Israel and Turkey at Diplomatic LoggerheadsUpdated: 13 hours 31 minutes agoLinda Gradstein Contributor
JERUSALEM (Jan. 12) – When you don't have many friends, you usually try hard to keep them. But it seems Israel is doing everything it can to alienate its closest Muslim ally, Turkey.
Turkey today demanded an official apology for what it sees as an insult to its ambassador in Tel Aviv. At issue is an incident yesterday, when Israel's deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, summoned Turkey's ambassador for a diplomatic dressing-down over a Turkish TV series that portrayed Israeli diplomats as the head of a child-abduction ring.
What enraged the Turks was the setting. Ayalon and two other Israeli officials occupied chairs while an uncomfortable Turkish ambassador was made to sit on a lower couch. On the coffee table between the two men was only the Israeli flag, not the Turkish flag, as would be customary.
Olivier Fitoussi, AFP / Getty ImagesIsraeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, left, relegated Turkish Ambassador Ahmet Oguz Celikkol to a lower seat, fueling ongoing diplomatic tensions.
To make matters worse, Ayalon invited TV crews and photographers to the opening of the meeting and said in Hebrew, "Pay attention that he is sitting in a lower chair and we are in the higher ones, that there is only an Israeli flag on the table and that we are not smiling."
Now Turkish officials are not smiling either.
"We expect an explanation and apologies from Israeli authorities for the attitude against our Tel Aviv ambassador, [Ahmet] Oguz Celikkol, and the way this attitude was reflected," the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.
Ayalon responded sharply in an interview with Israel's army radio.
"In terms of the diplomatic tactics available, this was the minimum that was warranted given the repeated provocations by political and other players in Turkey," he said.
The tensions come just days before Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is due to visit Turkey on Sunday. Israeli media speculated Ayalon's behavior toward the Turkish Ambassador was part of an ongoing rivalry between the Foreign and Defense ministries and that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was trying to sabotage Barak's trip.
There are also sharp differences of policy between Israel and Turkey over the Palestinian issue. Tensions grew after last year's Israeli incursion into Gaza that left 1,400 Palestinians dead, according to Palestinian figures. After the Gaza incursion, which Israel said was necessary to stop rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israel, NATO member Turkey barred Israel from participating in a NATO war exercise.
Under former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Turkey had also served as a mediator between Israel and Syria on restarting peace negotiations, an initiative Lieberman has shown scant interest in furthering.
Since the 1990s, Israel and Turkey have been close military allies, as well as two of Washington's best friends on the Mediterranean Sea. Israel has sold advance weapons systems to Turkey and the two countries share intelligence. Israel has seen Turkey, which is Muslim but not Arab, as a possible bridge to the wider Arab world.
Millions of Israelis have gone on vacation in Turkey. Hotel packages in Turkey, including the 90-minute flight, are cheaper than domestic hotels for many Israelis. In some hotels, especially around Antalya on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, employees speak only Turkish and Hebrew. Until the conflict blows over, exchanges there may be less cordial than usual.Filed under: World, Only On Sphere
(http://www.sphere.com/article/turkey-and- )israel-exchange- diplomatic- blows/19314138
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