Military Intelligence Chief Major General Amos Yadlin offered an explanation Tuesday for the cooling of relations between Israel and Turkey. Speaking before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yadlin said: “Over the years, issues between Syria and Turkey have been solved and Turkey, for its part, no longer feels the need to be close to Israel.”
"In the past, Turkey wanted to move closer to the West, beyond being accepted into NATO,” he said. “There are still common strategic interests between Israel and Turkey, but it is not the same strategic closeness that existed between the two nations in the past.”
Regarding the looming menace of Iran, Yadlin said that “Iran derailed the engagement, and the international community is now preparing for a round of sanctions. But right now, as long as Iran is not under heavy pressure, it sees no need to give up on its core issue. It continues to advance its nuclear program.”
Regarding the Palestinian Authority (PA), Yadlin said that it “prefers to advance the diplomatic process, but continues to set its conditions for opening negotiations with Israel – namely, freezing construction in Jerusalem as well, restarting negotiations from where they were stopped in [Ehud] Olmert's term [as Prime Minister], and additional guiding principles that conform with their point of view. In the eyes of Salam Fayyad and Abu Mazen [the prime minister and chairman of the PA, respectively – ed.], the international community needs to impose upon Israel the main points of the agreement before negotiations begin.”
Maj.-Gen. Yadlin was one of the F-16 jet pilots who took part in “Operation Opera,” the attack on Iraq's nuclear plant, in 1981.