World press on Obama factor in Israel’s apology for the Mavi Marmara incident (March 30, 2013)

The Hyrriyet published an article today entitled "Mending Israel-Turkey ties" by Guven Sak. The author of the article describes the Obama factor in Israel’s apology for any wrongdoing during the Mavi Marmara incident: "It was under the watchful eyes of President Obama himself that Prime Minister Netanyahu finally read the text to Prime Minister Erdoğan over the telephone. His voice did not sound happy, but he finally did the right thing. The apology text was agreed on over a year ago but only now, after the Israeli elections, did Netanyahu finally give in and read it. There was a sense of relief; not only in political but also in business circles, not only in Israel and the U.S. but also in Turkey and Palestine. However, without Obama in action, I believe that we would not have gotten the apology."
"Israeli-Turkish commercial relations have not been affected much by the political crisis. However, the number of Israeli tourists dropped from more than 500,000 a year to a meager less than 50,000", the article reads.
"Another reason why mending fences may not be that hard? Let me tell you why I was in Israel last week. I was there to participate in the inauguration ceremony of the Jerusalem Arbitration Center (JAC). Despite the two-decade-long history of the Oslo Accords, never before has a private business-to-business arbitration mechanism has been established between Israel and Palestine. Now, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Israel and ICC in Palestine have come together to establish the JAC, to solve Israeli-Palestinian business disputes. More importantly, they invited Mr. Rifat Hisarcıkılıoğlu, the President of the Turkish Chamber Federation (TOBB) and a businessman himself, to become the president of JAC. Turks are back in Jerusalem as arbitrators, as Munib al-Masri, the Head of ICC-Palestine said during the ceremony. Another reason to be hopeful," the author reports.
"The U.N. decision definitely seems to have focused the Palestinians on state building and economic development, but that is a different story that needs to be told separately", the article ends.