(Ha'aretz) Aaron Magid - As the ongoing corruption scandal rocks Turkey, the pro-government newspaper The Star asserted that Israel's Mossad was behind the plot. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan also blamed Israel for the ouster of President Morsi in Egypt: "Who is behind this? Israel is. We have evidence in our hands." Turkish sources claim that the reason for the delay in normalization of Israeli-Turkish ties is that Israel has not fulfilled its promises of compensation for the 2010 Gaza flotilla incident. But Arad Nir, foreign editor for Israel's Channel 2 News, contends, "The argument about the financial sum is nothing but a pretext for the Turkish government's unwillingness to end the crisis." A Turkish diplomatic official stressed that even after a compensation agreement, Israel would need to ease the Gaza blockade in order to meet Turkish demands. Interestingly, Ankara does not make similar demands on Egypt, despite Cairo tightening its siege of Gaza.
2014-01-09 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive