Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently mentioned to a group of Jewish leaders that he planned to visit Israel. If successful, this visit would prove to be a long-needed resetting of the relationships between the two countries.
The meeting held Monday afternoon involved a room full of leaders of American Jewish organizations where Erdogan said that antisemitism is a “crime against humanity.” The meet was convened under the auspices of the Turkish embassy and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and took place in New York City, where the United Nations General Assembly has gathered global diplomats this week.
Source: NY Times Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Although Erdogan did not mention when he would visit the Jewish nation, the two countries, last month, had announced that they planned to restore full diplomatic ties, which have been ruptured since 2010, when Israel carried out a deadly raid on a Turkish vessel attempting to breach an Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. Israeli President Isaac Herzog also visited Turkey in March.
In another hint, on Sunday, the Turkish government’s official Twitter account posted on Twitter a video of Erdogan strolling through Central Park which included a cheerful encounter with a rabbi, Rachel Goldenberg, of Queens.
From Israel’s point of view, the nation wants to build on the Abraham Accords and hopes to add other Arab and Muslim-majority countries to the accords, which would be facilitated if Turkey were to join hands.
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