Turkey kicking out top Israeli diplomats over Gaza blockade

[News Feed]

Turkey has decided to expel Israel's ambassador and other senior diplomats stationed there, a dramatic slap against its one-time close ally Israel amid longstanding tensions over that country's raid on a flotilla headed to Gaza last year.

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[Glaucus]

A lot of talk has been made about the Middle East Thaw, but the chilling relations between Israel and Turkey is far more interesting I think. Although I agree that Israel crossed lines with its handling of the flotillas (and many other issues), I'm still happy about Turkey's spat with Israel. It's been widely discussed amongst Greek political circles that Israel favored Turkey so much that the Israeli lobby had been leveraged by Turkey against Greece for years. Not sure how true that is, but if it was it's most certainly a thing of the past. That's certainly good news for Greece.

 

[Robert]

Hardly surprising, given Israel's dismissive attitude towards Turkey's legitimate concerns about unarmed aid ships being boarded and several Turkish citizens being basically murdered by Israeli forces.

Usual, tired, old pish about Israel having "the right to defend itself" trotted out, along with absurd propaganda films claiming it was all the Turks' own fault.

 

[Glaucus]

Usual, tired, old pish about Israel having "the right to defend itself" trotted out, along with absurd propaganda films claiming it was all the Turks' own fault.

The thing is, using the defense "we have the right to defend ourselves" doesn't really apply when it comes to discussing HOW they stopped the flotillas. There are methods of stopping a boat without dropping special forces onto it. That's basically what the UN said.

The UN did also say that Israel had the right to enforce a blockade, however I'm not sure if it said anything about Israel's actions so far outside of it's waters.

 

[Robert]

The thing is, using the defense "we have the right to defend ourselves" doesn't really apply when it comes to discussing HOW they stopped the flotillas.

I know that, you know that and even Israel knows that but it didn't stop them trotting it out at the time, same way they do every time they recieve criticism for slaughtering people.

-EDIT-
And, lo and behold, they used it again today:
"Israel, like any other country, has a legitimate right to protect its citizens and soldiers," an Israeli government official told the BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14762475

It's like the 'Mars Attacks' mantra, "We Come In Peace."
Transparent bollox but they keep using it because gullible fools still swallow it.

 

[Karlos]

Hardly surprising, given Israel's dismissive attitude towards Turkey's legitimate concerns about unarmed aid ships being boarded and several Turkish citizens being basically murdered by Israeli forces.

Usual, tired, old pish about Israel having "the right to defend itself" trotted out, along with absurd propaganda films claiming it was all the Turks' own fault.

An acquaintance whom I consider to be a reliable source was on one of the ships that was boarded. Apparently, some of the victims were shot in the back.

 

[Robert]

An acquaintance whom I consider to be a reliable source was on one of the ships that was boarded. Apparently, some of the victims were shot in the back.

Would anyone really be surprised by that?

 

[Glaucus]

I'm pretty sure I've heard of that before.

 

[metalman]

A lot of talk has been made about the Middle East Thaw, but the chilling relations between Israel and Turkey is far more interesting I think. Although I agree that Israel crossed lines with its handling of the flotillas (and many other issues), I'm still happy about Turkey's spat with Israel. It's been widely discussed amongst Greek political circles that Israel favored Turkey so much that the Israeli lobby had been leveraged by Turkey against Greece for years. Not sure how true that is, but if it was it's most certainly a thing of the past. That's certainly good news for Greece.

Turkey is no longer the secular government of Ataturk, its now converting to a more Islamic government under Abdullah Gul, who seems to be interested in putting the old Ottoman empire back together again.

 

[Robert]

@Mike:

On a lighter note for your good self:

Final whistle just gone in Euro 2012 qualifier:

Israel 0 - 1 Greece



-EDIT-
Yes, when it comes to the football, Israel is considered to be European.

 

[Glaucus]

Final whistle just gone in Euro 2012 qualifier:

Israel 0 - 1 Greece

Awesome! The UEFA qualifications slipped my mind, good to see Greece is still on top of their group, but only a point ahead of Croatia - a very respectable team indeed. But even more so, I'm happy to see that the winning goal was scored then Sotiris Ninis, a young player I kinda pegged as an up and coming star, at least for the Greek squad. Anyway, the big game will be on Oct 7th when Greece plays Croatia in Greece (they tied in Croatia).

Yes, when it comes to the football, Israel is considered to be European.

As is Turkey for some reason.

 

[Robert]

As is Turkey for some reason.

At least the Western part of Turkey is actually on the European continent.

The main European thing about Israel is that half it's population comes from Europe.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

It's been widely discussed amongst Greek political circles that Israel favored Turkey so much that the Israeli lobby had been leveraged by Turkey against Greece for years.

Which Israeli lobby? If it's the US one then it certainly is highly influential but Turkey also has a powerful lobby group in Washington that is much less talked about. It doesn't have as much money, obviously, because congress doesn't give Turkey billions of dollars per year which it could then spend on lobbying US politicians (gotta love the system), but they do have influence over some important people.

However, Greece seems to have been currying favour with Israel these days since interfering with the latest flotilla by allowing ships to dock in Greece, but not to leave.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

An acquaintance whom I consider to be a reliable source was on one of the ships that was boarded. Apparently, some of the victims were shot in the back.

Video evidence even suggests that the Turkish American victim was shot while flat on the ground. There are also photographs of what were reported to be lists of high value targets (with pictures of faces of activists) that the soldiers carried on board with them.

 

[cecilia]

An acquaintance whom I consider to be a reliable source was on one of the ships that was boarded. Apparently, some of the victims were shot in the back.

and people STILL want to be buddies with those creeps???

sheesh!