Tension between Israel and Turkey has begun to manifest itself in the realm of Israeli and Turkish security relations.

The Turkish army vigorously protested the statements that were ascribed to Israeli Army Ground Forces Commander Maj. Gen. Avi Mizrahi about Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Moreover, the Israeli ambassador to Turkey, Gabby Levy, was summoned by the Turkish Foreign Ministry for a meeting, where he was informed of Turkey’s protest.

The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported on Saturday that Turkish officials were furious to read about a lecture that Maj. Gen. Mizrahi gave last week. The general said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan should examine Turkey’s own past and present policies before criticizing Israel.

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The Israeli general referred to the Turkish mass murder of Armenians in 1915, the Turkish conquest of northern Cyprus in 1974 and the current Turkish repression of the Kurdish minority in Turkey.

Ambassador Levy told the Turkish Foreign Ministry official “the statements that were made by the officer attest to his personal position and do not reflect the official position of the State of Israel.”

Meanwhile, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has continued to attack the Israeli political establishment.

After his vociferous opposition to the war in Gaza, on Saturday, Mr. Erdogan spoke out against the Israeli election results and the boost that the Israeli “national camp” has received.

Mr. Erdogan called on the future Israeli government to re-examine Israeli policy toward the Palestinians and to lift the siege on the Gaza Strip, which he referred to as an “open-air prison.” He repeated his allegation claiming Israel had conducted war crimes and violated Palestinian human rights.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

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David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

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