An Israeli inquiry into last year's deadly commando raid on a six-ship flotilla seeking to break the country's blockade of the Gaza Strip released its findings Sunday, exonerating the government, the military, and the soldiers involved in the incident — a report that comes as the flotilla's organizers prepare an even larger convoy for this spring.
Ben Birnbaum writes that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan demands that Israel apologize to Turkey after the incident with the Turkish-led Gaza-bound flotilla. ("Israel, Turkey still at odds over flotilla-clash apology," Page 1, Wednesday).
When Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom left his post as foreign minister in 2006, his staff checked to see which country's counterpart he had met with most often. The answer, as it turned out, was not the United States, or a European Union state, and not one of Israel's Arab neighbors.
U.S. diplomats are still wrestling with the question of whether Turkey's ruling party is part of a fundamentalist Muslim movement bent on imposing brutal Islamic law on a country founded on democratic secular principles.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Tuesday denied reports that Turkey had listed Israel as a threat in a key policy paper and that he, himself, had questioned the Jewish state's long-term viability.
In February, Turkey privately expressed opposition to increased sanctions on Iran but acknowledged that the entire Middle East is worried about the theocratic regime developing nuclear weapons.
If the Miami Heat locker room was polled, LeBron James would not have unanimous support in the race for Time's Person of the Year.
Turkey's growing ties to Iran and opposition to NATO missile defenses targeting Tehran are raising "many doubts about Turkey's future" among officials in the alliance, Greece's No. 2 defense official says.
Japanese Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki loves Southern hospitality and the South's mostly nonunion work force, which makes the region a good place for Japanese car companies.
