Israel's apology to Turkey over the Mavi Marmara killings is confirmation that Israel and only Israel was responsible for the tragedy. Ever since the deaths of nine Turkish activists aboard the international flotilla bound for Gaza in 2010, Turkey and much of the international community have insisted that Israel was to blame, and on Friday, after three years of defiance, Israel acceded. Turkey had always given two conditions for restoring bilateral relations with Israel - an apology and compensation for the victims' families. Turkey got both. Turkey also collected a bonus in that Israel agreed to lift restrictions on the movement of goods to Gaza as long, Israel maintained, as calm lasts. That Israel agreed to restore full diplomatic relations with Turkey after apologizing for the botched naval raid was a surprising turnaround which few saw coming. The deadly raid led to Turkey cutting all diplomatic ties with Israel but that was simply the last straw. Before that, ties had deteriorated badly. Relations began to unravel with the rise of the Islamist party of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Following the flotilla incident, Turkey withdrew its ambassador to Israel and greatly scaled back military and economic ties. Last year, Erdogan accused Israel's leaders of trying to eliminate the Palestinian population in Gaza. And the Turkish leader recently compared Zionism to fascism at a UN meeting. But the two countries suddenly buried the hatchet when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the breakthrough after a phone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Erdogan, brokered by President Obama shortly before he left Israel. Netanyahu's change of heart is a clear indication of the diplomatic clout that the US still wields over Israel. The fact, though, that the call took place in a trailer at the airport while Air Force One was sitting on the runway ready to leave suggests that Obama had to put pressure on Israel to give him something to take away from his three-day visit. The last-minute nature of the call suggests that the deal may not have been easy to broker. It must have helped that Israel's former hardline foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, who was a key opponent of Israel issuing an apology to Turkey, is no longer in the political picture as he awaits his trial on fraud. Ending the dispute was important to Obama because Turkey and Israel are two of the closest allies of the US in the region. In the wake of the Arab Spring, and Israel's growing isolation in the region, Israel also needs Turkey more than the other way around. It is too bad that Obama could not conjure up some sort of similar breakthrough for the Palestinians. True, Obama reiterated before his trip to Israel that people should not get their hopes up and that there would be no rabbit to be pulled out of a hat. Still, since politics is half show business, the world thought that perhaps Obama had a trick up his sleeve. The deal between Israel and Turkey showed that Obama still has some leverage over Netanyahu. It could not have been easy for Netanyahu to bow to Ankara the way he did. After repeatedly rejecting calls to apologize, he finally conceded that an Israeli investigation into the incident pointed out several operational errors “that could have led to loss of life”. Perhaps one day soon, that same Obama effect on Netanyahu will show itself with the Palestinians.
