Special to WorldTribune.com

GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs

JERUSALEM — Israel and Turkey on Dec. 17 resumed formal diplomatic relations, but it was only under massive and consistent pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

The cost to Israel has already been immense in terms of relations with Greece and other states, so the question is now how long the U.S.-pressured rapprochement will last, and with what did the White House threaten Netanyahu to win the deal?

The U.S. pressure on Israel to restore diplomatic relations — and thus resume discussions on the supply of Israeli natural gas to Turkey — was to ensure that Turkey could withstand Russia’s sanctions against Turkey in the wake of the Turkish-U.S. shootdown of the Russian Air Force Su-24 strike aircraft on Nov. 24.

Turkey’s sole substantive concession was to remove Hamas leader Saleh Arouri from his office in Ankara.

There is little doubt that Prime Minister Netanyahu was, by late December 2015, under enormous pressure from inside his government and his Likud Party as a result of the deal with Turkey, something which most Israelis distrust. But the U.S. leadership also went to effort to woo the supposedly apolitical President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, to pressure Netanyahu.

That the decision by Israel to provide Turkey with gas was interpreted also by Israel’s newest ally, Greece, as “a stab in the back” was quickly transformed into meaningful revenge by Athens against Jerusalem.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Athens on Dec. 20, for an official visit to the country, and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras committed to recognizing a sovereign Palestinian state. The Greek Parliament was expected to pass the formal recognition of the Palestinian state a week after the unanimous decision by the Parliamentary Defense and Foreign Affairs committee to approve the resolution.

Significantly, given the nature of the Egypt-Israel-Cyprus-Greece strategic cooperation on Eastern Mediterranean gas exploitation (and increasingly on security issues), the gesture by Greece on the Palestinian state is a significant setback.

Russia, clearly, was unhappy with the Israeli-Turkish rapprochement, but was also aware of just how much pressure the Obama-Kerry team put on Netanyahu.

Significantly, Prime Minister Netanyahu had a reputation in Washington as one who could, and would, stand up to Obama. That he could not do so on this occasion indicated the level of threats to which he was subjected by Washington.

  White House threats led to Turkey-Israel rapprochement, WorldTribune.com