‘Disaster diplomacy’ doesn’t get off the ground for Israel, Turkey

October 25, 2011 - 7:14 AM by David

IDF rescue personnel transport Kenyans injured in a 2006 earthquake.

Israel shouldn’t feel badly that Turkey has turned down its offer to send crack rescue teams and doctors to assist in searching for victims and those injured in the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit the southeastern part of the country on Sunday.

They’ve also rejected offers from a lot of other countries, preferring to handle the disaster aftermath which has left over 200 dead by themselves. That’s too bad, because Israel has vast experience in finding survivors of disasters, not only from our own wealth of experience due to terror attacks but also from sending teams in the past to Haiti, Thailand, and yes, to Turkey when another quake hit in 1999.

It’s also too bad, because despite the overtures Israel keeps making to Turkey – whether it be this attempt at ‘disaster diplomacy’ or when Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Peres sent condolences to Turkish leader Erdogan following the death of his mother last month – there hasn’t been much repricocity ever since IDF soldiers killed nine Turkish citizens in May 2010 as it halted a flotilla from breaking the Gaza blockade.

Turkey did send firefighters to help Israel battle the massive Carmel fire in December last year, but it didn’t really change anything on the diplomatic front. Yesterday, Netanyahu called Erdogan according to The Jerusalem Post, this time to personally offer assistance with the earthquake recovery efforts Erdogan thanked Netanyahu for his concern and for the offer of support.
Turkish officials in Ankara rejected charges that they have refused Israeli assistance because of the poor relations between the two governments, and said the decision wasn’t politically motivated. And since they’ve rejected offers of help from other countries, including the US, they’re probably being truthful. But at the same time, it doesn’t look like relations between Israel and Turkey are going to thaw anytime soon.

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