It seems there will be no thaw in Turkish-Israel relations any time soon, writes Graham Usher at the United Nations On 7 July a United Nations panel postponed release of a report into Israel's deadly raid last year on a Gaza-bound flotilla, which left nine Turks dead and plunged Turkish-Israeli relations into crisis. It was the second time in as many months the report had been shelved. The panel -- which includes Turkish and Israeli representatives -- could not agree on Ankara's core demand that Israel apologise for its role in the killings on the Mavi Marmara, the head boat in the flotilla. "For us this is about the nine deaths," Ozdem Sanberk, Turkey's envoy on the panel, told the BBC on 8 July. "I'm sure you know the sanctity of Jewish life. I think Turkish life is not less sacred, and [Turkish] public opinion on this is unanimous." UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon created the panel in August, headed by former New Zealand premier Geoffrey Palmer. The ostensible reason was to review and collate findings from separate Turkish and Israeli investigations into the raid. In fact, said critics, the panel's real purpose was to degrade a fact-finding mission into the raid by the UN's Geneva based Human Right's Council (HRC). Released in September, this found the raid and Israel's blockade of Gaza illegal under international law. It also charged Israeli commandos with using "totally unnecessary violence" to storm the Mavi Marmara, citing evidence that seven of the nine fatalities were "victims of summary execution". The Turkish enquiry echoed these findings. The Israeli enquiry -- unsurprisingly -- did not. It ruled Israel's Gaza blockade legal and that the Israeli commandos used "justifiable self defence" in taking over the Mavi Marmara. Leaks from the UN report seem to reflect more the Israeli account. Israel has the "legal right to impose a naval blockade against the Gaza Strip", it says, but its commandos used "excessive force" in the raid. Turkey too is reportedly chided for not preventing the flotilla from setting sail. Few expect much action to come from the report. One UN analyst said its purpose is less accountability than drawing a line under the flotilla debacle, since no one thinks it wise "for Turkey and Israel not to deal with each other". Including Israel and Turkey, it seems. Despite their present diplomatic frost (Turkey recalled its Israeli ambassador after the raid), both sides were engaged in intensive talks in New York last week to fashion a report that would close the rift between them. The need is both domestic and regional. Israel's more liberal media has chastised the Netanyahu government for bungling relations with what until recently was Israel's closest friend in the Muslim world. Ankara too is said to be worried that the UN report may highlight uncomfortably close ties between the government and the Islamist IHH charity, damned by Israel (and a few in Turkey) as the driving political force behind the 2010 flotilla. But the main reason for the push to a new Israeli-Turkish détente is the Arab spring. Ankara's relations have cooled with Syria and collapsed altogether with Libya. And with Egypt in flux Israel is alone, cold shouldered even by the West Bank Palestinian Authority. With such geopolitics neither Israel nor Turkey needs animus, admitted Sanberk. "We don't know which direction this Arab uprising will go or how long it will last. But as two democracies I don't think Turkey and Israel can be indifferent or stay as bystanders." Some Israeli politicians agree. "A way needs to be found to reconcile with [Turkey]," said Defence Minister Ehud Barak. "We have enough adversaries in the Middle East -- we don't need to turn Turkey into one." But an Israeli apology for the raid is going to be the price for any kind of rapprochement, said Sanberk. So far Israel has agreed to pay compensation "in principle" and expressed regret for the Turkish victims. It has refused an apology for fear it could open the way to criminal prosecution. Yet without some admission of guilt the current rift in Turkish-Israel relations could harden into a permanent confrontation, warns Sanberk. That's starting to happen. On 8 July Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said "normalisation" with Israel rested not just on an apology but on "compensation being paid to those who lost their lives" and on Israel "lifting the embargo in Gaza". Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman countered. "It's clear [Erdogan] is not looking for accommodation or peace or normalisation but wants to humiliate the state of Israel, sap its international standing and harm our status in the region. He has shut the door [to reconciliation]," he said on 10 July. Lieberman has likened Turkey's present government to Iran. Erdogan has called the foreign minister "a curse for Israelis". And Sanberk wrote in the Financial Times in January that it was Lieberman who last autumn shot down a deal being worked out between the two countries. Binyamin Netanyahu has said it is an Israeli interest to have proper relations with Turkey. But that is not going to happen without an apology and action to curb his belligerent foreign minister. He has so far done neither. The next release date for the Palmer report is 27 July. If that passes, it may be canned completely -- and with it all chance of a thaw in Israeli-Turkish relations.
