 [Hurriyet Daily News] Turkey hopes re-elected Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will take steps to both mend ties with Turkey and pursue a sustainable peace with Palestine, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç told Israeli broadcaster Channel 2, in a rare interview following a rupture due to the Mavi Marmara incident in 2010.
Describing the election of Netanyahu as a “success,” Arınç said in a video broadcast on the website of the channel that “Turkey expects and hopes the Israeli government will express its strong political will to end strife with Palestine.”
“Thus, if Netanyahu is to make a new start, if he will make a gesture to Turkey to boost confidence in terms of restoring relations, we think that it would be right that he expresses that his will for peace is strong,” he said.
| "Pay the blood price. Humiliate yourselves before us and the world. Give us everything and get nothing in return... and then we'll think about softening our stance." |
Arınç also said removing the blockade on Gaza and choosing Turkey as a good partner would help maintain peace in the Middle East and correspondingly help guarantee Israel’s security, he said.
| Trade between Israel and Turkey quietly continues to grow, as does Turkish tourism to the Holy Land. |
It is not right for Turkey to comment negatively or positively about the elections in Israel as that it is a matter only for the Israeli people, Arınç said.
Turkey is not a home for anti-Semitic thoughts and the country is proud of this, he added.
| ...For a given definition of not antisemitic that causes Turkish Jews to be very circumspect and publically silent, and sends President Erdogan regularly into frothing fits... |
“The Turkish people can react strongly to the actions of the Israeli state, not Jews,” he added. “And we think that we are right in such a reaction.”
| Of course you do. But y'all think you're important, too. |
Ties between Turkey and Israel have been tense since May 2010, when Israeli commandos killed eight Turkish nationals and an American of Turkish origin in a raid on the ship Mavi Marmara, which was part of the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla.”
| The Hurriyet journalist here carefully neglected to mention the ties the dead had to both listed jihadi groups and the Erdogan government. |
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