The Turkish Prime Minister said that as long as Israel did not fully comply with his conditions, that is, compensation for the families of the Marmara victims, as well as the lifting of the blockade on Gaza, the relations between Israel and Turkey would not be fully restored. There will be no normalization without these, Erdogan stated on March 24.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Yup, Bibi's Barry-Brokered Apology Sure Did the Trick
Not so much:
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PM Netanyahu, an intelligent, sophisticated politician of great experience, certainly knew better than to expect his apology to "reset" relations between Israel and Turkey to a mutually satisfactory state. And, predictably, by apologizing for . . . what? Defending the national sovereignty of Israel? . . . he made himself and Israel look weak. He lost face in a part of the world where that can have the gravest consequences.
But, as I wrote above, Mr. Netanyahu certainly knew better. Obama must have leaned on him with some serious threats to get him to apologize. I fully understand the predicament in which the PM found himself (and, by extension, Israel), as Israel has come to depend heavily on American support to defend itself, militarily and diplomatically; but I think he made a serious mistake by not standing up to the American President.
If Obama seems to hold all the high cards in his dealings with Israel, that is not quite true: Israel still holds one very valuable card, the crucial political, financial, and media support that American Jews provide to the Democratic Party. I do not think that Obama, much as he might detest PM Netanyahu as the "honky" in the neighborhood, is yet ready to tell his Jewish constituents--Democratic party stalwarts in the main--that Israel can go to hell as far as he is concerned. (Nor do I think that American Jews have [yet] become so jaded about Israel's fate that they would not rise up in defense of the beleaguered Jewish state.)
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