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Israeli Apology to Turkey Sets Up Renewal of Diplomatic Ties With Obama as Broker, Israelis and Turkey End Dispute
(about 5 hours later)
AMMAN, Jordan — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Friday apologized in a personal phone call to Turkey’s prime minister for a deadly commando raid on a Turkish ship in 2010, in a sudden reconciliation between the two countries that was partly brokered by President Obama during his visit to Israel this week, according to Israeli, Turkish and American officials. JERUSALEM — Under persistent prodding from President Obama, Israel and Turkey resolved a bitter three-year dispute on Friday with a diplomatic thaw that will help a fragile region confront Syria’s civil war, while handing the president a solid accomplishment as he closed out his visit to the Middle East.
In the call, Mr. Netanyahu expressed regret for the raid, which took place as Israeli troops were enforcing a naval embargo on Gaza, and offered compensation, Turkish and Israeli officials said. The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accepted Israel’s gesture in the phone call. The breakthrough took place in the most improbable of surroundings: a trailer parked on the tarmac of Ben-Gurion International Airport. Moments before Mr. Obama left for Jordan, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telephoned the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and apologized for deadly errors in Israel’s 2010 raid on a Turkish ship that was trying to bring aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
Afterward, officials from both countries said that diplomatic relations had been fully restored and that ambassadors would be reinstated. After years of angrily demanding an apology, Mr. Erdogan accepted Mr. Netanyahu’s gesture and both sides agreed to dispatch envoys to each other’s nations, having recalled them in 2011.
In a statement, Mr. Obama welcomed the call, saying, “The United States deeply values our relationships with both Turkey and Israel, and we attach great importance to the restoration of positive relations between them, in order to advance regional peace and security.” At one point, Mr. Obama, just before leaving for Jordan, got on the phone with both leaders as they spoke, one senior American official said. The president’s involvement, a senior American official said, was crucial to both leaders, which is why Mr. Netanyahu scheduled the call before Mr. Obama’s departure from Israel. Mr. Erdogan insisted on speaking to Mr. Obama first before the president handed the phone over to Mr. Netanyahu. In the end, the call produced a win-win for all sides.
Israel and Turkey had cultivated close ties over many years, but the acrimony over the raid, which resulted in nine deaths, created a stubborn hurdle. Recently, Mr. Erdogan drew harsh criticism for saying that Zionism was a “crime against humanity.” Mr. Obama achieved reconciliation between two of the United States’ most important allies, while Turkey and Israel won good will with the White House, important for two nations that have made ties to the United States central to their foreign policy. Turkey and Israel, along with Jordan, have also been three pillars of stability for the United States as it confronts a civil war in Syria that threatens to spill beyond its borders and destabilize the broader region.
Discussing the phone call, a senior Turkish government official said, “The Israeli prime minister, in a phone call that lasted 10 minutes, apologized to the Turkish nation for all operational mistakes, evident in an investigation, that led to human losses, and agreed to offer compensation.” “Both of us agreed the moment was ripe,” Mr. Obama said of Mr. Netanyahu at a news conference later in Amman, Jordan. He cautioned that the détente was a “work in progress,” and Turkey and Israel would continue to have significant disagreements as they mended fences. American officials say both countries are still “working the issue” of dropping criminal charges against four current and former top Israeli military officials that Turkey had indicted in the flotilla raid, and of determining Israel’s compensation to Turkey.
Addressing the Gaza embargo that led to the tensions, a statement from Mr. Netanyahu’s office noted that Israel had also already removed a number of restrictions on the movement of people and goods to all the Palestinian territories, including Gaza, and that the openness would continue as long as quiet prevailed. The two leaders agreed to continue to work to improve the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territories. Mr. Obama reiterated his support for Jordan, too, announcing after a meeting with King Abdullah II that the United States would provide an additional $200 million in aid to help Jordan with the burden of caring for 460,000 Syrian refugees who have flooded into the country.
On Friday evening, Mr. Obama landed in Jordan, where he is likely to confront pressure to help that financially struggling country cope with a desperate tide of refugees fleeing the civil war in Syria. Israel and Turkey have a host of shared economic and security interests, and both are concerned about the unraveling situation in Syria. Turkey also could play a strategic role in Washington and Jerusalem’s efforts to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, as well as in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It was Mr. Obama’s first visit to an Arab state since the Middle East erupted in unrest two years ago, toppling leaders in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen, and plunging Syria, Jordan’s neighbor, into civil war. He held talks with King Abdullah of Jordan later on Friday. It was the Palestinian issue that opened the rift between the two, when Israeli commandos raided the Turkish ship, the Mavi Marmara, as it was trying to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza to deliver supplies. Nine people were killed in clashes on board, prompting an international outcry, several investigations and a rebuke by the United Nations.
