Word: ayalon
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...This week's drama was provoked by a bizarre p.r. stunt on the part of Israel's right-wing Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon. Ayalon called in Turkey's ambassador to Israel and staged a demeaning photo op calculated to humiliate the Turkish diplomat as a rebuke for negative portrayals of Israel on a Turkish TV drama. Only Ayalon's last-minute apology prevented the resulting furor from causing a diplomatic breakdown. (See pictures of heartbreak in the Middle East...
...publicly chastising Israeli President Shimon Peres over Gaza at a conference in Switzerland last January, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has become a hero on Arab streets, and the latest diplomatic spat with Israel won't do his popularity any harm. Beirut daily Al Akhbar's headline on the Ayalon apology story praised "Sultan Erdogan" and exalted that "Israel understands only Turkish...
...Given the stakes in the diplomatic spat, Ayalon's defiance potentially carried a high cost. But it took a behind-the-scenes intervention of the proverbial grownup in the Israeli establishment - President Shimon Peres, who served for decades as Israel's key diplomat - to orchestrate a climbdown. Peres called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Lieberman and urged them to defuse the crisis. But domestic politics was in play: not only was Ayalon's initial action calculated to burnish the nationalist appeal of his and Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu party, but Netanyahu's need to maintain that party...
...Ayalon remained defiant, on Tuesday issuing a statement of regret over the incident that nonetheless reiterated his belief that he had acted correctly in taking Turkey to task. "My protest of the attacks against Israel in Turkey still stands," Ayalon said. "However, it is not my way to insult foreign ambassadors, and in the future I will clarify my position by more acceptable diplomatic means." But insulting a foreign ambassador was exactly what Ayalon had set out to do, and the Turks on Wednesday rejected his "apology" as insufficient. (See the top 10 embarrassing diplomatic moments...
...Finally, on Wednesday, as the clock ticked down on Turkey's ultimatum, Ayalon came out with a full, written formal apology that satisfied the Turkish Foreign Ministry. "I had no intention to humiliate you personally and apologize for the way the démarche was handled and perceived," he wrote. "Please convey this to the Turkish people for whom we have great respect ... Although we have our differences of opinion on several issues, they should be discussed and solved only through open, reciprocal and respectful diplomatic channels between our two governments...