World Tribune.com

Turkey support for Palestinian Authority worries Israel

Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Monday, October 30, 2000

JERUSALEM — Israel is increasingly concerned over the new pro-Arab policy of Turkey.

Officials said Turkey appears to have thrown its political weight behind the Palestinians amid their mini-war with Israel. This includes Turkish votes against Israel in the United Nations as well statements by the Foreign Ministry in Ankara that blames Israel for the violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israel has sent senior officials to Turkey for clarification. Officials said they thought Turkey would at least seek to act together with the European Union, which Ankara seeks to join.

"We thought that Turkey would not vote the way it used to during the 1960s and the 1970 s when it used to vote consistently with the Arab states," Israeli Foreign Ministry director-general Alon Liel said. "Our efforts are focusing on how it will vote in the future."

Officials said Liel brought another message to Turkey: that Ankara cannot expect huge Israeli contracts if it sides with the Arabs against Israel. They point to Turkey's reconciliation with Syria, a longtime enemy of Ankara.

Syrian Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam is expected in Ankara this week and will meet with Turkish leaders.

The tension in relations between Ankara and Jerusalem, the officials said, has led to a delay in approving Turkish projects in Israel. Officials said the government of Prime Minister Ehud Barak has blocked a decision on Turkey's offer to supply Israel with drinking water.

A decision on the Turkish offer was to have been made this month. But the deal was blocked by Barak's preoccupation with the Palestinian violence as well as concerns over Turkey's position in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

In Ankara, Turkish sources are urging the government for restraint. They said Turkey needs Israel as a powerful ally in Washington and said pro-Israeli lobbyists were instrumental in stopping a House resolution that blames Turkey for the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923.

"Jews have the strongest lobby in the United States and they have worked silently and diligently for the withdrawal of the Armenian Resolution from the agenda," columnist Yilmaz Oztuna writes in the Turkiye newspaper."The lobby will expect aid for Israel from Turkey in return. In foreign relations one has to balance the cost of the things he receives."

Monday, October 30, 2000

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