Amid the violence, Arab-Israeli newscaster keeps on smiling | The Times Of Israel

It’s time for Israel to stop neglecting Cyprus | Haaretz

By Gal Luft, Jun. 14, 2015 - With Cyprus Preisdent Nicos Anastasiades visiting Jerusalem this week, Israel would do well to remember it has an ally a 40-minute flight away.

It may sometimes seem the world is increasingly antagonistic toward Israel, but Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades’ visit to Jerusalem this week should remind Israelis that there are still allies to be found, even in the Middle East. One of them lies a mere 200 kilometers from the beaches of Haifa.

For decades, Israel has neglected Cyprus, focusing its efforts on becoming more acceptable to its Arab neighbors, as well as to Turkey, Cyprus' archenemy. But these efforts have stalled in recent years. Relations with Turkey have soured, the peace with Jordan and Egypt is more or less frozen, and the peace process with the Palestinians is nonexistent.

A British Conference on Israel's Right to Exist: Really? | Gatestone Institute

by George Phillips, April 12, 2015 - The notion of Israel's "right to exist" has been in the news twice in recent days. First, the University of Southampton, in Britain, announced that due to "safety fears," it was cancelling a conference, scheduled for later this month, to question Israel's right to exist.

Were the "security concerns" related to the fact that the conference would promote the rising infestation of Jew-hatred in Britain? A recent U.K. parliamentary report shows that hate crimes against British Jews have doubled in the past decade, and has called upon the British government to take urgent action.

Israel's Statement Following the Defeat of the Palestinian Draft Resolution

The Middle East Adviser for The Permanent Mission of Israel to the UN, Israel Nitzan made the following statement at the Security Council:

“The Palestinians have found every possible opportunity to avoid direct negotiations. They have engaged in a never-ending string of political games and now they are parading into this Council with preposterous unilateral proposals. I have news for the Palestinians - you cannot agitate and provocate your way to a state. I urge the Council to stop indulging the Palestinians and put an end to their march of folly.”

Kurdistan: More Like Israel, Less Like Iraq by Lawrence A. Franklin | Gatestone Institute

December 25, 2014 - Iraqi Kurdistan is full of surprises. Probably, the most unexpected discovery is how normal life is in its capital city, Erbil. Despite a late summer scare by Islamic State [IS] military gains north of Mosul and the threat of suicide bomber attacks, the social discipline of Kurdistan's citizens is admirable. There is a relaxed state of tension. It is "business as usual."

There is also a sense of optimism, pervasive and infectious. Entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well. While there was an exodus of foreign businessmen after the initial territorial gains by the IS, foreign investors are filtering back. The Kurdistan Regional Government [KRG] has already drawn up plans for large-scale projects to improve the infrastructure. Heavy-duty construction vehicles are everywhere. The most visible project is the beltway being built around the city.

U.S. should help protect new energy assets in the Eastern Mediterranean | Washington Times

By Marios P. Efthymiopoulos - - Thursday, December 25, 2014 - The discovery of massive fields of natural gas in the coastal waters of Cyprus and Israel has set off an energy race that underscores the need for the Obama administration to re-examine its policy of retrenchment in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The gas finds will make Israel and Cyprus exporters of energy for decades, thus strengthening the hands of two reliable allies in the war on terrorism. Israel has signed a deal to supply Jordan with $15 billion worth of natural gas from its Leviathan energy field over 15 years, according to The Times of Israel, and Israel has signed a memorandum of understanding with Egypt to sell as much as 2.5 billion cubic meters of gas to Egyptian industrial, nongovernmental customers. Texas-based Halliburton has signed an agreement with Cyprus to drill up to 54 gas wells during the next few years, thereby investing more than $5 billion in production costs.

Turkey's Bark and Bite | Burak Bekdil

November 21 2014 - Turkey's prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, expressed pride on Nov. 11, that "Turkey was the [world's] loudest voice against Israel's actions."

"From here, I once more call on Israel and Israel's brutal rulers: Don't you dare considering resuming these attacks against al-Quds [Jerusalem] and the al-Aqsa Mosque, regarding ... internal turmoil and tension in the Islamic world as an opportunity. Even if everyone remains silent, the government of the Republic of Turkey will not keep silent," Davutoglu said.

"Moses is Moses, Jesus is Jesus and business is business," a Western ambassador in Ankara said after shyly smiling at Davutoglu's televised speech. He was right.

