AMERICAN attempts to effect a rapprochement between Turkey and Israel do not seem to be making headway, for tension between the two continues to rise. Tel Aviv has refused to apologise to Ankara over the deadly attack on the peace flotilla in May despite Washington's urgings, and the Turkish government has said it will use destroyers to escort ships on humanitarian missions to Gaza in the future. Speaking on Al Jazeera, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also raised concerns about what he said was Israel's bid to unilaterally exploit the Mediterranean's natural resources, especially gas, and said Turkey would resist the attempt. His concerns relate to Israel's plans to secure natural resources in areas also claimed by Lebanon. Evidently, Israel's decision not to apologise to Ankara has led to a hardening of the Turkish attitude, for Mr Erdogan said a normalisation of relations with the Jewish state is not possible unless Tel Aviv pays compensation for the attack on the flotilla and lifts Gaza's blockade.

The Israeli reaction to Mr Erdogan's television interview was to offer no comment, and Defence Minister Ehud Barak said the current row between the two was “spilt milk”. Turkey and Israel, he said, were the two countries “most important to the West” and they would eventually mend fences. There is no doubt about their importance to Europe and America, but what Israel forgets is that its continued occupation of Palestinian territories, its human-rights abuses against the Palestinian people and its war crimes in Gaza serve to erode that importance and evoke the censure of the liberal sections of public opinion in the West. Irrespective of the Turkish attitude, Israel needs to re-examine its chauvinistic policies, lift the Gaza blockade and accept the two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.