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September 5, 2011
Tit For Tat

This tit for tat with Turkey is one for Israel to lose.

JERUSALEM, Israel — Israeli passengers who landed at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul on Monday morning were rounded up, their passports confiscated, and interrogated by police.

"All we know at this is point is about 40 Israeli passengers were taken aside and questioned until their passports were returned about an hour and a half later," a Foreign Ministry spokesman told CBN News.

Israel is looking into the incident — a first of its kind — to determine its origin and implications for the future.
Turkish Police Harass Israeli Passengers

Well done. It was about time.

Foreign Ministry officials told Haaretz on Monday that over the past year, there were dozens of complaints on the part of Turkish citizens who claimed they were humiliated by Israeli security personnel at Ben-Gurion airport.

The officials also said that almost every Turkish citizen who arrives at Ben-Gurion airport undergoes a routine procedure of extensive, humiliating examinations that also include undressing to one's underwear.

"Turkish citizens are always separated from the rest of the passengers at the airport," said a Foreign Ministry official.

"When their luggage is thoroughly examined and they undergo extensive questioning they understand it comes from security needs, but when they get to the strip search part it breaks them and they are humiliated. Many Turkish businesspeople and tourists have complained about this in the past. This humiliation ceremony of Turkish citizens is a routine matter."
Foreign Ministry officials admit: Turkey citizens routinely humiliated at Israel's airport

Posted by b on September 5, 2011 at 17:45 UTC | Permalink
Comments

Seems to me that instead of Tit-For-Tat the best comparison would be Israel digging a deeper hole for itself.
Prime Minister Erdogan must be laughing at how good the situation is for him. Every time he hits Israel he will just get more and more popular both inside Turkey and around the Middle East. Meanwhile every time Netanyahu hits Turkey he just looks more and more hardline both domestically and globally.
It’s no secret that Israel has lost alot of friends and this will just make worried Israelis blame Netanyahu more. He has been President for only two years and yet he has lost the relationship with Turkey which existed since 1948, lost Egyptian cooperation in place since the 1978. Brought relations with Washington to a new historic low point. Israels only remaining Arab ally Jordan is now starting to look shaky with signs of protests on the way. Alot of work 2 years into his term.
If Netanyahu decides to escalate this against Turkey it won’t be Tit-For-Tat… it will be Turkish hammer blows to Israels already isolate position and to Netanyahu’s already dismal re-election chances. Now if only the traitor-king Abdullah would do everyone a favor and die and be replaced with an Anti-Israel King, the isolation in the Middle East would be complete.

Posted by: Colm O’ Toole | Sep 5 2011 19:10 utc | 1

“He has been President for only two years and yet he has lost the relationship with Turkey which existed since 1948, lost Egyptian cooperation in place since the 1978.”
You mean PM of course. I mention that because you might recall the spat between Erdogan and President Peres at some international event, in the wake of Gaza. That was the beginning of the new relationship: Turkish revulsion at the crime of Gaza and the evidently genocidal appetites that prompted it.
The die was cast long ago: none of the Revisionist Zionists want decent relations with Turkey or any other neighbour. They were happy to inherit the good relations established between Labour and the Military dominated Turkey of yesteryear but aggressive racism is part of the Netanyahu plan. He is trying to provoke resistance (‘terrorism!!’) and is determined that there should never be peace except after a Versailles style diktat from a greatly expanded Israel.
It is a mistake to view Netanyahu or any other Revisionists as clumsy or tactless, they are fascists, they always were and they always will be and aggressive war is the central article in their credo.
When you are the superior race, war is your duty.

Posted by: bevin | Sep 5 2011 19:30 utc | 2

The last flight I smoked a cigarette was turkish air (Istanbul to Izmir, heading to Ephesus and the Cyclades… security consisted of every passenger pointing at their bag on the tarmac before getting on the plane and upon landing as they removed bags from the plane. The whole thing was so simple, so civilized.
Now, I wouldn’t fly to Israel with a free ticket.

