During the meeting, Peres tried to deal with the underlying causes of tense Israeli-Turkish relations. He did not defend the “necessity” of the Gaza War, but he blamed Hamas of dragging Gazans into trouble. Peres added:
Israel seeks real, just peace with its neighbors and has announced its willingness to go to great lengths to achieve peace.
Gaza could have turned into a prosperous area under Abu Mazen [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas]. Unfortunately, Hamas murdered Fatah leaders in Gaza and is now gravely harming the Palestinian population. If Hamas changes course by recognizing Israel and denouncing terror, the face of Gaza will undergo an extreme change.
On Sunday, 57 percent of Swiss people who took part in a referendum voted in favour of a ban on the construction of minarets. The proposal had been put forward by the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), the largest party in parliament. Reaction to the Swiss people’s decision was immediate, with criticisms appearing in visual and written media all over the world.
Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said: “Concerns [about Islamic fundamentalism] have to be taken seriously. However, a ban on the construction of new minarets is not a feasible means of countering extremist tendencies.”
The head of the Swiss Green Party, Ueli Leuenberger, pledged to support appeals against the ban to the European Court of Human Rights.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called the ban a “deeply discriminatory, deeply divisive and a thoroughly unfortunate step for Switzerland to take.” She added: “I have no hesitation at all in condemning the anti-foreigner scaremongering that has characterised political campaigns in a number of countries, including Switzerland, which helps produce results like this.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has confirmed that Israel has requested that Turkey resume its mediation of peace talks. He said Monday, “We are willing to mediate between the two countries and contribute to the political process in the region, and hope that we will begin a new era on the Palestinian issue and in everything connected to peace talks in the region.”
According to sources, the first step of reconciliation is a formal visit of Turkish President Abdullah Gul to Israeli President Shimon Peres, who was harshly criticized by Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during the Davos Summit in January.
In a meeting with Israel’s Industry, Labor and Trade Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, the Turkish deputy prime minister, Bulent Arinc, said that Turkey-Israel relations must improve: “The diplomatic relations between the two countries have known ups and downs, but they must stabilize.” In response to Arinc, Ben-Eliezer said that “the Israeli people want to return to good relations with Turkey”.
2030 GMT: We’re still waiting for an English translation of today’s Mir Hossein Mousavi newspaper with Jamaran, the newspaper of the Khomeini family (see 1015 GMT). The headline is Mousavi’s declaration that Iran is “vulnerable” in the current political situation: “People who entered the scene of the Revolution did not do it to suffer such difficulties. They came to secure their freedom and welfare, and if the system fails to deliver, it will lose its legitimacy for certain.”
2020 GMT: An EA reader has sent us the petition, printed in full in the comments below, to the head of Iran’s judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, to commute the death sentence of Ehsan Fatahian, a 28-year-old Kurd who is scheduled for execution on Wednesday. Fatahian was initially given a 10-year prison term for “plotting against national security” but this was changed to a death sentence by an appeal court when the charge “waging war against God” was added.
2000 GMT: Back from a break to find excellent material from readers. With university demonstrations continuing today, we’ve posted four clips from a rally at Azad University, Khomeini Shahr, outside Isfahan.
Tomorrow (10 November) at 12:00 CET she will present a film, Women in Shrouds, and hold a Q&A about human rights in Iran. If anyone here would like to ask her a question through me, please post it here in these comments.
1645 GMT: Daftar-Tahkim-Vahdat, the main reformist student and alumni organisation, has issued a statement announcing that it will withstand the oppression of “coup agents” with all of its organisational power, even as almost half of its key members are imprisoned or sought by the security forces.
In January, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan walked out of a session at the Davos Summit after telling off Israeli President Shimon Peres over Israel’s invasion of Gaza. That was the most striking picture of Turkey’s so-called “strategic depth strategy”, developed by Ahmet Davutoglu, a personal advisor to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan before he was appointed Foreign Minister in May.
Turkey’s initiative to consolidate its “relative autonomy” was far more than an effort to appear pro-Palestinian in the eyes of Middle Eastern people. It came as the United States was suffering from the complications of military occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan and from the tensions of its political conflict with Iran. The emerging financial crisis was bringing new troubles for Western powers, especially Washington. This, to be blunt, was a Turkish effort, led by Erdogan, to establish its independence of action at a conjunction of international and regional events.
Ironically, Turkey’s interest in strengthening its authority in its region, even though it was propelled by American weakness, was not unwelcome to the US. The Obama Administration was grateful for Ankara’s initiatives in mediating talks between Damascus and Tel Aviv, for its bridging role between the West and Iran, and for the willingness to host Israeli and Palestinian leaders. While Turkey was establishing independence, it was not being “revisionist” to the point where it threatened Washington’s position. The US would have reason to worry if Turkey’s approach shifted from a stimulus for the peace process to pressure that would limit and gradually erode Israel’s position.
After another downward spiral in Israel-Turkey relations, marked by cultural disputes over the Turkish television series depicting cruelty by Israeli troops and by the military rift of the cancelled multi-national exercise, Barack Obama has intervened.
On Saturday, the US President called his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul. The statement released by the White House said: “The two presidents agreed on the importance of continued consultations on these and other key topics on the global security agenda.”
The Jerusalem Post goes beyond this vague declaration to claim, from US sources, that the Obama Administration is very concerned about Turkey’s actions towards Israel and growing closeness with Syria. The implication is that the telephone conversation between two leaders brought up the tense relationship between Tel Aviv and Ankara.
On Friday, at the United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen, Israeli President Shimon Peres met his Turkish counterpart, President Abdullah Gul. Following Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s acceptance of an invitation to Ankara, Gul agreed to consider Peres’ invitiation to come to Israel.
On Sunday, 57 percent of Swiss people who took part in a referendum voted in favour of a ban on the construction of minarets. The proposal had been put forward by the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), the largest party in parliament. Reaction to the Swiss people’s decision was immediate, with criticisms appearing in visual and written media all over the world.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has confirmed that Israel has requested that Turkey resume its mediation of peace talks. 
2030 GMT: We’re still waiting for an English translation of today’s Mir Hossein Mousavi newspaper with Jamaran, the newspaper of the Khomeini family (see 1015 GMT). The headline is 
In January, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan walked out of a session at the Davos Summit after telling off Israeli President Shimon Peres over Israel’s invasion of Gaza. That was the most striking picture of Turkey’s so-called “strategic depth strategy”, developed by Ahmet Davutoglu, a personal advisor to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan before he was appointed Foreign Minister in May.
After another downward spiral in Israel-Turkey relations, marked by cultural disputes over the Turkish television series depicting cruelty by Israeli troops and by the military rift of the cancelled multi-national exercise, 
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