9 thoughts on “Turkey Expels Israeli Ambassador, Ends Military Cooperation – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. Richard
    weeks ago an item came up that the Israeli gov’t was considering apologizing and I wrote saying that Israel would not.
    This is the Lieberman/Netanyahu/Yshai policy better bring the country down in flames than do the right thing.
    At this moment both Israel and Turkey are on opposite sides of the universe and both are extremely trigger happy.
    It is not farfetched to presume that antagonism may involve more than just verbal provocation.
    Turkey’s belligerance level is today hundreds of times greater than the Cyprus conflict time
    Who knows when the first official bullet will be fired from one direction to the other, there is no backing down now, the stakes as seen by both are to the end.

    1. I don’t think this will involve a shooting war. But if Israel DOES choose to go to war against Lebanon, Syria or Gaza in future I can foresee Turkey using its considerable influence, both diplomatic, commercial & military to intervene in hostilities in ways detrimental to Israel. If Israel thinks Iran operates proxies acting against it, it should wait to see what Turkey can do. And I also expect that Israel will begin helping arm Turkish Kurds & fomenting violence against Turkey. When such powerful countries activate proxies in this way it does escalate the chances for war. Look at WWI, which began in almost this same way.

      If I were Obama, I would bring enormous pressure to bear against Israel to apologize to Turkey & end the siege now. But Obama goes his own way & doesn’t understand the implications of things going on in this region at all. In that sense, he’s little better than George Bush. I never thought I’d say that & hate having to say it now, because Obama is obviously a lot smarter than Bush. But the problem is he’s not willing to act.

      1. The best the US could do is for Clinton to ask Israel – nicely – to pretty please consider apologizing. That was in the papers about 2-3 weeks back (don’t have link handy). And upon hearing that Israel said “says who?” or the equivalent.

        Now Secretary Ban is also asking the parties to please play nice. One can hear Turkey in the background laughing, and Israel shrieking – “Ban Hu??”.

  2. There is at least one more reason for Erdogan’s riff with Israel, and that’s the latter’s support for the Kurds, and in particular, the PKK. It’s interesting that recently Turkey took off the restraints, mounting several military bombing runs on Iraqi Kurdistan. They must have intelligence that confirms Israel’s hand in fomenting unrest among the Kurds, and is no doubt concern about that. There’s little around by way of proof, other than Israeli agents and citizens being seen and heard in Kurdistan. My theory is that the Kurds represent a serious red line for Turkey and Israel has crossed it, possibly with US tacit approval.

    1. Israel has always been interested in supporting the Kurds, but the main interest has been to sow trouble in Iraq.

      At the moment, that’s a bit passé, as the present government in Iraq needs Kurdish support to survive, though I imagine the Arab-Kurdish problem will bring it back soon.

      It’s a question what Turkey thinks about Israeli aid for the Kurds.

  3. RE: “alarmists claim that Erdogan plans to board the next Turkish Gaza flotilla and lead it, something like Adm. John Paul Jones” ~ R.S.

    MY REPARTEE: How dare you not also mention “Teddy” Roosevelt and his “Rough Riders”!
    How dare you!
    How dare you!
    “Some people” might even call you a “traitor” for favouring John Paul Jones over Theodore Roosevelt! (lol)

  4. If I were Obama, I would bring enormous pressure to bear against Israel to apologize to Turkey & end the siege now. But Obama goes his own way & doesn’t understand the implications of things going on in this region at all.

    I think he is keeping his bag of tricks for his second term. The first one, due to the economy and the US’s dwindling influence is taken up with the economic woes. True. We need a President who understands the Middle East. Obama isn’t it. He’s just a nice poster hero for America, living in an ivory world. Turkey and Israel may well end up in a war before his second term is finished. I wonder what he’d do then, he cannot just dither like he does now.

  5. Turkey and Israel at war? Maybe. But perhaps they will simply play a (chiefly) diplomatic game from which the USA is excluded, showing the irrelevance of the USA wherever its military empire cannot be set in motion. USA has forgotten diplomacy, perhaps in part because it has had its hands so severely tied by Israel/AIPAC, on one hand, and by the Pentagon/Intelligence/AntiTerrorism folks, on the other, that no opportunity for diplomacy has arisen in recent years.

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