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 Israeli “defense” officials showed increased support for resolving the diplomatic crisis with Turkey over last year’s flotilla raid, as they voiced concern that Turkish organization might take legal actions against occupation soldiers who took part in the raid. Israeli daily, Haaretz, reported that resolving the crisis would be “, even at the price of an apology to Ankara by” Tel Aviv.“Internal discussions between defense officials and Justice Ministry officials over the past few weeks have suggested that a cautious apology could stop possible lawsuits by Turkish organizations against Israel Defense Forces officers and bring the affair to an end”, Haaretz added. The daily said that photographs of several soldiers involved in the raid have been posted on the internet, and Israeli “defense” and justice officials feared that leftist and Islamic groups in Europe would take steps similar to those of British pro-Palestinian groups, which have prevented senior Israeli officials from entering Britain for quite some time. Haaretz quoted senior Zionist “defense” officials as saying: “Israel has a major stake in improving relations with Turkey in light of Turkey's standing in the region, its past economic relationship with Israel and the opportunity to renew defense-related export to Turkey”. These views didn’t represent the Israeli “Defense” Ministry’s official stance. However, “Defense” Minister stressed that the Zionist entity had an interest in ending the crisis with Turkey. “From a strategic point of view, we have an interest in smoothing things over with Turkey," Barak said last week on the Israeli television, Channel 1. "National pride is important [but] in the end, we have to understand that we have other interests here ... Turkey can have an important role in issues relating to Syria, Iran, Lebanon and Hamas."  For his part, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has recently opposed offering an apology, saying that such a move would “humiliate Israel and serve as a blow to national pride”.  Last year Israeli occupation forces raided Mavi Marmara, a Turkish ship carrying aids to the besieged people in Gaza, killing at least nine Turkish activists and wounding dozens others. A report by the UN-sponsored Palmer Committee on the incident is scheduled to be released in a few weeks. The report, of which Israel received a draft earlier this month, considers that Israel's maritime closure of the Gaza Strip is “legal”. It looks at the Israeli decision to stop the flotilla as “lawful”. However, the report harshly criticized the way Israel acted in doing so, adding that the Zionist soldiers “used excessive force”, since “the deaths could have been prevented in several cases. | |||
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River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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