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Turkey's Erdogan Calls Israel "Principal Threat" to Middle East Peace
(Wall Street Journal) Marc Champion - Relations between Turkey and Israel took a further battering Wednesday when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan described Israel as "the principal threat to peace" in the Middle East. In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "We are interested in good relations with Turkey and regret that Mr. Erdogan chooses time after time to attack Israel." At a recent meeting of foreign-policy analysts in Istanbul held by the Turkish Policy Quarterly, Israeli and Turkish analysts agreed that the alliance those two countries built on shared security concerns in the 1990s is probably unsalvageable. But a report by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group released Wednesday said the belief Turkey is turning away from the West is "incorrect." It noted that Turkey's trade with Europe continues to outweigh its trade with the Middle East by a wide margin, and EU membership remains its core goal. Erdogan shows no sign of backing down from his opposition to imposing harsher sanctions on Iran, which together with his tough rhetoric on Israel and support for Hamas in Gaza have brought him popularity in many parts of the Middle East.