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The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil,    but because of the people who don't do anything about it

Occupation magazine - Related Issues Home page  back Print  Send To friend `Israel to apologise for flotilla killings` By Abraham Rabinovich The Australian December 08, 2010 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/israel-to-apologise-for-flotilla-killings/story-e6frg6so-1225967236110 The rift between Israel and Turkey may be on the way to resolution. This is according to a report yesterday on the US-sponsored Arabic-language television network al-Hura. The report said an Israeli negotiator, meeting this week with a senior Turkish diplomat in Geneva, had agreed to Istanbul`s demands that Israel apologise for the killing of nine Turkish activists last May when a flotilla of civilian vessels attempted to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. Israel had also agreed, the report said, to Turkey`s demand that it pay compensation to the families of the dead. Both sides have confirmed a meeting of their representatives in Geneva. The Tel Aviv daily Ha`aretz quotes Turkish diplomatic sources as saying the discussions have been `very positive`. Jerusalem has not commented. The Geneva meeting is an odd fallout from the forest fire that ravaged Israel in recent days. Turkish Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had summoned home his ambassador to Israel six months ago and has spoken scathingly of Israel since, dispatched two firefighting planes as part of an international effort to subdue the Israeli blaze. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telephoned Mr Erdogan the same day to thank him and expressed the hope that this `will be a gateway to improving relations between our two countries`. But Mr Erdogan appeared to brush aside this attempt at reconciliation by declaring that sending the planes was a humanitarian act in accordance with Islamic morals and there would be no reconciliation unless Israel apologised for the killings and paid compensation. Nevertheless, Turkey sent Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu, a former ambassador to Israel, to meet in Geneva with Israeli representative Yosef Ciechanover. An Israeli official told CNN the diplomats were attempting to find ways to diminish the tension between the countries. `We regretted the deterioration of the relationship and we, of course, would like to see an improvement.` Alon Liel, a former Israeli ambassador to Turkey and former director-general of the Foreign Ministry, yesterday said the departure of Turkey from the moderate Muslim camp left Israel more isolated than ever in the region as it confronts a bloc of enmity stretching from Iran through Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. Turkey has also been hurt by its rift with Israel. `Many are beginning to see it as just another Muslim country,` Mr Liel said, rather than a unique Muslim country with feet as firmly planted in the West as in the East, with something positive to say to both. A hostile relationship with Israel, he said, undermined Turkey`s longstanding desire to position itself as a mediator between Israel and the Arab world. id Links to the latest articles in this section Adam Keller in Berlin, Sept 5-8 Activists protest Tel Aviv arms exhibition: `Arms trade is death trade` In Memeoriam Beate Keller Zilversmidt, 1942-2021