JERUSALEM, Israel -- Israel dismissed Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ultimatum for normalizing ties with Israel Wednesday.
At a press conference Tuesday in Istanbul, Erdogan said there would be no rapprochement with Israel until it lifts its naval blockade on the Gaza Strip.
But Israeli sources said lifting the blockade has never been nor ever would be part of the current round of discussions between the two former allies.
Israeli and Turkish delegations had been working their way through Erdogan's list of demands following Turkey's failed attempt to breach Israel's naval blockade of Gaza in 2010. Erdogan's remarks seemed aimed at setting back expectations to square one.
On May 31, 2010, a confrontation between Israeli naval commandos and some 40 pro-Palestinian activists aboard the Turkish flotilla flagship, Mavi Marmara, ended in the deaths of nine activists. Despite the Israel Defense Forces' efforts to avoid such a scenario, the soldiers wound up having to defend their lives, and Turkey blamed Israel.
Last spring, at the behest of U.S. President Barack Obama just before his departure from Israel, Netanyahu agreed to apologize to Erdogan by phone.
Erdogan's latest ultimatum came just two days after Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu spoke of renewed "momentum" in talks.
"A historic step was taken with the apology," Davutoglu said on Turkish television. "Now a second step will be taken with the compensation. We are going through a period where the relations are the closest to normalization after Mavi Marmara."
In a related matter, Israel's Foreign Ministry responded to remarks by UN Middle East envoy Robert Serry citing increased rocket attacks and border "incidents" and "Israeli retaliatory operations, causing death or injury to civilians" over the past two months, the Jerusalem Post reported.
"The United Nations condemns the rise in violence and all parties must act in accordance with international law," the UN envoy said.
"Once again Serry is equating crime and punishment. There is no symmetry whatsoever between unprovoked Palestinian missile attacks on Israeli civilian centers and legitimate retaliatory measures that Israel just like any other sovereign country in the world is forced to adopt," the Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman said.
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