Israeli daily Haaretz says Israel must apologize... if it wants to end diplomatic crisis with Turkey

According to Israeli daily Haaretz, Israel has only one choice to end its diplomatic crisis with Turkey: to apologize…

The daily said that for many months, Joseph Ciechanover and Ozdem Sanberk (the Israeli and Turkish representatives on the UN Palmer committee) tried to produce a truthful and just report that wouldn’t destroy Israel-Turkey relations. “They failed, but not because of a lack of skill or patience,” it added.

“If Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon had not insisted that Israel not apologize to Turkey, the United Nations report would have been a 105-page textbook on the strategy of the Gaza blockade and the tactics used to thwart attempted breaches of it,” Haaretz highlighted.

The Israeli daily noted that Sanberk, a pleasant man with rich diplomatic experience (including in the pre-Erdogan era), is one of the best-known public intellectuals in Turkey and a major supporter of relations with Israel. "Mistakes happen, and it is permissible to ask forgiveness when they happen. This is how friends behave when their relationship is important to them," Haaretz quoted Sanberk as saying at a meeting in Ankara a few months ago.

However, Haaretz said that between Israel and Turkey, honor has become more important than their relationship. It went on to highlight that Turkey, despite its rush to recall its ambassador from Israel and downgrade ties, emphasized that these measures are directed against "the current government" and not against Israel or the Israeli public. According to the analysis, the conditions for restoring ties remain the same as they were when nine Turkish citizens were killed on the Mavi Marmara: an apology and compensation.

Last month, Ibrahim Kalin, a senior adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Receip Tayyip Erdogan, indicated that Turkey was ready to normalize ties with Israel and return them to what they were before the flotilla affair if Israel fulfilled both of those conditions. He believed that the estrangement between the two countries was bad for both. Haaretz concluded that it is hard to find a senior official close to either Erdogan or Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu that does not regret the difficulties that have arisen in the relationship between Israel and Turkey, “but none of them think that Turkey should give up on its terms.”

“Naturally, Erdogan views his relationship with the Turkish public as more important than his relationship with Israel. His public commitment to receiving an Israeli apology and compensation killing of Turkish citizens has become an inseparable part of his political credibility that gives him public power. Turkey's foreign policy - as in a democratic country - is not divorced from domestic policy. (…) Erdogan is not dismissive of strategic relationships, particularly since his stated goal is to make Turkey a regional political power. But his policy is based not only on political interests and strategic rationale but also on the worldview and ideology in which "political morality" plays a central role.”

In conclusion, Haaretz said, an apology will restore the relationship while a refusal to apologize will yield more punitive measures. “From now on, there is no predetermined timetable, but every delay of an apology and all additional punitive measures will deepen not only the formal break in relations but also the almost familial closeness that existed between the two peoples,” it stressed.