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ANALYSIS: ISRAEL, TURKEY LOOK TO DEEPEN TIES
By Joshua Brilliant
UPI Correspondent
World Peace Herald, DC
Feb 14 2007
Both share basic outlooks
TEL AVIV, Israel -- Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will try to expand
Israel's strategic relations with Turkey during a two-day visit to
Ankara that starts Wednesday.
Since its early days Israel sought close ties with states that ringed
the Arab world -- Turkey, Iran under the shah, and Ethiopia.
Turkey is powerful, pro-Western, not Arab but definitely Muslim, and
Israelis had hoped that would break the impression that the Muslim
world opposed the Jewish state.
Turkey was initially cold but came round about a decade ago when it
reassessed its policies. It felt dangerous neighbors and hotspots of
instability were across its borders, and believed Israel's influence
in the United States could help it especially in countering Greek
and Armenian lobbies in Washington.
Israel and Turkey share basic outlooks. They consider the Middle East
"a turbulent area in which the use of force is part and parcel of
the rules of the game," noted director of Bar Ilan University's BESA
Center for Strategic Studies, Efraim Inbar. "Informal alliances are
at least as important as formal explicit coalitions," he said.
Both countries have democratic systems, liberal economic policies
and these cultural elements buttressed their strategic outlook,
Inbar added. Both are also concerned over Muslim radicalism, terror
and Iran's nuclear program.
Yet Turkey, a member of NATO, does not feel as threatened as Israel,
which is small and lacks the alliance's umbrella.
However, analysts believe Turkey is concerned Iran would try to extend
its influence to the oil-rich Arabian Peninsula and to northern Iraq.
Iran is ruled by Muslim-Shiite ayatollahs, while Turkey seeks
modernization, wants to join the European Union and its influential
army is committed to secularism. Turks have not forgotten that Iran
had tried to undermine their regime using the Kurdish PKK and Hezbollah
Turk. With a nuclear bomb Iran will be a different state.
The joint concerns and the feeling they could benefit from each other
led to close military and intelligence cooperation.
Israeli pilots practice sorties over Turkey because it has large
empty spaces and perhaps the terrain is similar to part of Iran.
Turkish pilots have been using Israel's flight simulators and training
grounds. The air forces and navies have held joint exercises.
Israel upgraded Turkish Phantoms and M-60 tanks. According to the
Institute for National Security Studies, Israel sold Turkey guided
anti-radar missiles and intelligence equipment, to name but a few
items.
The Turkish army's Deputy Chief of Staff Gen. Ergin Saygun was in
Israel late last year discussing plans, but more is expected during
Olmert's visit.
"There is a very important strategic relationship and we hope to
expand defense relations to additional different things," Olmert's
media adviser Miri Eisin said. These would include joint exercises,
military sales, exchanging information and development projects,
she added.
Erdogan and Olmert meeting will stress economics
A Turkish diplomat who spoke to United Press International on condition
of anonymity said he expected Olmert and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan to discuss regional issues such as Iran and Syria's request
that Turkey arrange peace talks with Israel -- something Olmert
rejected. However, the focus will be on economic issues, he said.
Ankara wants to rebuild the Erez industrial zone in the northern Gaza
Strip, employ 6,000 people at first and subsequently 10,000.
Erez had been an Israeli-Palestinian joint industrial zone, but the
facilities were destroyed following Israel's withdrawal in 2005.
Ankara intends to back businessmen who would invest in Gaza. If Erez
succeeds, similar zones would be established elsewhere advancing the
peace process, the diplomat said.
However, in order to succeed, it needs Israeli assurances of a smooth
flow of raw materials into Erez and uninterrupted movement of the
finished products to Israel's Ashdod port and elsewhere. The Karni
Crossing is often closed.
The second major program envisages underwater pipelines from Turkey to
Israel carrying natural gas, oil and possibly electric power and water.
