Tuesday 6 September 2011

Category 5 break-up?

Turkey Expels Israeli Envoy in Dispute Over Raid By SEBNEM ARSU and ALAN COWELL Published: September 2, 2011   ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey said Friday that it was downgrading its...

Hostilities are escalating by the minute, between Türkiye and Israel.

Their marriage of convenience is displaying MASSIVE cracks; the inevitable divorce will be nasty, even by the .... urgh, habitual Middle East standards when relationships between governing authorities go sour.

Israeli passengers claim authorities at Istanbul airport humiliated them and made them undress to their underwear [...] Some 40 Israelis on board a Turkish Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to Istanbul were separated from the rest of the passengers upon arrival in Turkey on Monday and were questioned at length by Turkish police, marking a highly unusual event against the backdrop of a deepening diplomatic crisis between Turkey and Israel.

[...] the Turkish government is planning to give new orders to Turkish Navy warships to start patrolling in the territorial waters of the eastern Mediterranean, aiming to show Israel that it is not the bully of the region. Is this going to convince the Israeli government to change its mind and try to improve relations with Turkey?

It is not a question to answer easily, because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu said he saw nothing to apologize for in the “self defense” of Israeli soldiers against the provocations of civilians on a ship acting hostile to them 72 kilometers off the Israeli shore, out of their territorial waters. Perhaps according to current government rules in Israel, the punishment for provocations from civilians could be an instant shot in the back of their heads, as stated by the Palmer Report, but not according to common sense.

It's difficult to figure out what advantages the respective authorities are hoping to gain from the dramatic moves, unless it's all public posturing for the media. If corporations have accrued *human rights* and the liberties that only individual persons once had, it seems that governments can now act like celebrities.

No comments:

Post a Comment