(NSI News Source Info) February 1, 2009: Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday warned the cabinet against deepening a schism with Turkey that was sparked by fierce Turkish censure of Israel's offensive in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
"[I'm] very concerned by the behavior in public on the subject of Turkey," Olmert said. "Our relations with Turkey are important, and I recommend that we don't intensify our statements on the subject." 
Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (C), Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Cabinet Secretary Oved Yehezkel (R) attend the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem February 1, 2009. Olmert threatened on Sunday a "disproportionate response" to the continued firing of rockets into Israel from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
The Israel Defense Forces campaign, which ended in a Jan. 18 truce, triggered protests from Turkey culminating in a shouting match last week between its Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and President Shimon Peres at the World Economic Forum.
Despite his warning, Olmert added that Turkey, a key ally of Israel, was "not exempt from domestic considerations... being a Muslim state on the eve of elections."
"The Turks also know that we are obliged to thwart terrorism," he said.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, meanwhile, said on Sunday that the onus was on Ankara to get tough with Hamas, which won a 2006 Palestinian vote but has been shunned by the West for refusing to recognize Israel and stop firing rockets at Israel from Gaza.
"It must be remembered that after Hamas took power, Turkey was the first country to invite them over, so we find ourselves both in an important relationship but also in a dispute about how to conduct ourselves regionally," Livni told Israel Radio.
"Despite the street demonstrations, despite the difficult images from Gaza ... Hamas is everyone's problem. And most countries in the region, in the Middle East, have understood this more than the Turks," said Livni.
Shifting focus to Iran and its nuclear plans, Livni said other nations in the region "understand that Iran is everyone's problem" and steps need to be taken to deny it the means for making an atomic bomb. Tehran denies having any such intent.
"Turkey, in this case, has found itself in a regional position different to everyone else," Livni said.
Friendly with an Arab world over which it ruled in Ottoman times, Turkey has billed itself as a force for rapprochement, hosting indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria last year. Ankara's army is also an important Israeli defence client. Assumed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, Israel has held air force drills in northern Turkey which may have been designed to convey strategic reach in the face of Iran.
Some Israeli diplomats have voiced quiet concern over the direction of Turkey under Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK party. The flareup of tensions over Gaza prompted many Israeli travel agents to cancel usually sold-out packages at Turkish resorts.
Speaking from Ankara, Israeli Ambassador Gabby Levy said he was working with local authorities to repair ties. He predicted improvement after next month's local elections in Turkey; some political analysts believe Erdogan's Gaza rhetoric was designed to shore up AK's popularity with a pro-Palestinian electorate.
"There is a rift in our relations. This cannot be hidden. But these relations are very important for both countries," Levy told Israel Radio, adding that "the Turkish government (is) drawing a distinction between bilateral ties and the censure they are levelling at us over the (Gaza) operation."
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