TLTP
\nANKARA
\nTurkey has appointed a new ambassador to Israel after a two-year absence, said media reports.
\nIn May 2018, Ankara withdrew its envoy over deadly attacks against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip who were protesting US President Donald Trump\u2019s decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
\nThe move to appoint Ufuk Ulutas, 40, as the new Turkish ambassador is part of an attempt to improve ties with incoming President-elect Joe Biden\u2019s administration, a report by Al Monitor quoting \u201cwell-placed sources\u201d revealed last week.
\nUlutas, described as \u201cvery polished\u201d, \u201cvery clever\u201d and \u201cvery pro-Palestinian\u201d by sources quoted in the report, studied Hebrew and Middle Eastern politics in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is also an expert on Israel\u2019s regional rival, Iran, but is not a career diplomat.
\nTurkey first broke off diplomatic ties with Israel in 2010 after 10 pro-Palestinian Turkish activists were killed by Israeli commandos who boarded a Turkish-owned flotilla trying to deliver aid and break Israel\u2019s years-long maritime blockade of Gaza.
\nThey restored ties in 2016, but relations soured again in 2018 in the aftermath of the US embassy move.
\nUlutas\u2019 appointment also comes as a number of Arab countries \u2013 Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates \u2013 agreed to normalise diplomatic ties with Israel in deals brokered by outgoing US President Trump.
\nThe Palestinian leadership has slammed the deals as grave betrayals by the Arab states that further undermine Palestinian efforts to achieve self-determination.
\nEarlier this year, Trump proposed a so-called Middle East plan that overwhelmingly favoured Israel and was categorically rejected by the Palestinians.
\nBoth Trump\u2019s proposal and the recent normalisation deals have been criticised by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has positioned himself as a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause in the Muslim world.
\nDespite the new reported appointment of Ulutas as ambassador, it remains to be seen whether Ankara will establish full diplomatic ties with Israel.
\nErdogan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have often exchanged angry remarks, with a war of words reaching a boiling point about two years ago.
\nAt the time, Erdogan called Netanyahu a \u201cterrorist\u201d in response to Netanyahu\u2019s comments rejecting Ankara\u2019s \u201cmoral lessons\u201d over the Israeli army\u2019s killing of Palestinian protesters in Gaza and labelling Erdogan as someone who \u201cbombs Kurdish villagers\u201d.
\nErdogan had also criticised a controversial Israeli law that defined the country as the nation-state of the Jewish people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TLTP ANKARA Turkey has appointed a new ambassador to Israel after a two-year absence, said media reports. In May 2018, Ankara withdrew its envoy over deadly attacks against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip who were protesting US President Donald Trump\u2019s decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The move to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-162039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n