Saturday September 3, 2011

I've Been Thinking:

There is no doubt. The Palmer Report, the UN report about the flotilla, has brought about a diplomatic crisis.

Turkey has downgraded their ambassadorial status with Israel to that of Second Secretary. That means that the Turkish government has only an extremely low level diplomat handling affairs in Tel Aviv.

The Palmer Report placed serious blame on the organization that coordinated the flotilla and it also said that Israel was justified, but excessive, in defending itself. The Report recommended that Israel express appropriate regret to Turkey. Turkey, however, is not about to accept regrets, Turkey is demanding an apology.

From the philosophical and diplomatic points of view "regret" and "apology" are not synonyms. And believe me, both Turkey and Israel understand the nuance.

Regret is when you are not happy with the results. Regret is when the results may have been unintended, but the action that created the results was justified.

Apology means the entire episode was unfortunate and undesired. Apology means that any given act and the results of that act should have been avoided.

Obviously, Israel believes, as does the UN Palmer Report, that boarding the flotilla was justified and that boarding falls under the rubric of defending their borders.

Obviously, as well, Turkey disagrees.

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