Long Way to Normalcy For Turkey and Israel
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Employees from a Turkish-owned company in Israel protest against the tensions between the two countries outside the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv, December 28, 2010. (photo by REUTERS/Nir Elias)
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JERUSALEM — After the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident and its diplomatic fallout, many debated long and hard whether Israel or Turkey most needed the other. When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered an official apology to Turkey on March 22, another type of debate ensued. Turks presumed that Israel decided that it could not bear the loss of Turkey as an ally, even if a frosty one, and therefore extended the apology. In Israel, meanwhile, the issue became that the Turkish government seemed to be deceiving the public in its statements on the apology. After spending nearly a week in Israel and having conversations with numerous diplomatic sources, the following is what I gathered about the state of Turkish-Israeli relations.
Categories: Al-Monitor