The process of rapprochement between Israel and Turkey culminated in the joint declaration of the two countries on the full normalization of relations between them and the mutual return of the ambassadors.
Israel will appoint a new ambassador to Turkey and Jerusalem estimates that President Erdogan will soon arrive in Israel, for the first time since his last visit in May 2005.
President Erdogan has moderated his statements against Israel because of Turkey’s interests and his personal interests to survive in power, but occasionally he releases an anti-Israel statement. During Israel’s last round of combat against the Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip (“Dawn”) he again called Israel a “child killer”.
“There is no excuse for murdering babies,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, condemning Israeli attacks against civilians in the besieged Palestinian enclave of Gaza during his speech at the XIII Ambassadors Conference in Ankara pic.twitter.com/ms9dgrYhew
— TRT World (@trtworld) August 9, 2022
The direct Israeli flights to Turkey to Istanbul and Antalya will also be renewed, which should strengthen the new romance in relations between the two countries.
Erdogan already announced a new foreign policy over a year ago and began to repair his regional relations with Egypt, with the United Arab Emirates and now also with Israel.
Israel’s relations with Turkey in the last decade have been stormy and characterized by political crises. In 2010, Israel thwarted a Turkish attempt to break the naval blockade on the Gaza Strip and sent the fighters of the 13th Fleet to take control of the Turkish ship “Marmara” in the middle of the sea. In 2016, it was agreed on the normalization of relations between the two countries, but in 2018, Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador from Ankara and returned its ambassador from Tel Aviv following the killing of 61 Palestinians who rioted on the Gaza border in protest of the Trump administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
In the past year, the two countries have made a considerable effort for a renewed rapprochement, President Herzog visited Turkey last March and met with President Erdogan, last May the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlot Çebusulu visited Israel, the first visit by a Turkish official to Israel in the last 15 years.
As #GazaUnderAttack remember zionist president Hertzog was welcomed in Ankara by #Erdogan. Muslim rulers have #Gaza’s blood on their hands. #KhilafahLiberatesAqsa pic.twitter.com/mdTSJQu1p0
— Syed Yaseen Alam (@syaseenalam) August 8, 2022
One can understand the motives of President Erdogan and his new strategy, he wants to break the isolation of his country through renewed normalization with its old regional rivals: Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the Turkish economy is in a difficult situation and Erdogan is trying to encourage foreign investment and tourism in his country.
The energy issue is also important in Turkey’s rapprochement with Israel, at the beginning of the year Erdogan expressed his willingness to cooperate regarding the natural gas pipeline in the Mediterranean Sea, this is an important issue because European countries are trying to reduce their dependence on Russian natural gas against the background of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine.
As far as Israel is concerned, the full normalization with Turkey contributes to regional stability and the economy, the intelligence cooperation between the Israeli Mossad and the Turkish intelligence “Mit” which thwarted concrete plans for attacks by the Iranian “Revolutionary Guards” Israelis in Turkey undoubtedly contributed to the rapprochement between the two countries, however, why did Israel need to rush And to give President Erdogan so quickly what he wants while he has been steadfastly refusing for more than 10 years to close the offices of the military wing of Hamas in Istanbul that direct terrorist actions against Israel.
There are those in the Foreign Ministry who say that Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid hastened to agree to full normalization of relations with Turkey in order to show his “political achievement” before the elections in November.
According to these sources, more political pressure could have been exerted on Turkey to close the Hamas office in Istanbul.
Hamas branch in Istanbul
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh moved with his family members from the Gaza Strip to live in Istanbul a few months ago.
The military wing of Hamas has a large office in Istanbul which is staffed, among other things, by “Shalit Deal” deportees who were deported from the territories abroad as part of the deal in 2011, part of their activity involves directing terrorist attacks in the West Bank and attempts to recruit into the ranks of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran students from among Israeli Arabs studying or Visitors to Turkey.
The London “Times” newspaper reported about a year and a half ago, from international intelligence sources, that a secret unit of Hamas also operates in Istanbul separately from the office of Hamas, it is subordinate to the military wing of Hamas and reports directly to senior Hamas official Samah Sarraj who receives instructions from Mihya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
According to the newspaper’s intelligence sources, the secret unit was also asked to purchase dual-use materials that Israel prohibits from entering the Strip for fear that they will be used to develop weapons by Hamas’s development and technology unit.
Also, the secret unit engages in counter-espionage against other terrorist organizations suspected of disloyalty to Hamas.
The likelihood that Turkey will sever its ties with Hamas, which occasionally entangles it with the international community, is not high, Turkey through its President Erdogan leads the axis of the “Muslim Brotherhood” in the MAZ, which is the mother movement of Hamas.
About a year and a half ago, Hamas implicated Turkey in the money laundering and smuggling case for the military arm in the Gaza Strip through 2 large money exchange offices in Istanbul.
As a result, a court in Saudi Arabia convicted about 60 Hamas operatives who were members of this network of money laundering and smuggling. They were arrested on the orders of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after Israel and the United States provided Saudi intelligence with accurate information about their activities in Saudi Arabia and Turkey. They were sentenced to prison terms of up to 15 years.
