Ultimatums

If Israel wishes to restore normalcy of relations with Turkey it must eat crow. To assuage Turkey's fury over a situation that developed out of its own misguided mission to cause its former political-social-military ally to lose face and bring down condemnations from the international community, Israel must apologize.

Israel must apologize for acting legally in supporting its blockade of a territory whose government clearly calls for its demise.

Ankara with knowledge beforehand of precisely who would be boarding the main ship in the flotilla, encouraged its departure and its purpose. This is a malignant act conducted by a purported ally against an erstwhile ally. Much can change in the space of a few years, years that have seen formerly secular Turkey become Islamist Turkey.

Where the government has arrested key high-placed members of its military, accusing it of conspiring to unseat the current government. Where a slow but steady erosion of secular governance has gradually been overtaken by an Islamist-agenda government. Which has latterly discovered itself to be a Muslim state with far more in common with Iran and Syria than with Israel.

Turkey itself is at a cross-roads and does not quite appear to know which road it should take. The old familiar, Euro-centric, Israel-friendly track, or the suddenly-appealing Iran-Syria-Turkey-axis track. One which has made the Middle East and the world of Islam sit up and take notice. Suddenly, Turkey is seen as a hero of Islam for vilifying Israel, the enemy of Islam.

Or is that Islam, the enemy of Israel?

The world of Islam, after all, is well over a billion-strong, with countless countries, those of the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, geared up to confront a country where another religion entirely exists, the parent religion which Islam views as a mere precursor to the 'real' religion worshipping the only true god, Allah.

Israel, a Jewish state comprised of fewer than 6 million Jews; 13.3 world-wide.

Quite the balance there.

Former close ties between Turkey and Israel are in jeopardy. Israel being Israel, little wonder. For it remains stubbornly dedicated to prolonging its existence as a Jewish State. And it remains unreasonably resistant to allowing surrounding quasi-states to gain the impression that violent belligerence will gain them the territory upon which Israel sits.

Moreover, Israel and its armed forces insist on protecting the lives of its citizens.

All internationally approved national aspirations and completely legal, but then Israel is a special case. Its very specialness is underlined and maligned on every available occasion within the United Nations, dedicated to world peace and the support of national identity and sovereignty for all nations on Earth; save perhaps one.

So, because IDF naval commandos boarded a ship headed illegally toward Gaza to break what humanitarians consider to be a travesty of justice forced upon Gazan Palestinians and in the process became entrapped in a pre-arranged conflict organized by a Turkish group specializing in such thuggish actions and while attempting to protect themselves shot to death 9 of the Turkish terrorists, it must apologize.

Those who come to express their humanitarian support for the Palestinians living in Gaza might never consider that there would be no blockade if the Palestinians agreed to recognize the legitimacy of the existence of the State of Israel and forswear violence against it. This is a simple solution, but one that appears to evade the consciousness of both the Palestinians and their ardent supporters.

The entire Middle East is upset by the confrontational nuclear threat posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, in its agenda to achieve superior might over the geography and in the process hasten the projected demise of Israel. But Turkey now recognizes Iran's intentions as being peaceful in nature, threats notwithstanding, and international and United Nations sanctions be damned.

Turkey has gone so far as to relinquish its demand for an international enquiry into the the May 31 bloodshed on the Turkish ship. It will, it has announced, accept the enquiry that Israel itself has initiated with its two international observers, as long as the conclusion is reached that Israel is guilty of what she is accused of; murdering nine innocent humanitarians.

And with that anticipated meal culpa must come a heartfelt apology. Accompanying that apology must come cash reparations. Without this happening to assuage the rage within the Muslim world - well actually the international community as well, all of which have arraigned themselves in mass condemnation of Israel - future amicable relations between Turkey and Israel will remain a thing of the past.

Well, in fact, that relationship appears to be mortally wounded. And that wound was inflicted in fact, well before the sailing of that flotilla. Poor Turkey just cannot make up its mind whether it should remain a "European" country, or an Islamist country. It is tilting dangerously in a direction that Kamal Ataturk vowed his country would never again descend toward.

Is a state of controlled 'peace' once again possible between the now-adversaries? If so, it will be one frozen in an attitude of one-sided censure, blame, hatred. Which seems to serve Turkey quite well. Cold Turkey, hot Islam. Most unappetizing.