel benefited from the decisive superiority of its firepower. However the Palestinians moved the war's current round to an arena more comfortable for them, and are benefiting from their advantage in UN institutions and in public opinion. The calls to boycott Israel are getting louder. Turkey is shirking off its strategic alliance with Israel and is presenting IDF soldiers as horrible murderers of children. Hamas is gradually winning recognition as a legitimate player, as it continues to amass a stock of rockets without hindrance. Meanwhile Israel's leaders are busy defending the country against the United Nations' Goldstone report (that accuses Israel and Hamas of perpetrating war crimes), and some even have to worry now about being the object of arrest warrants in Europe.

Even if the legal process that Goldstone initiated ends up being halted, and Israel is not put in the dock in The Hague, its hands have been tied. The world, led by Obama, will not let it initiate a Cast Lead II operation. Certainly not when a right-wing government is in power in Jerusalem led by Benjamin Netanyahu, whom the world loves to hate. Netanyahu's clumsy attempt, in his Knesset speech this week, to link the war in Gaza to opposition leader Tzipi Livni did not really succeed. He is in power and the world considers him responsible. The Americans and the Europeans are using the Goldstone report to punish Netanyahu for his refusal to freeze the settlements.

The same thing happened to the Palestinians between the two intifadas. When they hurled stones during the first intifada (1987-1993) and the confrontation was in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, the world cheered them on and forced Israel to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization and to let its leader Yasser Arafat establish his autonomy in the territories. The Palestinian violence at that time was perceived as appropriate resistance to occupation. During the second intifada, the Palestinians resorted to suicide attacks in Israeli cities. They succeeded in killing many more Israelis, but they lost in the diplomatic arena, especially after the September 11 attacks in the United States, when the rules changed. The world was fed up with terror attacks and it allowed then-prime minister Ariel Sharon to reoccupy the West Bank, lock Arafat in a cage (his headquarters in Ramallah) and eventually unload Gaza without a peace arrangement.

Operation Cast Lead was the most planned operation in the annals of Israel's wars. Its organizers filled out all the forms and checked off on all the procedural changes that had been recommended by the Winograd Committee after its investigation of the shortcomings of the Second Lebanon War. The campaign's goals were reasonable. The scenarios were rehearsed. The reservists were trained. Jurists anticipated the legality of every target and operational plan. The soldiers were properly outfitted with food, water and protective equipment. The local authorities in the Israeli rear functioned as they should have. The media obeyed. In short, the government and the IDF prepared exceptionally well for a Third Lebanon War. They only forgot that the conditions on the Palestinian front are different than in Lebanon.

Not everybody shared the euphoria. The defense minister, Ehud Barak, wanted to halt Cast Lead after two or three days, but was overruled by Olmert who wanted to keep the campaign going, and then going further. Columnists and commentators warned of Gaza becoming a quagmire.

And most interesting: The Winograd Committee anticipated the lurking legal danger to Israel, and in its final report had warned of "far-reaching consequences" resulting from the widening gap between the rules of warfare and the reality of fighting terror launched from civilian surroundings. The committee recommended pulling the legal experts out of the operation rooms, increasing and highlighting investigation of irregular activities, and working with friendly countries to amend the rules of warfare, a recommendation that is easy to make but difficult to implement. The Winograd report did not warn against going into the next war before the rules of warfare are changed. The legal recommendations, drafted with restraint out of fear they would be used for anti-Israeli propaganda, were lost in the sea of piquant items in the report.

Upon returning to power, Netanyahu hoped to leave the Palestinian issue on the side and focus on the Iranian threat and on economic reforms. Now his government will have to cope with the consequences of Cast Lead and do so under less than ideal conditions, heavy international pressure and fear of arrest warrants and charge sheets.

Video: The TV Series and A New Turkey-Israel Crisis

Israel: Egypt Follows Turkey, Distances Itself from Tel Aviv

Receive our latest updates by email or RSS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FEED
Buy Us A Cup of Coffee? Help Enduring America Expand Its Coverage and Analysis

UPDATE 1000 GMT: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has now jumped into the issue, declaring at a press conference with Spanish leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero: "We hope Turkey will bolster peace and not extremist elements, and also work towards securing the ties between us, because this is an important country and relations with it are important for peace. I hope we are not witnessing a fundamental change in the path Turkey had been on until a year or two ago."

Earlier this week Israel's Foreign Ministry expressed its disappointment over a drama series Ayrilik (Separation), broadcast by the Turkish State-spshowing TRT1, showing Israeli soldiers and administrators as brutal murderers broadcasted by the Turkish State-sponsored TRT1.



In the first episode of the series, an Israeli soldier shoots a smiling Palestinian girl in the chest, and an Israeli official calls his best soldier and instructs him to form a secret unit to prevent Muslims going to pilgrimage.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman criticized his Turkish counterparts, as and the Israeli envoy in Ankara urgently outlined concern over the show. Lieberman said:

Such a drama series, which doesn't even have the slightest link to reality and which presents Israeli soldiers as murderers of innocent children, isn't worthy of being broadcast even by enemy states and certainly not in a state which has full diplomatic relations with Israel.

Israel: Egypt Follows Turkey, Distances Itself from Tel Aviv

Video: The TV Series and A New Turkey-Israel Crisis

Receive our latest updates by email or RSS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FEED
Buy Us A Cup of Coffee? Help Enduring America Expand Its Coverage and Analysis

On Thursday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that he would not attend a meeting of Mediterranean Union foreign ministers if his Israeli counterpoart Avigdor Lieberman is present.

The Mediterranean Union was formed in 2008 on the initiative of French President Nicholas Sarkozy to establish economic and political connections between Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. As well as the 27 members of the European Union, there are represenatives from Egypt, Turkey, the Palestinian Authority, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Croatia, Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Mauritania, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Syria, and Tunisia.

Israel is trying to modify Egypt's position with pressure through several countries including France. So far, however, there has been no response from Cairo.

Israel has another problem. The next venue for the Union is in Istanbul on November 24-25, and after the cancellation of the "international" military exercises, Israel is not on the best of terms with Turkey.