Via Friday-Lunch-Club
".... “They should think twice, hundreds of times, millions of times, before making such statements that certain people and certain circles are saying against Turkey,” Tan said, apparently referring to U.S. lawmakers and pro-Israel activists who have issued statements in recent days criticizing the flotilla activists for provoking the violence....
Israel must issue a formal apology, provide compensation to the victims’ families, as well as accept an independent, international investigation of the incident, Nam said. Two previous Turkish demands – that Israel immediately return all of the some 600 activists from 30 nations detained on the aid flotilla and return the bodies of those killed –have already been met. Turkey is also asking Israel to loosen its blockade on humanitarian aid going into Gaza. The Obama administration has made clear that this is something it also is urging Israel to consider.
Tan reiterated Turkey's disappointment in Washington’s muted public response to the flotilla violence to date, and its failure to publicly condemn Israeli actions....
Tan conceded that Israel may realize that it made it a mistake in how it conducted the raid, but showed no mercy for helping Israel find a way to back itself out of the corner without some sort of highly public apology, and agreement for an independent investigation of the flotilla violence....And Tan offered several examples of strategic stakes and once intimate diplomatic ties for Israel to lose. ....... [and] much of a previously scheduled meeting Davutoglu held with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Tuesday that was supposed to focus on Iran ended up focused on the flotilla incident..... also seemed to indicate that Turkey’s vote at the UN Security Council on an Iran sanctions resolution was still up for grabs, indicating that while Turkey has made clear it opposes economic sanctions on Iran as a general principal, it has not said publicly which way it will vote on the key resolution.
For years in Washington, there was heavy overlap in pro-Israel and pro-Turkey circles, from lobby groups to strong U.S. defense sales to both countries as Turkey and Israel developed extensive military to military ties, and Israelis traveled widely in Turkey. ........
"The sad truth is that we treat Turkey like an ally, while the rest of the world treats Israel like a problem the U.S. has to solve," Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.)wrote in a New York Daily News oped Thursday. "The week's events and Turkey's growing hostility toward Israel upend this misguided world-view. In fact, the same 'past tense' we use to describe a once-promising relationship between Israel and Turkey may soon need to be applied to our own relationship with the Turkish nation - if it continues to replace rationality with provocation and a belief in solutions with a culture that celebrates destructive martyrdom."
Posted by G, Z, or B at 2:24 PM
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