The Turks have a gas pipeline from Baku, on the Caspian Sea, to Ceyhan
in southeastern Turkey. Another pipeline carries Russian oil under the
Black Sea to Turkey. The quantities that can be shipped there surpass
Turkey's needs and the idea is to carry the gas and oil further on for
Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians or for emerging markets in Asia,
the Turkish diplomat said.
Israel has an oil pipeline linking the Mediterranean Sea (at Ashkelon)
with the Red Sea (at Eilat). It was originally built to carry Iranian
oil from Eilat to Ashkelon but the facilities allow for an opposite
flow too.
Arab and Iranian oil fields are much closer to the emerging Asian
markets but the Turkish-Israeli alternative would vary those countries'
sources and reduce their dependence on the Arabs and Iranians, an
Israeli official noted.
The Ankara talks will surely touch on some of the problems, too.
Turkey is 99.8 percent Muslim, and Erdogan's AKP party is
conservative-Islamist. He attended a high school that prepares its
pupils to become imams. His wife wears a veil and he sent his two
daughters to study in Indiana because there they, too, could wear
a veil.
Erdogan, like other Turks, is very sensitive to the Palestinians'
plights and it showed when there were severe clashes with Israelis.
The Turks quickly invited an Islamic Hamas delegation right after that
party won the January 2006 Palestinian elections. Turkey welcomed
the Fatah-Hamas Mecca agreement, unlike the Quartet that is waiting
to see how matters develop.
Turkey has not stopped an arms flow from Iran to Syria where weapons
are then forwarded to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The planes that landed
in Damascus airport must have passed through Turkey's airspace and
the flow must have been massive.
During last summer's Israeli-Lebanese war, Hezbollah fired 4,000
Katyusha rockets. Israel destroyed Zelzal missiles Iran had provided.
Thousands of trucks carry Iran's exports to Europe via Turkey.
Some apparently detour to Syria with weapons for Iran's Lebanese
Shiite friends.
http://wpherald.com/articles/3415/1/Anal ysis-Israel-Turkey-look-to-deepen-ties/Both-share- basic-outlooks.html
By Joshua Brilliant
UPI Correspondent
World Peace Herald, DC
Feb 14 2007
Both share basic outlooks
TEL AVIV, Israel -- Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will try to expand
Israel's strategic relations with Turkey during a two-day visit to
Ankara that starts Wednesday.
Since its early days Israel sought close ties with states that ringed
the Arab world -- Turkey, Iran under the shah, and Ethiopia.
Turkey is powerful, pro-Western, not Arab but definitely Muslim, and
Israelis had hoped that would break the impression that the Muslim
world opposed the Jewish state.
Turkey was initially cold but came round about a decade ago when it
reassessed its policies. It felt dangerous neighbors and hotspots of
instability were across its borders, and believed Israel's influence
in the United States could help it especially in countering Greek
and Armenian lobbies in Washington.
Israel and Turkey share basic outlooks. They consider the Middle East
"a turbulent area in which the use of force is part and parcel of
the rules of the game," noted director of Bar Ilan University's BESA
Center for Strategic Studies, Efraim Inbar. "Informal alliances are
at least as important as formal explicit coalitions," he said.
Both countries have democratic systems, liberal economic policies
and these cultural elements buttressed their strategic outlook,
Inbar added. Both are also concerned over Muslim radicalism, terror
and Iran's nuclear program.
Yet Turkey, a member of NATO, does not feel as threatened as Israel,
which is small and lacks the alliance's umbrella.
However, analysts believe Turkey is concerned Iran would try to extend
its influence to the oil-rich Arabian Peninsula and to northern Iraq.
Iran is ruled by Muslim-Shiite ayatollahs, while Turkey seeks
modernization, wants to join the European Union and its influential
army is committed to secularism. Turks have not forgotten that Iran
had tried to undermine their regime using the Kurdish PKK and Hezbollah
Turk. With a nuclear bomb Iran will be a different state.
The joint concerns and the feeling they could benefit from each other
led to close military and intelligence cooperation.
