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Thursday, April 18, 2013

Turkey Continues Belligerence with Israel

Nadene Goldfoot
Turkey was angry that Israel stopped their ship, the Mavi Marmara when it was attempting to break Israel's naval blockade of Gaza.  Turks attacked boarding Israelis and  were killed in the act.  Then Turkey turned around and demanded an apology from Israel, which Netanyahu finally gave with the personal nudging from Obama.  Yet Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is keeping the relationship in deep freeze.  He insists that that Turkey will not re-establish diplomatic relations until Israel lifts its blockade on Gaza.  He's asking Israel to disregard a big part of their security which would be suicide.  As Netanyahu said before, "The truth is that if Israel were to put down its arms there would be no more Israel.  If the Arabs were to put down their arms there would be no more war."   There is no hope for peace as long as the Arabs can get arms, thus-the need for the blockade.

  Netanyahu did say he would  loosen some restrictions and said they will continue to do so if there continues to be quiet from Gaza.  Turks also expect  to receive $millions in compensation for the deaths of their pirate seamen.

However, already several rockets have hit Israel since the cease fire that only lasted for a few months.  This is the reason why Israeli ships had to check out incoming ships;  for weaponry.  Weapons brought in this way would be used against Israel.  Israel isn't trying to stop Palestinians from getting candy bars; just weapons.  There have been no shortages of anything that Gazans have needed.  Big semi-trucks roll in there every day with supplies.  That's one good reason that Israel was most suspicious of people supporting the Arab cause-which would be the end of Israel-to bring in weapons for their use.  It's the only thing they could possibly be short of.  By raining rockets, missiles and mortars upon southern Israel since 2001, the Palestinians have broken the trust Israelis could have had in them as a peaceful neighbor.

To show his anger,  Erdogan will not agree to a meeting of NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue group which includes Israel and 6 Arab countries, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritania, Algeria and Jordan.  Egypt is also backing out.  I'm  not surprised as this is a Muslim Brotherhood regime.

Turkey had already shown more support for Muslim causes and was caustic with Israel before this event, thus the blockade blocking.  Last May NATO had a summit conference in Chicago and Turkey rejected Israel's participation.  When Israel asked for a permanent office at NATO, Turkey said "NO."

Erdogan is going to visit the USA on May 16th.  Then he has said that after that he will go to Gaza.  He has already postponed his April  trip to Gaza at the request of Obama.  The USA is trying to broker a relationship between Israel and Turkey but so far this has not turned out well at all.

Israel was legally in the right by inspecting ships.  This has already been declared in the UN.  No other ship had any problems.  It was the defiance that came out of Turkey which caused those Turks on board to attack the Israeli naval inspectors.  There was much more to be discussed than for Netanyahu to give an apology which was not accepted.

 This all started with a Muslim Brotherhood development that affected Egypt, Turkey, Iran and others.  Observance in one's religion should not be leading to such hatred for others of different faiths.  What good is a religion if it  teaches hatred?  

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