Turkey’s media spin over reconciliation with Israel; “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”

The stories Turkish media feeding in the recent weeks over the will of restoring bilateral relations with Israel, look more like “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”, said The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

Turkey is well aware of that the “reconciliation talk” has a way to go in western media, according to the article, “that makes Turkey seem peaceful and moderate,” it said.

The one who demolished the relations, is Ankara’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) itself, added the Seth Frantman, a long time Middle East reporter for the paper, “which hosts Hamas terrorists as if it is a legitimate government, which compares Israel to Nazi Germany.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hosted Hamas’ political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Turkey twice in the past year, who is designated as a terrorist by the United States and European Union and has a $5-million bounty on his head. The U.S. issued a rare statement to rebuke Turkey’s strongman for the most recent visit of the Hamas officials to Turkey and meeting with Erdogan.

In May.2018, on a speech he delivered in a special summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, Erdoğan compared the actions of Israeli forces to Nazi Germany’s treatment of Jews in World War Two, when millions were killed in concentration camps.

The reconciliation that Turkish media spins are built on three main pillars, according to Jerusalem Post as pointing out the claims of Turkey appointing an anti-Israel envoy to Tel Aviv, two years after recalling its previous ambassador, saying as the first pillar.

Secondly, Ankara expects Israel to destroy relations with Greece, Cyprus and the UAE and depend solemnly on Turkey for energy trade, and thirdly, Ankara wants Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to lose the next election, the Jerusalem Post said.

“The entire narrative presented about reconciliation is in line with this goal: Isolate Israel, undermine Israel’s sovereignty, support Hamas terrorists and make Israel dependent on Turkey.

Under such conditions it is not surprise Israel has shown little interest in this,” it said.