{"id":69450,"date":"2013-04-11T10:01:12","date_gmt":"2013-04-11T07:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=69450"},"modified":"2014-01-08T02:35:12","modified_gmt":"2014-01-08T00:35:12","slug":"kerrys-quest-who-really-wants-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2013\/04\/11\/kerrys-quest-who-really-wants-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"Kerry\u2019s quest: Who really wants peace?"},"content":{"rendered":"

What was John Kerry thinking when he asked Turkey\u2019s anti-Jewish prime minister to be \u201ca partner\u201d?<\/h2>\n
\"ShowImage\"<\/div>\n
US Secretary of State John Kerry shakes hands with Netanyahu, March 20, 2013.\u00a0Photo: REUTERS\/Larry Downing<\/div>\n
What was John Kerry thinking when he asked Turkey\u2019s viscerally anti-Israel and anti-Jewish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to be \u201ca partner\u201d in brokering peace between Israel and the Palestinians? Does he honestly think Hamas\u2019 loyal and enthusiastic supporter, a man who has called Zionism a crime against humanity, could be an honest broker? The State Department spokeswoman confirmed a Turkish newspaper report that Kerry wants Erdogan to play an active role in the peace process, and said Kerry asked Turkey to use its \u201csignificant influence with the Palestinians\u201d to encourage Hamas to accept the demands of the International Quartet.<\/p>\n

That means persuading his friend Khaled Mashaal, Hamas\u2019 leader, to do everything he and his organization have sworn they never would do: recognize Israel\u2019s right to exist, renounce armed struggle and abide by all Israeli- Palestinian agreements.<\/p>\n

Most NATO and European countries \u2013 except Turkey \u2013 consider Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza strip in a bloody 2007 coup, a terrorist organization.<\/p>\n

Erdogan\u2019s inclusion is bad news for Egypt, Fatah and Israel. Egypt resents Turkey moving on to its turf. Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak felt he had a monopoly as the regional intermediary and told Erdogan to keep his hands off; his successor, Mohamed Morsi, apparently feels that way as well, plus now it\u2019s an Islamist as well as national rivalry.<\/p>\n

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas knows Erdogan is a close ally of arch-rival Hamas and hostile to the secular nationalist Fatah. If anything, Erdogan is more radical than Abbas, and that\u2019s the last thing the PA leader needs. Relations between the two men are said to be cool at best. Abbas also knows Hamas wants to overthrow him and take over not only the PA but control of the PLO as well.<\/p>\n

There are few people who Israelis distrust more than Erdogan. Bringing him in is no way to win their confidence.<\/p>\n

Two senior cabinet ministers have already rejected any suggestion of a Turkish role, recalling Israel\u2019s unhappy experience with Erdogan in 2008 when he tried to mediate with Syria, then his close ally, and acted more like Bashar Assad\u2019s advocate.<\/p>\n

It has been suggested that a more appropriate mediator would be King Abdullah II of Jordan, who is on good terms with both the Israelis and Palestinians. He is scheduled to visit President Barack Obama later this month and is said to be eager to play a role in any peace process.<\/p>\n

One reason for Kerry\u2019s unexpected stop in Ankara on his second trip to the region in two weeks was concern that Turkey was backtracking on its promise to normalize relations with Israel following Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu\u2019s apology to Erdogan in connection with the Mavi Marmara flotilla incident that led to a rupture in relations between the two former allies.<\/p>\n

Kerry told Turkish leaders he\u2019d like Ankara to make good on its promise to quickly reach agreement on compensation and return its ambassador to Israel, but new Turkish demands and Erdogan\u2019s triumphalist boasting have raised doubts in Jerusalem and Washington about Turkish intentions.<\/p>\n

The latest setback is Turkish insistence that \u201call of the embargoes should be eliminated once and for all,\u201d meaning Israel\u2019s blockade of Gaza, before diplomats can be exchanged, although that was not part of the reconciliation brokered by President Obama. In his press conference with Kerry Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu repeatedly called for Israel \u201cgoing back to 1967 borders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking of borders, Abbas has a new precondition for resuming negotiations with Israel. He is demanding Netanyahu announce acceptance of the 1967 lines as the basis for negotiations and present a map detailing Israel\u2019s position on borders. Israel objects, saying that would give away its bargaining position and provide the Palestinian with a starting point for negotiations. Besides, Israel\u2019s positions would depend on what kind of state is agreed to, the extent of demilitarization, security arrangements, the Arab uprisings in the region and other factors.<\/p>\n

The demand for the map came with a threat. \u201cIf Kerry fails\u201d to get Israel to hand it over in approximately two months, \u201cwe will start moving toward the international organizations\u201d and file complaints against Israel in the International Criminal Court, said Palestinian Foreign Affairs Minister Riad al-Maliki.<\/p>\n

And if Israel does all Abbas demands, would he resume negotiations? Maybe, said his chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat. Meeting those terms \u201ccould lead to an immediate resumption of talks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abbas told the Globe and Mail this week, \u201cI think there was some opportunities [for peace] in the past, but unfortunately we missed these opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

He complained that time is running out for a two-state solution yet he continues to refuse to resume negotiations.<\/p>\n

Instead he keeps upping the ante by adding new preconditions for talks. Now it is the map, before that it was the release of prisoners and before that a total construction freeze beyond the 1967 lines, including in east Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

The logical conclusion is that he simply isn\u2019t interested.<\/p>\n

He may talk about peace but he keeps finding excuses not to talk.<\/p>\n

President Obama has told Abbas, and Kerry repeated the message this week, that Washington backs Netanyahu\u2019s call for resuming talks without any preconditions.<\/p>\n

Critics say Netanyahu, who has failed to contradict key ministers who openly oppose the two-state solution and keeps expanding settlements, isn\u2019t any more interested in returning to the peace table than Abbas, but Palestinians are clearly afraid to call his bluff.<\/p>\n

Kerry would reportedly like to revive and revise the 2002 Arab peace initiative, which Israel rejected at the time and the Arabs did nothing serious to convince them otherwise. Much has changed in the region over the past decade, and Kerry\u2019s challenge will be to convince all sides they will need to show much greater flexibility if they are serious about doing more than missing opportunities.<\/p>\n

The big question is whether the United States is the only one that wants peace badly enough to devote more than empty rhetoric to the cause. Despite the flurry of diplomacy at Foggy Bottom, it\u2019s far from clear whether the Israelis and Palestinians themselves are ready to work with the new secretary of state.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What was John Kerry thinking when he asked Turkey\u2019s anti-Jewish prime minister to be \u201ca partner\u201d? US Secretary of State John Kerry shakes hands with Netanyahu, March 20, 2013.\u00a0Photo: REUTERS\/Larry Downing What was John Kerry thinking when he asked Turkey\u2019s viscerally anti-Israel and anti-Jewish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to be \u201ca partner\u201d in brokering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":69451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148,34],"tags":[4211],"class_list":["post-69450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israel","category-usa","tag-kerry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}