FM Cohen Lands in Turkey

hen, Cavusoglu said that he brought up Ankara’s “expectations for the reduction of the escalating tension in the Palestinian issue.” He added that he stressed the importance of preserving the status quo on the Temple Mount.

Threats Force UH Team to Leave Turkey

This week, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen headed to Turkey in a show of solidarity with the Turkish people after the recent devastating earthquake that left 35,000 people dead in Turkey and Syria.

Meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, Cohen raised the issue of Israeli civilians and the bodies of IDF soldiers being held by Hamas in Gaza.

In a 2006 profile of Mr. Amitay published in The Washington Post, a reporter wrote that “even among his peers his success is something of a legend.»

Amitay was deeply connected on Capitol Hill, with sources in Senate and congressional offices who kept him apprised on legislative matters of concern to Israel. He was in close touch with the Israeli ambassador to the United States. And he astutely marshaled AIPAC’s resources to promote legislators who supported Israeli causes and challenge those who did not.

Led by Mr. Amitay and his successor, Tom Dine, “AIPAC was transformed from an intimate, low-budget operation into a large, mass-based organization,” professors John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt wrote in the 2007 book “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.”

After he left AIPAC, he worked privately as a lobbyist.

Amitay was born in Manhattan in 1936. His father was born in pre-State Israel; his mother, a Ukrainian immigrant, was a homemaker. Amitay went to Ramaz and then went on to Columbia. He received his law degree from Harvard.

Hamas is holding two Israeli men, along with the remains of two soldiers killed during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014. Erdogan has fostered a close relationship with the Hamas terror group, which took power in the Gaza Strip in 2007.

In addition to providing financial and logistical support to the group, which is considered a terrorist organization by much of the West, Turkey is home to senior Hamas officials, including Saleh al-Arouri, a long-time Istanbul resident. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and former chief Khaled Mashaal also visit Turkey.

In addition to speaking about the captives, the two men discussed Iran’s nuclear program.

Turkey and Israel reestablished full diplomatic ties in August of last year after more than four years of icy relations.

After the earthquake, scores of Israeli rescuers headed to Turkey to provide aid and offer their expertise at rescuing those trapped in the rubble.

Israel’s top diplomat also met with his counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, for the first time on Tuesday morning.

“Israel stands with Turkey,” said Cohen in Turkish at the end of his remarks.

Speaking in Turkish alongside Co - message,” the spokesperson said.

On Saturday, Austrian military and German civilian rescue workers suspended their search operations in Turkey, in nearby Hatay, due to a worsening security situation, their representatives said.

A spokesman for the Austrian army said that there had been “clashes between groups,” without giving details. He said that the 82 soldiers from the Austrian Forces Disaster Relief Unit were sheltering in the southern Hatay province “in a base camp with other international organizations, awaiting instructions.”

A similar decision to halt rescue operations was made in Germany by the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (TSW) and an NGO specializing in helping victims of natural disasters, ISAR Germany, according to an NGO spokesman.

After the earthquake in Turkey, United Hatzalah sent around 40 volunteers to help with the search and rescue in southern Turkey. Although they were set to stay in the area for ten days, their stay was cut short after an unspecified “concrete and immediate threat,” according to Dovi Maisel, the vice president of operations for the organization.

A spokesperson for the organization said there was not necessarily one specific threat driving the decision but that there were two more general concerns: proximity to the Syrian border and the Turkish city of Gaziantep, which has seen Islamic State activity over the years, and growing unrest among Turkish citizens over their government’s poor response to the earthquake.

Residents of Marash and the surrounding area, where over 10,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the tremors, are growing increasingly frustrated with the government’s handling of the earthquakes — particularly a decision to rapidly bury victims in mass graves — and there are concerns that this may result in violence.

“There were threats against different international delegations to kidnap people and hold them ransom so the government would not be able to fulfill its plan. Not just the Israeli team is wrapping up, but a lot of other teams have started to wrap up because of this as well, because of the way that the locals are taking the government

Separate from the security concerns, the Israeli military announced that it was ending its search-andrescue efforts on Sunday but that its medical teams would remain in the country to assist in ongoing earthquake relief.

The United Hatzalah team flew back to Israel on Sunday morning. Because of a lack of planes to bring them home, Dr. Miriam Adelson generously donated her private jet for their use.

Settlement Approval Draws Condemnation

This week, Israel authorized the construction of 10,000 new housing units in nine communities in Judea and Samaria, drawing the ire of nations around the world.

“We – the Foreign Ministers of France, Germany and Italy, the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, and the Secretary of State of the United States – are deeply troubled by the Israeli government’s announcement that it is advancing nearly 10,000 set-