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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Turkey no longer seen as 'honest broker' after Erdogan outburst |
| 2009-02-03 |
| Turkey's role in mediating the Israeli-Arab conflict has been compromised by its leader's repeated censure of Israel's recent offensive in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli government official said Monday. "He won't mediate anything any more," the official said. "His stint as mediator between Israel and the Arabs is over, that's for sure. He won't be accepted as an honest broker by Israel at all." The official said no official decision had to be taken, but that Israeli leaders spoke about Erdogan in such a way that made it clear they did not have faith in him as a mediator. Any Israel discontent is directed at Erdogan personally, and should not be misconstrued as a rupture with Turkey, whose cooperation Israel values, he added. On Sunday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned the cabinet against deepening the schism with Turkey, a key Israeli ally. "[I'm] very concerned by [ministers'] behavior in public on the subject of Turkey," Olmert said. "Our relations with Turkey are important, and I recommend that we don't intensify our statements on the subject." "We attach importance to our relations with Israel and we want to preserve those relations," Cemil Cicek, Turkey's deputy prime minister, told a news conference on Monday. "Turkey is not targeting Israel or its people. We have been expressing concern over the killing of civilians and human tragedy in Gaza." The Turkish military, which suspects Erdogan's government wants to erode Turkish secularism, indicated that it, too, was interested in preserving the two countries' ties. "The rule is to act according to national interests in bilateral military relations with all countries," Brig. Gen. Metin Gurak, the military spokesman, said Friday when asked if military ties might be cut. Meanwhile, Turkey's Jewish community yesterday denied a report that a local synagogue had been set ablaze by vandals. "The reports published in foreign media organs saying that a synagogue in the northwestern part of Turkey was set ablaze are not correct," the Turkish Jewish community said in a written statement delivered to the Web site of the Turkish paper Hurriyet. Earlier yesterday, sources within the Turkish Jewish community had said that vandals set a synagogue in northwest Turkey ablaze on Sunday. No one was reported as wounded in the alleged attack, which supposedly took place in the city of Bursa. Nor were there any reports on the extent of property damage, if any. The Bursa synagogue was shut to daily services after the city's Jewish community shrank over the past few decades. Sunday's attack, if it indeed occurred, was the first such incident to take place in Turkey following Israel's Operation Cast Lead. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #2 See also WAFF > TODAY'S ZAMAN OP-EDS > HOW LIKELY IS A [democratic-consensual]PARTITION OF TURKEY [post-KOSOVAR International recognition]?, + IS TURKEY PARTING WAYS WITH EUROPE? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-02-03 21:42 |
| #1 The Bursa synagogue was shut to daily services after the city's Jewish community shrank over the past few decades. Where did they all go? I have some reading to do, I see. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-02-03 13:46 |