Posted by: Eureka Springs | Sep 5 2011 20:20 utc | 3

More news connected to this :
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/turkey-israeli-diplomats-m…
Turkey: Israeli diplomats must leave country by Wednesday
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/report-turkey-navy-to-esco…
Report: Turkey navy to escort aid ships to Palestinians in Gaza
Turkish officials tell Hurriyet Daily News that Turkish navy will strengthen presence in eastern Mediterranean Sea to stop Israeli ‘bullying’.
As part of the plan, the Turkish navy will increase its patrols in the eastern Mediterranean and pursue “a more aggressive strategy”.
According to the report, Turkish naval vessels will accompany civilian ships carrying aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4117520,00.html
Defense establishment to simulate strike on nuclear facility.
[One way to solve the Middle East problem FOREVER… blow up Dimona and make the whole contested area (Jerusalem-Israel) a nuclear wasteland.]

Posted by: Cynthia | Sep 6 2011 0:02 utc | 4

When do the respective states begin to humiliate TSA staff in response to routine humiliation of their citizens?

Posted by: ScuzzaMan | Sep 6 2011 8:26 utc | 5

When do the respective states begin to humiliate TSA staff in response to routine humiliation of their citizens?
Damn, I’d pay money to watch that.

Posted by: NomadUK | Sep 6 2011 12:30 utc | 6

Israeli ‘security’ was a precursor. In 1989 I went to Israel.
I was stripped and body searched. (Had an unfortunate nationality.)
Tagged with a physical sign and set in the back of the plane…next to goons.
My shoes were all destroyed, heels ripped off, and probed – there might be bombs in them? (Recall Richard the shoe bomber, 2002.)
All my toiletries such as toothpaste and deodorant were spilt or squeezed out and the containers junked. (See strictures for liquids today.)
My underwear was pawed and sniffed. (Recall the underwear bomber, 2009.)
I had no computer at that time, but quite a lot of paper docs – these were all confiscated. (All perfectly innocent.)
I arrived in Tel Aviv barefoot in a crushed nightgown.
1989.
ha ha. Make of that what you will.

Posted by: Noirette | Sep 6 2011 19:06 utc | 7

Turkish response is overdue.
The Brazilians have been retaliating against the security checks of Brazilian visitors to the US by treating US visitors in a similar way. This security checks are not extended to visitors from other countries.
See
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3366519.stm
Some US pilots do not like this and get into trouble by reacting inappropriately. Two cases reported here –
http://archive.chicagobreakingbusiness.com/2010/06/united-pilot-detained-for-removing-pants-in-rio-airport.html

Posted by: Northern Night Owl | Sep 6 2011 20:17 utc | 8

The big bad wolf – Israel – is really a flee bitten mongrel squatter cur.
Its army can attack defenseless people but when it faces real opposition it is soft (Lebanon). Its air force can go after civilians – but it cannot win a war. Israel proper is vulnerable to fire. Its friends are fiat money and coerced Western governments – how long can that last.
With that said, Israel’s greatest liability is Zionism itself. In order to maintain power, Zionism must continually be belligerent to its neighbors keeping its Jewish people in a constant state of fear. This cannot go on forever – it is written.

Posted by: JohnJ | Sep 7 2011 2:01 utc | 9

I like this story.
Imo Turkey is playing Israel at their own game by arranging petty incidents which will escape the attention of the MSM. It sounds like a deliberate campaign designed to irritate the Israelis by borrowing Israeli examples of pettiness.
The Israelis never admit that highly publicised rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza are usually retaliation for unreported acts of Israeli provocation. What’s nice about this development is that so long as Turkey confines itself to precedents set by Israel, Tel Aviv will feel obliged to suffer in silence – not an easy task for traditionally loud ‘sufferers’…

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Sep 7 2011 3:16 utc | 10

Israel will never apologise, always defend themselves. It’s a logic I understand, if you don’t care anything about the outside world, except the USA, which they have conquered anyway.
Funnily enough, they did apologise to Egypt, over the death of the five soldiers who died in the attack on the Eilat bus. And curiously, that apology has been of no use, as Egyptian opinion has not changed.
I loved the call, publicised by the Angry Arab, for a million to piss on the new wall built outside the Israeli Embassy. I hope it happens, it’s the kind of insult that will have an effect on the macho Israelis. Particularly if the smell persists, as it does.
Evidently the apology was directed at the regime, in the hope that the regime will conform. I doubt that new military regime can do that. It’s the old notion that you don’t have to bother about popular opinion.

Posted by: alexno | Sep 7 2011 20:45 utc | 11

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