Diplomacy aside, Mr. Obama spent his last day in Israel and the West Bank making pilgrimages to symbols of the Holocaust, modern Zionism, the Middle East peace process and Christianity. In coming here, Mr. Obama traded symbolism for a still-unfolding crisis in Syria. “The prime minister made it clear that the tragic results regarding the Mavi Marmara were unintentional and that Israel expresses regret over injuries and loss of life,” a statement issued by Mr. Netanyahu’s office said.
About 3,000 refugees a day are fleeing into Jordan, swelling the ranks of Syrian refugees to 460,000, equivalent to 9 percent of the kingdom’s population. That has put a heavy strain on the Jordanian economy, a strain that is only partly offset by aid from the United States. Mr. Erdogan’s office, in turn, said he had accepted the apology “on behalf of the Turkish people,” and that in his conversation with Mr. Netanyahu he had emphasized their nations’ shared history and prior eras of friendship and cooperation.
Jordan is seeking increased aid from European and Persian Gulf states, which have lagged behind the United States in their support. Given a potential pool of three million or four million refugees in southern Syria, Jordanian officials fear that the daily influx could swell to as much as 50,000. The call’s timing came as a surprise after a visit by Mr. Obama that was intensely symbolic, and publicly at least, tightly focused on Iran, Syria and the peace process. Mr. Obama used his trip to convince the Israeli public that he was a strong supporter and ally — credibility he then hoped to use to persuade the Israelis that it was safe, and wise, to earnestly embrace negotiations with Palestinians. Public reaction suggested that Mr. Obama did win the public trust, but it was not at all clear that he would achieve the second goal and prompt any significant movement in the long-stalled peace process.
Mr. Obama’s speech in Jerusalem, in which he appealed to younger Israelis to prod their leaders to pursue peace with the Palestinians, was warmly received in Jordan, where the king has been a steadfast, if somewhat despairing, advocate for the two-state solution. Though important, the Turkey-Israel feud was less complex than those other problems. Defusing it may be the only immediate, concrete achievement Mr. Obama can claim from his visit here, beyond a broad sense that he has improved his standing with the Israeli public.
As he wrapped up his visit to Israel on Friday, Mr. Obama avoided politics for more universal themes. Still, the Obama administration has been working intensively for months, even years, to repair the breach, according to Israeli, American and Turkish officials. Mr. Obama said he had raised it regularly with both leaders, as did former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. But Mr. Netanyahu had resolutely refused to issue an apology, despite having coming close to agreeing before the recent election in Israel.
After rekindling the eternal flame and laying a wreath at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in the morning, a solemn Mr. Obama spoke of a collective “obligation not just to bear witness but to act” against racism “and especially anti-Semitism.” Changes in Mr. Obama’s cabinet and in the makeup of Israel’s new government helped ease the situation, officials said.
“Our sons and daughters are not born to hate, they are taught to hate,” Mr. Obama said. “The state of Israel does not exist because of the Holocaust, but in the survival of a strong Jewish state of Israel the Holocaust will never happen again.” The new secretary of state, John F. Kerry, made it a focus of his visit to Ankara, the Turkish capital, this month, officials said. American diplomats prodded Mr. Erdogan to step back from his recent comments comparing Zionism to fascism, which in turn made it easier for them to get Mr. Netanyahu to make a move. The worsening situation in Syria, officials said, was also a catalyst.
The remarks were Mr. Obama’s only scheduled public comments in Israel on a day filled with poignant gestures. He began by laying stones on the graves of Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, and Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister and peacemaker assassinated in 1995. “Obama and Kerry worked on it the last two months, and they made the difference,” said Alon Liel, a former Israeli ambassador to Turkey. “With the whole region in such turmoil, it was very difficult that the two allies of the United States in the region were not cooperating. There was no dialogue whatsoever on the high political level and even on the high diplomatic level.”
In the afternoon, he visited the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the biblical birthplace of Jesus. A windstorm forced Mr. Obama to modify his travel plans to reach Bethlehem. Ersin Kalaycioglu, a foreign policy professor at Istanbul’s Sabanci University, saw the ice-breaking as an American gambit to strengthen Israel’s position and security among hostile neighbors.
With his helicopter grounded, he traveled by motorcade — a change welcomed by Palestinian officials, since it meant he would have to pass directly by Israel’s separation barrier. “America does not want to leave any conflicts behind as it confines its power projection in the region,” he said. “Israel’s good relations with Turkey would put more pressure on Iran.”
Outside the church, Mr. Obama, accompanied by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, was welcomed by about 20 children in white shirts and dark pants, waving American and Palestinian flags. In addition to the apology, the two leaders also discussed further easing the restrictions on imports to Gaza, which had been the goal of the Mavi Marmara, one of a series of flotillas Israel has blocked from approaching the Palestinian coastal enclave.
