New front in Turk- Israel war of words

Before already strained ties with Israel have had a chance to cool, another front in the conflict opened yesterday when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan was asked about the way he was addressed by his Israeli counterpart.  Â

ErdoÄŸan said the recent remarks made by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert were inconsistent.

"Which part of his remarks will you believe in?" he said at a joint press conference with his Croatian counterpart, Ivo Sanader, in Ankara.

In Jerusalem, Olmert said at a press conference last Sunday: "Why should I say to any prime minister what the military plans of the State of Israel are for defending its citizens?"

Olmert was speaking of Erdoğan’s strong criticism for not being informed about Israeli plans to launch a military offensive in Gaza during an Ankara meeting that came a few days before the operation.

Problem of confidence

"I don’t find it appropriate right now to respond to this question," Erdoğan said, referring to the remarks made by Olmert.

"All the facts are laid bare. You will first want a country (Turkey) to act as mediator and then you will visit this country and discuss the fifth round of (indirect talks between Syria and Israel). More interestingly, you say you did not know about it (the timing of the Gaza offensive) initially. Then you say ’why should I inform you of it,’" Erdoğan said, addressing Olmert.

"These (statements) create problem of confidence regarding the future. Leaders cannot create a problem of confidence. Politics is not an institution that produces distrustÉ We’ve never had a tendency to put a dent in international peace," he added.

Erdoğan, who was frustrated by the Israeli operation into Gaza just a few days after his meeting in Ankara, called the Israeli leader’s failure to inform him an act of "disrespect."

The tension comes after another spark was lit by the recent remarks of a senior Israeli general who called on the critical ErdoÄŸan to look in the mirror, referring to the 1915 killings of Armenians and the Kurdish conflict in Turkey. That caused a diplomatic rift between Tel-Aviv and Ankara, which resulted in the Israeli ambassador here being summoned by the Foreign Ministry and delivered a note of protest demanding an urgent explanation.

On Sunday, Olmert had said there were two reasons why he did not inform Erdoğan about last month’s Gaza offensive during the meeting, in which the leaders discussed Turkey-mediated indirect talks between Israel and Syria.

Not the right thing to do

"One is that on Monday, I didn't know that we would attack on Saturday. How could I know? On Tuesday, Wednesday, they were shooting 50, 70 rockets and missiles a day against all our cities in the south, and we just decided that enough is enough and we have to respond," he said.

"But I also said, quite frankly, I didn't call the president of the United States, my good friend, George W. Bush, at that time, and say to him, I'm going to attack Gaza. I didn't call my good friend, Gordon Brown or Nicolas Sarkozy or Angela Merkel.

"Why should I say to any prime minister what the military plans of the State of Israel are for defending its citizens? I don't think that it was the right thing to do. I don't think that I had to do it and I was quite unhappy with the feelings that were expressed by the Turkish prime minister," he told Sunday's conference.