Israeli pilots practice sorties over Turkey because it has large
empty spaces and perhaps the terrain is similar to part of Iran.
Turkish pilots have been using Israel's flight simulators and training
grounds. The air forces and navies have held joint exercises.
Israel upgraded Turkish Phantoms and M-60 tanks. According to the
Institute for National Security Studies, Israel sold Turkey guided
anti-radar missiles and intelligence equipment, to name but a few
items.
The Turkish army's Deputy Chief of Staff Gen. Ergin Saygun was in
Israel late last year discussing plans, but more is expected during
Olmert's visit.
"There is a very important strategic relationship and we hope to
expand defense relations to additional different things," Olmert's
media adviser Miri Eisin said. These would include joint exercises,
military sales, exchanging information and development projects,
she added.
Erdogan and Olmert meeting will stress economics
A Turkish diplomat who spoke to United Press International on condition
of anonymity said he expected Olmert and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan to discuss regional issues such as Iran and Syria's request
that Turkey arrange peace talks with Israel -- something Olmert
rejected. However, the focus will be on economic issues, he said.
Ankara wants to rebuild the Erez industrial zone in the northern Gaza
Strip, employ 6,000 people at first and subsequently 10,000.
Erez had been an Israeli-Palestinian joint industrial zone, but the
facilities were destroyed following Israel's withdrawal in 2005.
Ankara intends to back businessmen who would invest in Gaza. If Erez
succeeds, similar zones would be established elsewhere advancing the
peace process, the diplomat said.
However, in order to succeed, it needs Israeli assurances of a smooth
flow of raw materials into Erez and uninterrupted movement of the
finished products to Israel's Ashdod port and elsewhere. The Karni
Crossing is often closed.
The second major program envisages underwater pipelines from Turkey to
Israel carrying natural gas, oil and possibly electric power and water.
The Turks have a gas pipeline from Baku, on the Caspian Sea, to Ceyhan
in southeastern Turkey. Another pipeline carries Russian oil under the
Black Sea to Turkey. The quantities that can be shipped there surpass
Turkey's needs and the idea is to carry the gas and oil further on for
Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians or for emerging markets in Asia,
the Turkish diplomat said.
Israel has an oil pipeline linking the Mediterranean Sea (at Ashkelon)
with the Red Sea (at Eilat). It was originally built to carry Iranian
oil from Eilat to Ashkelon but the facilities allow for an opposite
flow too.
Arab and Iranian oil fields are much closer to the emerging Asian
markets but the Turkish-Israeli alternative would vary those countries'
sources and reduce their dependence on the Arabs and Iranians, an
Israeli official noted.
The Ankara talks will surely touch on some of the problems, too.
Turkey is 99.8 percent Muslim, and Erdogan's AKP party is
conservative-Islamist. He attended a high school that prepares its
pupils to become imams. His wife wears a veil and he sent his two
daughters to study in Indiana because there they, too, could wear
a veil.
Erdogan, like other Turks, is very sensitive to the Palestinians'
plights and it showed when there were severe clashes with Israelis.
The Turks quickly invited an Islamic Hamas delegation right after that
party won the January 2006 Palestinian elections. Turkey welcomed
the Fatah-Hamas Mecca agreement, unlike the Quartet that is waiting
to see how matters develop.
Turkey has not stopped an arms flow from Iran to Syria where weapons
are then forwarded to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The planes that landed
in Damascus airport must have passed through Turkey's airspace and
the flow must have been massive.
During last summer's Israeli-Lebanese war, Hezbollah fired 4,000
Katyusha rockets. Israel destroyed Zelzal missiles Iran had provided.
Thousands of trucks carry Iran's exports to Europe via Turkey.
Some apparently detour to Syria with weapons for Iran's Lebanese
Shiite friends.
http://wpherald.com/articles/3415/1/Anal ysis-Israel-Turkey-look-to-deepen-ties/Both-share- basic-outlooks.html