Mr. Obama also had lunch Friday with Mr. Netanyahu, a day after a speech that many analysts saw as harshly critical of Mr. Netanyahu’s handling of the peace process. There was no specific new arrangement made, but Israeli officials said they would consider allowing more goods in as long as rockets were not fired from Gaza into their country, as they were Thursday morning.
Israeli newspapers were enthusiastic about the visit, saying the nation had fallen for Mr. Obama, but cautioning that his call for peace would not be easy to follow. Three newspapers used his declaration in Hebrew — “You are not alone” — as a front-page banner headline. “The two leaders remained in consensus to work together for the improvement of the humanitarian situation on the Palestinian soil,” said the statement from Mr. Erdogan’s office.
“The most powerful man in the world arrived in the most threatened state in the world to promise love,” one columnist, Ari Shavit, wrote in the left-leaning Haaretz. “He gave us love every single second, in every speech and in every gesture.” But Mr. Shavit cautioned that “one cannot ignore the naïveté of Obama’s speech.” Izzet Sahin, a leader of the I.H.H., an Istanbul-based charity that led the Mavi Marmara flotilla, said the apology, compensation and discussion of import restrictions amounted to “an important statement,” but added, “We have to see the implementation before we honor our dead.”
Palestinians, by contrast, were mostly disappointed. Some recoiled from Mr. Obama’s frequent use of Hebrew; his suggestion that he no longer sees a settlement freeze as crucial to restarting peace talks; and his repeated testimony to the United States’ eternal friendship with the nation they see as an enemy. Avigdor Lieberman, the former foreign minister who many saw as an obstacle to an Israeli apology, on Friday called it a “grave mistake” that would undermine the morality of his nation’s military.
“President Obama is eating, sleeping and chatting with people in Israel while he is spending few hours with Palestinian politicians,” said Said Kamal, a shopkeeper in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank, where Mr. Obama met Thursday with Mr. Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. While a renewed alliance with Turkey could eventually lead to progress on other fronts, Mr. Obama left Israel on a wave of good will but lacking public, tangible take-homes on Syria, Iran and the Palestinians.
Mirvat Mohammad, 47, said, “America considers us as terrorists; therefore we will get nothing from this visit.” Mohammad Haj Yassin, an architect, said, “Since the last visit of the previous president, more land was confiscated; the U.S. administration did nothing about it.” Mark Regev, Mr. Netanyahu’s spokesman, reiterated Friday that the prime minister was ready to resume negotiations if President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority would do so without preconditions. But he said that Mr. Obama’s visit had not shifted Israel’s position.
Yousef Munayer, executive director of the Jerusalem Fund and Palestine Center, based in Washington, was one of several analysts critical of Mr. Obama’s speech as presenting “peace as a choice Israelis might make instead of an obligation they must fulfill.” “We want to see a peace process where both sides are playing a part to move the process forward — we want to see a process that is a two-way street,” Mr. Regev said. “It can’t just be that one side makes demands and the other side makes concessions.”
On Friday morning, Mr. Obama was flanked, as he has been for much of the time since he landed in Israel on Wednesday, by Mr. Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres, who presented him with Israel’s Medal of Distinction at a state dinner Thursday night. Mr. Obama also made three symbolic pilgrimages on Friday: meeting with Christian leaders at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem; laying wreaths and stones at the graves of Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, and Yitzhak Rabin, the slain prime minister and peacemaker; and visiting Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum.
At Yad Vashem, the group first visited the Hall of Names, a huge dome filled with photographs and dossiers describing the individuals who perished, then the Hall of Remembrance.

Jodi Rudoren reported from Jerusalem, and Mark Landler from Amman. Isabel Kershner contributed reporting from Jerusalem, and Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul.

Wearing a white skullcap, Mr. Obama arranged the wreath of red, white and purplish-blue flowers on a stone slab covering ashes of Holocaust victims, then stayed in a low crouch for a moment, head bowed. As a cantor sang the Jewish memorial prayer “El Mole Rachamim,” the president kept his head low and occasionally closed his eyes.
“We can come here a thousand times and each time our hearts would break,” Mr. Obama said. “Here we see the depravity to which man can sink. We see how evil can, for a moment in time, triumph, when good people do nothing.”
But he said that because the museum also told the story of rescuers, “this accounting of horror is a source of hope.”
“We always have choices, to succumb to our worst instincts” and “to be indifferent to suffering,” Mr. Obama added, “or to display empathy that is at the core of our humanity.”

Khaled Abu Aker contributed reporting from Ramallah, West Bank, and Mark Landler from Tel Aviv.