As you may remember, with some arm twisting from President Obama, Israeli PM Benyamin Netanyahu called Turkey's Islamist PM Tayyip Erdogan and apologized for Israeli soldiers defending themselves when they were ambushed by armed Turkish 'activists' on the Mavi Mamara, a ship that was attempting to break the Gaza blockade and refused to sail into an Israeli port to be inspected.
The phone call between Netanyahu and Erdogan reportedly lasted about thirty minutes. Erdogan accepted the apology ( something that was almost certainly arranged between Secretary of State John Kerry and Erdogan in advance), the two countries agreed to exchange ambassadors again, and the Israeli government agreed to pay compensation to the families of the dead 'activists', something they had offered to do before. The Turkish government,of course, will not apologize for anything, nor will it pay compensation to the Israeli sailors its citizens attacked. They will , however cancel legal charges against a whole slew of Israelis, including not just the individual sailors who participated in the raid or the officers directly involved but the commander of the Israeli navy, former IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, a number of Israeli political figures and probably the door man at the Tel Aviv Dan Hotel.
Netanyahu’s office put out a statement after the call Friday that “The two men agreed to restore normalization between Israel and Turkey, including the dispatch of ambassadors and the cancellation of legal steps against IDF soldiers."
As I pointed out, this was going to do nothing to change Israeli-Turkish relations, which deteriorated once the Islamist AKP regime headed by Erdogan took over in 2003.
It was simply a PR stunt provide President Obama with a win, and it certainly worked out in the U.S., where the ObamaMedia is praising the president lavishly for his mad diplomatic skillz.
What they're not reporting is that PM Erdogan has completely walked back any commitments on his part.
There will be no exchange of ambassadors unless Israel continues to 'move forward in the right way', which means lifting the blockade on Hamas.And the court cases are going to continue. Turkey's Erdogan was quite blunt about that.
But Erdogan is, of course, satisfied. And why not? He gave up nothing to the hated Jews, humiliated Netanyahu, and enhanced his standing in the Arab world. As he put it, "We got it the way we wanted."
And he's planning to push the envelope even further by visiting his genocidal Hamas Friends in Gaza next month to directly confront Israel's naval blockade, which even the UN considers justified under international law.
I don't blame Erdogan for this in the least.Like almost all Islamists he's a committed anti-Semite and proudly anti-Israel. Just last week he referred to Zionism as a "crime against humanity" in at a U.N. conference in Vienna, and compared it with Naziism. No apology on his part for that of course, and none was demanded either by Netanyahu or by President Obama.
No, Erdogan is whom he is, and like the Iranians, he's honest about it.
The real culprit here is Israeli PM Benyamin Netanyahu.
Was there any reason for him to be so spineless and just plain clueless in this matter?
Is that what things have come to? That the Prime Minister of Israel is now apologizing contritely to anti-Semites like Erdogan and is not only being humiliated in having to do so but gets kicked afterwards by not even getting what he thought he was getting in return by bending over?
And then there's President Obama, who was in on the conversation, set this up with Erdogan in advance and actually spoke to him before handing the phone to Netanyahu. Is he going to say anything to PM Erdogan about reneging on his assurances to Netanyahu? Is this what President Obama means by 'having Israel's back?'
If PM Netanyahu still has any semblance of a spine, he'll make a public statement saying that any compensation to Turkey and any apology to Turkey will now be withheld until Turkey's Islamist PM decides he's ready to keep his word.
I'm not holding my breath expecting him to do that.
It's bad enough that the Israelis didn't get the center/right government they voted for, but now, they appear to be saddled with Olmert-lite in the Prime Minister's office.
A shame really, and I certainly hope someone volunteers to help Benyamin Netanyahu locate where ever his left his testicles. If I read things right, he's going to need them.
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