Middle East Clarity
17 August '11
http://www.middleeastclarity.com/blog/2011/08/every-dog-has-his-day
Israel will not be apologizing to Turkey for its actions in the first Gaza Flotilla of 2008 in which 9 Turkish citizens aboard the Mavi Marmara ship sponsored by the terrorist-linked IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation and trying to run the Gaza Blockade were killed after Israeli naval commandos, initially armed with paint guns, were attacked, beaten and even kidnapped by angry mob.
Despite the United Nations "Palmer" report that will be issued over the coming days and which may blame Israel for the deaths but also take Turkey to task for its role in the affair as well as affirm Israel's legal right to the blockade, Israel clearly sees at this point no reason to apologize for IDF soldiers exercising their right to self-defense in a clearly legal action.
With Turkey mired in their own problems of a growing Kurd insurrection (see: today's article about 7 Turks killed by Kurdish PKK rebels) and the likelihood of Syria disintegration into sectarian violence – the collapse of the Assad regime now just seems to be a matter of time, whether it's weeks or months – not to mention growing economic problems and wholesale instability throughout the Muslim world, there is no rationale for Israel throwing Erdogan a bone that would not contain at the very minimum full restoration of diplomatic relations as well as a fundamental change in his long-standing hostility toward Israel. And none of that seems forthcoming.
The doyen of the Israeli Left, Yossi Beilin tried to come up today via a piece in Israel Hayom with justification for an Israeli apology, but his arguments are specious at best. Apparently Secretary of State Clinton also applied heavy pressure on Israel for an apology, even to the point of using the likely UN vote next month on a Palestinian state as a stick with which to beat the Israelis and to force them to submit to Washington's will, to no avail.
A lot has changed since Gaza Flotilla I in 2008, and Israel learned diplomatic lessons as well, strengthening relations in the meantime significantly with Greece and other Balkan countries as a result. While the traditional close relations that Israel had with Turkey for so many years until Prime Minister Erdogan turned towards the Muslim east in the past decade would be nice, they are certainly not the absolute necessity that they once were.
Now that Turkey faces even possibly the threat of military confrontation with Syria and the winds of democracy blow through the Middle East affecting an autocratic Istanbul regime as well, Erdogan's hostility toward Israel is coming back to bite him, reminding us of the old Arabic phrase, "kul kalb biji yomo": every dog has his day.
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