Turkey-Israel ties to normalize?

?We want to leave this episode behind us. Turkey is a very important country. We want friendly relations. But the ball is now in Turkey?s court.?

These words were uttered by someone you would least expect: The spokesperson of Israel?s Foreign Ministry, Emmanuel Nahshon.

Last week there was a most surprising piece of news in the Turkish press. It was written that Israel offered, through a Jewish businessman, to pay $1 billion to the families of the victims of the Mavi Marmara, the deadly raid on the Gaza-bound aid flotilla. Accordingly, the offer also included a partial lift on the Gaza blockade.

Just to sum up briefly: After the Mavi Marmara incident in 2010, Turkey laid down three prerequisites for the normalization of relations. The first condition was an apology from Israel. This was fulfilled when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an on the phone following pressure by U.S. President Barack Obama. The second was the payment of the compensation and the third one, the easing of the blockade on Gaza.

Then is Israel now fulfilling these conditions? Are relations about to be normalized?

The right and highest-level person to speak on the matter would be the spokesperson of Israel?s Foreign Ministry, whom I called to ask, ?Are these claims true??

Emmanuel Nahshon abstained from making comments on the details of the negotiations. Yet he uttered the sentences which I quoted above one after the other.

Israel is going to have general elections on March 17. Nahshon says Turkey has not been mentioned during the electoral campaign at all. ?This is because relations with Turkey are a supra-political issue, a state issue in Israel. So it?s not a dispute...