Mideast party-pooper
By BENNY AVNI
July 7, 2011
NY Post
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/mideast_party_pooper_bQjOEWVcXlNN2NiXaTLK6K

Hey, Turkey and Israel, can't we all get along? One thing's for sure: The United Nations isn't making that any easier. 
Even as Ankara and Jerusalem are trying to get over several years of hostilities, the United Nations is due to issue an explosive report on last year's Mediterranean flotilla incident, in which nine Turks on boats that attempted a run at Israel's Gaza blockade were killed. 
The timing of the UN fact-finding commission headed by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer couldn't be worse, notwithstanding the commission's delay in issuing its report. Due out yesterday and leaked widely, it now won't be released until the end of July. 
Problem is, Turkey and Israel have quietly made nice in recent weeks. Turkey even helped prevent further bloodshed by discouraging a second Gaza flotilla, which failed to set sail last week. 
Publishing a UN report now would re-expose some raw nerves and may reignite the public hostilities between Ankara and Jerusalem. 
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon and Turkish Foreign Ministry Director Feridun Sinirlioglu tried to salvage the situation in New York Wednesday, working together to overcome disagreements over the final wording of the UN report. But the officials left town after secretly haggling for hours, with no results. 
The problem for Turkey, reportedly, is that Palmer, who was picked to head the UN commission because of his maritime-law expertise, has determined that Israel's Gaza blockade is legal, and that Israel has the right to enforce it. 
Yes, Palmer balanced his report by questioning the Israeli army's decision, however legal, to seize the ships as far outside the country's territorial waters as it did, and by denouncing excessive Israeli force. 
Nevertheless, his conclusions are a victory for Israel -- and for good reason. While the Turks sent Palmer a thin report that merely toed Ankara's party line, Israel named an independent fact-finding commission to probe the incident. Its head, former Supreme Court Justice Yaakov Turkel, issued hundreds of pages of well-reasoned conclusions. The UN group largely endorsed those. 
For Ankara, Palmer's conclusions represent a huge setback. From the start, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyep Erdogan demanded that Israel apologize and compensate Turkey. But if Israel acted legally, no apology is in order. 
Yet, even as the report vindicates Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Bibi Netanyahu has asked Jerusalem officials to curb their enthusiasm. Why? This belated (and unnecessary) UN exercise is likely to damage recent attempts in Ankara and Jerusalem to bury the hatchet. 
Last month, Netanyahu sent Erdogan a warm letter of congratulations for his victory in the June 12 Turkish election. Erdogan is now offering to negotiate the release of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier kidnapped in Gaza five years ago. Behind such public gestures, Ankara and Jerusalem (with President Obama's help) are quietly renewing intelligence and military cooperation, which were put on ice in the last few years, and all but ceased after last year's deadly incident. 
Last year, hours after the incident, Turkey, then a UN Security Council member, demanded an international investigation. 
A US diplomat, then-Deputy UN Ambassador Alejandro Wolff, blocked that attempt, arguing that Israel could investigate itself. (As Turkel showed, Wolff was right.) 
Nevertheless, a few days later, Ambassador Susan Rice, relenting to outside pressure, quietly told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that Washington wouldn't oppose a UN investigation. So Ban established the Palmer Commission, arguing that an impartial UN probe would help Israel and Turkey overcome their hostilities. 
Now the truth is out, but Ban's useless commission is cooling a budding Bibi-Erdogan love affair. 
Erdogan is growing disenchanted with Iran, Syria, Libya and other friends in the region. He now realizes that alliances with America, Israel and even perennial rival Greece might help his ambitious regional agenda. With the elections behind him, Erdogan also can drop some of his populist grandstanding. 
So Turkey has good reasons to renew ties with its former ally, Israel. That's why the two countries are likely to overcome the Palmer fiasco. 
But the whole affair could have been avoided had the United Nations and its American boosters just butted out when they had a chance.
beavni@gmail.com