Deepening
a crisis over Israel’s killing last year of nine of their citizens aboard an
aid flotilla that tried to reach the Palestinian enclave, the Turks vowed on
Thursday to assign warships to escort such convoys in the future.
The
prospect of a showdown at sea with Turkey, a NATO power and fellow US strategic
partner in the region, rattled Israelis already long on edge given Arab
political upheaval and Iran’s nuclear program.
Breaking
an almost 24-hour-long silence on the warships announcement, Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israeli policy “was and remains the prevention
of deterioration in our ties with Turkey and easing the tensions between the
countries.”
“The
prime minister and cabinet discussed the various theoretical possibilities
should escalation occur. But a decision on such will be made only if and when
required.”
Confrontation
did not appear imminent after the IHH, a Turkish Islamist charity that owned
the Mavi Marmara cruise ship stormed by Israeli marines on May 31, 2010, said
in Istanbul it had no plan “for now” to mount another Gaza mission.
But
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan also pledged to boost naval patrols
around eastern Mediterranean gas fields being developed by Israel, a potential
blow to the Netanyahu government’s quest for energy independence.
The Obama
administration appealed for rapprochement.
“We are
encouraging both countries to find a way to work together to overcome their
differences and restore at least some of the friendship that they previously
had,” US Ambassador Dan Shapiro told Israel Radio.
They had
tried to mend fences ahead of a UN report last week that deemed the blockade a
legal means to stem the flow of arms to Gaza’s governing Hamas and other
Palestinian militants. Israel formally declared it during a 2008-2009 war with
Hamas.
Turkey
argues that the naval closure amounts to illegal collective punishment of
Gaza’s impoverished 1.5 million Palestinians and conditioned reconciliation on
it being lifted.
“There is
no intent to review the blockade as long as Hamas amasses missiles. This is a
measure consistent with international law,” said Yigal Palmor, spokesman for
Israel’s Foreign Ministry.
The UN
inquiry also called Israeli marines’ gunfire in brawls aboard the Mavi Marmara
“excessive and unreasonable” and the deaths caused “unacceptable.” Israel
voiced regret but rejected Ankara’s demand for a formal apology and
compensation.
While
Turkey’s navy outclasses Israel’s, the latter could make use of its advanced
air force in any coastal face-off. Yet analysts saw them coming to blows as
unlikely.
“The
things Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan said are harsh and serious, but I don’t
think it would be right to get into any verbal sabre-rattling with him,”
Netanyahu deputy Dan Meridor told Israel’s Army Radio. “Our silence is the best
response. I hope this phenomenon will pass.”
Erdogan’s
forceful comments about the Eastern Mediterranean also prompted a warning from
the European Union not to threaten EU-member Cyprus.
Turkey is
the only country that recognizes a separate Turkish-run state in Cyprus’s
northern third, which it invaded in 1974 in response to a Greek-inspired coup.
“You know
that Israel has begun to declare that it has the right to act in exclusive
economic areas in the Mediterranean,” Erdogan said.
“You will
see that it will not be the owner of this right, because Turkey, as the
guarantor of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, has taken steps in the
area, and it will be decisive and holding fast to the right to monitor
international waters in the east Mediterranean.”
EU
spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said: “The EU urges Turkey to refrain from any
kinds of threats, sources of friction that could negatively affect good
neighborly relations and the peaceful settlement of border disputes.”
Any
dispute between Turkey and Israel is unlikely to embroil NATO, which operates
on the basis of unanimous decisions, an official of the Western alliance said
in Brussels.
“It’s
literally impossible for NATO to take any action that’s not agreed by all 28
allies,” the official said.
