Turkey ups the ante on Israel over Gaza flotilla incident

The statement called on “families and groups planning to travel to Europe, the US or elsewhere, to choose Turkey – where mosques and historic monuments of ancient and natural beauty exist – as a vacation destination instead.”

100,000 Israelis out of 150,000 with reservations have canceled their summer vacation bookings to Turkish resorts this summer, the Post said, citing a report last week in the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet.

In a recent commentary in Haaretz, the International Crisis Group's Hugh Pope cited "misconceptions" and "myth-making" on both sides of the Turkey-Israel dispute, but said the main driver of deteriorating ties was Turkish public opinion that Israel is treating the Palestinians unjustly.

"Crises with Israel have always followed any Turkish perception that injustice is being done to the Palestinians: whether during the Six-Day War in 1967, the formal declaration of a unified Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 1980 or the occupation of West Bank towns in 2002," Pope wrote.

"The golden era in Turkish-Israeli relations in the 1990s was exceptional and coincided exactly with the years of the Oslo peace process. When Israel is again perceived as seeking peace, it will most likely find Turkey rapidly ready to do business once more."

Ties between Turkey and Israel were already strained, before the May 31 bloodshed in which Israeli special forces raided a flotilla carrying aid for Palestinians and attempting to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

Related:

• Turkey closes airspace to Israeli flights, says Erdogan
• After escaping flotilla uproar, Israel faces new flap over Jerusalem
• Turkey news coverage

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