Turkish defence snub worries Israel

Turkish defence snub worries Israel

english.aljazeera.net

Turkey has said that it banned Israel from an international air exercise due to begin last week because of its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip last December.

The Turkish foreign ministry had earlier said "a technical matter" had prompted a delay in the sixth annual Anatolia Eagle drill.

The event was due to take place from October 10-23 with air forces from the US and Italy, but the drill was cancelled after both Washington and Rome withdrew their participation following Turkey's request to ban Israel from the exercise.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I find this article to be very telling for a number of reasons. For one, this is the quote that I found to be most interesting:

The event was due to take place from October 10-23 with air forces from the US and Italy, but the drill was cancelled after both Washington and Rome withdrew their participation following Turkey's request to ban Israel from the exercise.

So...if I am reading this correctly, the US and Israel, along with Italy, were to perform a military exercise that has been done five times prior.

However, Turkey put in a request to the US and Italy to ban the exercise based on what took place in the Gaza Strip.

It doesn't take much reading between the lines to realize that the US sided with Turkey and subsequently cancelled this JOINT operation.

This, in my opinion, certainly shows that when push comes to shove the United States is no longer going to stand by Israel.

By bowing to the demands of Turkey, I consider this a potential game changer should Israel decide to go ahead and attack Iran.

Am I reading too much into this or has Israel seemingly lost its strongest ally? Doesn't the US decision to support Turkey's ban against Israel military exercises infer that the US agrees that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza?

english.aljazeera.net
(visit the link for the full news article)

Since I am getting a lot of heat for "thinking backwards", please note that I was solely focusing on the original text which states that Turkey made a request.



[edit on 12-10-2009 by lpowell0627]

reply to post by lpowell0627


actually its the opposite of what you think:

Washington and Rome withdrew their participation following Turkey's request to ban Israel from the exercise

the USA and Italy walked away because Turkey banned israel - not the other way around

[edit on 12/10/09 by Harlequin]

reply to post by lpowell0627


The way I read it was that Turkey decided not to invite Israel to the party, and the US pulled out in protest at Turkey.

Here's another version of the story from an Israeli news source, which gives a slightly different perspective:

JPost

Here's the response from Israel Defence Minister Ehud Barak

There's a political rift developing in Turkey between the pro-Israeli / pro-Western secularists (which includes the military) and the ruling Islamist AKP party.

In all likelihood the snub to Israel was in response to domestic pressure from the hardcore anti-Israel / pro-Palestinian crowd.

I think your assessment is completely the wrong way around.

The US stood by Israel, and so did the Italians.

I note with interest that the Greek Air Force didn't even get an invitation.

reply to post by Retseh


I can see why you think I have it backwards, but I was focusing on the word: REQUEST.

but the drill was cancelled after both Washington and Rome withdrew their participation following Turkey's request to ban Israel from the exercise.

Good thing it's cancelled, it's equivalent to showing Hitler Nazi or salute sign equipments (weapons/ aircrafts and tanks with Nazi sign) to the people who sufferred WW2 atrocities.

Here's Turkey's side:

Turkey on Monday denied that air force exercises with Israel were canceled for political reasons, according to a statement released by the Foreign Ministry.

"The Anatolian Eagle is one of the concerted drills of the Turkish Air Forces that has been held regularly since 2001 with international participation,” the ministry stated, according to the Anatolia news agency.

"The first two stages of this year's exercises were conducted successfully. But the international part of the third stage, which was scheduled to be carried out on Oct. 12 and 23, was canceled in consultation with the other participating countries. But the exercise is continuing as a national event. Therefore, it is not correct to impose political meanings to Turkey's decision to cancel the international part of the multi-national Anatolian Eagle air defense exercise," it said.
Link: www.hurriyetdailynews.com...

Again, I find this sentence to be most telling:

was canceled in consultation with the other participating countries.

According to Turkey, they all happily agreed together, minus Israel's vote of course.

the ruling party has been cooling relations with israel since 2002 - it came to a head in january this year with the exchange in Geneva , when the primister all but called out israel for war crimes.


so this has been brewing for a while


and whilst its spoken of on here - the squezing of the gaza ghetto and the violent incursions with deliberate targetting of men,women and babies in prams (and hospitals) - all reminisant of warsaw in 1941 (the restriction of food , power, medical treatment)

www.nogw.com...


its about time someone stood up for whats going on in the gaza ghetto.