The Turk is always right

On 16 August 1953 the Israeli Ambassador to Turkey Maurice Fisher wrote, inter alia, the following to Tel Aviv: "Our relations with Turkey have been extremely good of late...[but] these good relations could deteriorate overnight, and we should learn from the bitter experience of others. The Turks have yet to achieve a standard by which, in the event of disagreement with another state, they can weigh up the positions of both sides. For them, there exists one sole principle: in any conflict with a foreigner, whether a private individual, a company or a state, the Turk is always right."

Source: Amikam Nachmani , Israel, Turkey and Greece: Uneasy Relations in the East Mediterranean. London: Frank Cass, 1987, p. 43.

Turkey's relations with Hamas, ISIS and the West‎ | Uzay Bulut

Turkey's relations with Hamas, ISIS and the West‎

‎"Just as it was in the past, if a leaf trembles in the Balkans, the Middle East, the Caucasus or ‎Central Asia, Ankara will be the first to hear it and respond to it,"‎ Turkey's then-Foreign Minister and current Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in a speech in the Turkish parliament on July 1, 2010.

He also declared his stance on ‎Jerusalem:‎ ‎"Jerusalem is our issue. East Jerusalem is part of the state of ‎Palestine, not Israeli territory, and consists of territory that was invaded in 1967."‎

Jerusalem, he added, was a Turkish issue because of its period of Ottoman rule.‎

Turkey, Cyprus, and Israel: Part 3 (completes the trilogy) | Israel Hayom

UZAY BULUT

Turkey, Cyprus, and Israel: Part 3
Thursday August 7, 2014

For part 1, see "Turkey, Cyprus, and Israel."
For part 2, see "Turkey, Cyprus, and Israel: Part 2."

Ever since Israel's military operation in Gaza started, Turkish officials and institutions ‎have been in a constant competition to condemn or even curse Israel.‎

On July 18, the Foreign Relations Commission of the Turkish Parliament issued a joint ‎declaration in which all political parties in the parliament condemned Israel:‎ "We vehemently condemn the attacks of Israel against the Palestinian people, which do not ‎comply with the concept of a legitimate state and which trample on international law and ‎the most basic human rights and [we also condemn] its ongoing massacre in which civilians including children and women are indiscriminately killed."‎

Welcome to the Middle East, Cyprus!

Listen for a few minutes to the speech of the president of the Middle East Forum, Daniel Pipes as he talks on Cyprus (go to minute 28). I apologise the minor mistakes in the quoted text below, but the audio is of bad quality. In the Q&A session he speaks about "Turkey" being suspended from NATO, or even rejected, and he also thinks it possible that "Turkey" could split into two, but not more pieces. He also finds Antifon's idea of renaming "Turkey" proper.

How the EU directly funds settlements in occupied territory | Jerusalem Post

How the EU directly funds settlements in occupied territory | By EUGENE KONTOROVICH | 09/28/2013

Photo: reuters: GIANT Turkish flag is seen displayed on the side of a mountain near Nicosia in Turk-occupied Cyprus

The EU knowingly and purposefully provides substantial direct financial assistance to settlements in occupied territory – in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus, that is.

A delegation of European Union officials arrived in Israel weeks ago to discuss the European Commission’s proposed regulations for discretionary funding to Israeli entities.

"Occupied Territories": What About Cyprus, Kashmir, Tibet? | Gatestone Institute

What about Cyprus? That is just one of the questions that Israelis and Europeans should be pondering now that the European Union has again decided that it should dictate Israeli border and security policy.

Last week the European Union issued a ban on funding of, or cooperation with, any Israeli institutions that
are shown to operate in what it calls the "occupied territories" – meaning the West Bank, or Judea and Samaria. Never mind that -- as Palestinian groups have already admitted -- the ban will affect Palestinians as much as Israelis. In its perpetual rush to find new double-standards to enforce, the EU has rushed straight in, regardless.

Cyprus EEZ as of April 2013

Cyprus is reportedly debating granting the rights to block 8 to Israeli interests in exchange for Israel's support for the construction of an LNG plant in Vassiliko. In the mean time, the Turkish crimes in illegally occupied and illegally colonized northern Cyprus continue unabated, with its legal population still waiting after almost 40 years for its return to their homes and properties.