The person in charge of the Hamas office in Turkey is Saleh al-Aruri, number 2 in the organization who serves as the head of the military wing of Hamas in the West Bank and the contact person for Hezbollah and Iran, however, according to sources in the Gaza Strip, it seems that the secret branch in Istanbul is a personal project of Yahyas Sinwar and he used it mainly for the purposes of the wing the military in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has so far failed in its efforts with the Turkish authorities to bring about the closure of the military branch of Hamas in Istanbul, it has been trying to bring about the closure of the office in Istanbul for almost 10 years. According to Hamas sources, the organization operates a sophisticated listening room in Istanbul for means of communication and communication in Israel and provides intelligence to Hezbollah and Iran.
This office is operated by Abdel Hakim Hanani, the confidant of senior Hamas official Saleh al-Aruri, who himself was forced to leave Turkey due to American-Israeli pressure and is currently located in the A-Dahiya neighborhood in Beirut and from there he operates the office in Itsanbul.
Security officials in Israel say that there is evidence that it was the Hamas branch in Turkey that recruited and armed Sheikh Fadi Abu Shehid from the Shoafat refugee camp who murdered the late Israeli citizen Eliyahu Kay in the Old City of Jerusalem in November 2021.
The problem of Hamas presence in Turkey has not been resolved
In recent months, the Turkish authorities have opened a dialogue with the leadership of Hamas to find a solution to Israel’s claims about the terrorist activities of the Hamas military branch in Istanbul.
Turkey made it clear to the Hamas leadership that it is trying to find the “golden path”, it does not want to close the Hamas offices in Istanbul so as not to be seen as having surrendered to Israeli pressure and “sold” its ties with the Hamas movement for the Israeli gas, on the other hand, it wants to show Israel that She checked her claims and found that we did not really find them, the assessment in Hamas is that some junior operatives of the military arm in Istanbul will be politely asked to leave Turkey for Qatar or Lebanon, but the ministries will continue to operate, President Erdogan will be able to hold the stick from both ends.
President Erdoğan is the senior representative of the “Muslim Brotherhood” movement and a supporter of Hamas, whom many Muslims also see as a leader of the Muslim world who will liberate Jerusalem in the future. He acts with Israel and its leaders in a pragmatic and self-interested approach, out of cold considerations and without a hint of ideology, like any other politician in the world. , out of a desire to survive in power and keep his seat.
Erdogan is the same Erdogan, there has been no change in his relation to Israel, only the tactics have changed temporarily, the lust for power prevails over Islamic values and ideology.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, in a letter to President Recep Erdogan, requests that Turkey send observers to monitor the upcoming Palestinian elections. pic.twitter.com/ljyY6CSA9A
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) February 14, 2021
Erdogan’s position in Turkey has weakened in the last two years, his popularity has fallen, the Turkish lira has crashed and inflation is rising, he has problems with relations with the Biden administration and is isolated regionally, he is afraid of the next elections in Turkey next year that will show him the way out and may even expose him to corruption investigations , therefore he wants to improve the economic situation quickly, get his hands on Israeli gas and ride the wave of economic success and improve Turkey’s regional position on the way to victory in the elections.
In order to achieve this goal, he has no problem trading in the Palestinian problem as well, presenting himself as someone who is willing to restrain Hamas and as someone who sympathizes with the “Abraham Accords”, he has no inhibitions, even though he presents himself as a Muslim religious leader, to resort to tactics of deception and spreading misinformation on the way to achieving his goals.
Now he has chosen the path of getting closer to Israel, Hamas is worried, they know his tactics and are wary of criticizing him, in private conversations with senior Hamas officials he explains that the Israeli gas in the reservoirs in the Mediterranean is actually Palestinian gas that Israel robbed.
Erdoğan, who created the image of himself as the “builder of the new Ottoman Empire” is now reluctantly approaching Israel, the same country he called a “terrorist state” and “murderer of Palestinian children”, the same country that supposedly damages the holy places of Islam and commits “crimes” against the Palestinian people.
This is a slap in the face to the Muslim and Arab world, what interests Erdogan is only Turkey and his position as president, for that he is ready to zigzag, as soon as it serves him he may quickly turn on Israel again and attack it, therefore he is very dangerous from Israel’s point of view, it is not for nothing that he also came close again to the United Arab Emirates to receive an extensive economic grant from it.
Erdogan creates the impression before the Arab world and the Palestinians that Turkey stands for the rights of the Palestinian people and its “red lines”.
According to sources in Hamas, Erdogan conveyed messages that the new page he is opening with Israel does not constitute support for Israeli policy and its Zionism, his warm attitude towards the “resistance” movements will not change and he will not close the branch of the military arm of Hamas in Istanbul despite Israel’s demand.
A senior Hamas official said: “We were sure that Erdogan would not betray us, he is part of us and sees Hamas as the representative of the Palestinian people.”
Israel had to increase the political pressure on Turkey to close the Hamas office in Istanbul that is used to direct terrorist activity in the West Bank territories, Israel’s renewed normalization with Turkey and a return to full relations before this happened is a serious political mistake.
This office violates Turkish law and international laws, the fact that President Erdogan allows it to continue operating, despite Israel’s demands to shut it down and despite Israel presenting Turkish intelligence with incriminating material about its activities, turns Turkey into a state that sponsors terrorist organizations.