Israeli diplomat in Turkey invited to official function for the first time since Mavi Marmara incident

An Israeli diplomat, Yosef Levi Sfari, Israel's charge d'affairs at its embassy in Ankara, was invited to an official Turkish function for the first time since he was posted to Ankara in 2011. It was also the first time any Israeli diplomat was invited to a Turkish function since the Mavi Marmara incident. Turkey's Daily Hurriyet tried to tie the story to Prime Minister Netanyahu's apology, but

Sometimes it really is more important to be right than to be wise

Hagai Segal on the final meltdown of relations between Israel and Turkey.

Contrary to its prior commitments, Ankara has yet to return its ambassador to Israel,
but it benefits from the thousands of Israeli tourists who returned to
Antalya. At this juncture, Turkey can be considered Israel’s most
bitter enemy in the region after Iran.



What
does this prove? That in contrast to the

Bernard Henri Levy rips Turkish PM Erdogan

Last week, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed that Israel was behind the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, using French Jewish philosopher Bernard Henri Levy. Here's a Turkish interview with Levy that's been translated into English.

Why do you think that Erdogan mentioned you by name and held you responsible for the overthrow of the government in Egypt?


He's out

#ObamaFail: Israel-Turkey 'normalization' negotiations break down

Negotiations to 'normalize' relations between Israel and Turkey have apparently broken down.

Israel and Turkey agreed to
start negotiations with the stated goal of bring relations back to
normal, including returning ambassadors to Ankara and Tel Aviv.



The negotiations, however, failed to produce
an agreement. According to government sources, the two issues that
caused the talks to

Huh? IDF letting two Turkish groups visit Gaza

Despite Turkey breaking its agreement to normalize relations with Israel and despite Egypt refusing to allow Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan into Gaza, the IDF is going to let two Turkish groups visit the Islamist enclave. In fact, one of them seems to have visited already (Hat Tip: Joshua I).

The Turkish groups include a
delegation from the Turkish Red Crescent Society. The group

Obama's credibility gap

Evelyn Gordon points out how President Obama's failure to take to task his best friend forever (BFF), Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, over Erdogan's failure to abide by the agreement the two of them made with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, is weighing heavily on the 'peace process.'

As Jonathan noted
yesterday, Israeli pessimism about renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace

Egypt tells Erdogan to stay home

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan surely misses his old buddy and pal, ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsy. I, on the other hand, am taking a liking to Egypt's new military rulers. On Sunday, the Egyptian army told Erdogan to stay home. They're not going to let him in for a provocative visit to Gaza either.

Egyptian media is reporting on Sunday that Turkish Prime Minister
Recep

Deja vu all over again: Did this bird spy for the Mossad?

The bird in the picture is called a kestrel (how many of you knew that?). Turkey released a kestrel on Friday that had been accused of spying for Israel.

Turkish authorities detained a bird on suspicion it was spying for
Israel, but freed it after X-rays showed it was not embedded with
surveillance equipment, newspapers said on Friday.

The kestrel
aroused suspicion because of a metal