US excludes Israel from terror forum because of Turkey

[Major Shaitan Singh]

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Israel tried hard to obtain an invitation to the Global Counterterrorism Forum meeting, and its exclusion has greatly disappointed officials in Jerusalem.

The US blocked Israel's participation in the Global Counterterrorism Forum's (GCTF) first meeting in Istanbul on Friday, even though Israel has one of the most extensive experiences in counterterrorism in the world. A pro-Israeli source in Washington told "Globes" that Israel was excluded from the meeting because of fierce objections by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Israel tried hard to obtain an invitation to the meeting, and its exclusion, despite the tight US-Israeli intelligence ties, has greatly disappointed officials in Jerusalem.

The GCTF, one of the pillars of President Barack Obama's antiterrorism campaign, was established in September 2011. The White House calls the forum as a wise use of force against terrorism, and chose Turkey as the forum's joint chair, together with the US.

29 countries are participating in the GCTF, ten of which are Arab and/or Muslim countries: Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. Other members include China, Russia, India, and Western European countries.

(...)

A State Department spokesman replied, "Our idea with the GCTF was to bring together a limited number of traditional donors, front line states, and emerging powers develop a more robust, yet representative, counterterrorism capacity-building platform. A number of our close partners with considerable experience countering and preventing terrorism are not included among the GCTF’s founding members.
"We have discussed the GCTF and ways to involve Israel in its activities on a number of occasions, and are committed to making this happen."

(...)

Pro-Israeli sources say that the Obama administration decided to ignore the fact that Turkey, which has a key role in the GCTF, opposes calling Hamas a terrorist organization, even though Hamas is included on the State Department's list of terrorist organizations. In an interview with the US media last May, Erdogan said that he did not consider Hamas a terrorist organization, but as a resistance movement trying to protect its country from occupation. He said that Hamas won elections in the Gaza Strip in 2006, and that, therefore, calling it a terrorist organization was an insult to the Palestinian people.

For its part, Turkey calls the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is seeking to establish a Kurdish state in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq, as a terrorist organization, and the US supports this position.

[nick_indian]

Wow , one of the countries in the world that faces the most terrorism in the world is not invited to a global counter-terrorism meet. US and Europe have faced much less terrorism than Israel. If at all they should not be present in this meet .

[PteX]

Wow , one of the countries in the world that faces the most terrorism in the world is not invited to a global counter-terrorism meet. US and Europe have faced much less terrorism than Israel. If at all they should not be present in this meet .

Goes to show how the Turks think. Then again, they themselves support terrorists so, no big surprise.

[Ulysses]

In order for our plans to be successful, both Turkey and Israel must be on the same page and work out there differences...

Just like in real life brothers sometimes fight, but in the end we are family or Allies for this matter.

[lem34]

Well done Turks for showing some grit

[PteX]

In order for our plans to be successful, both Turkey and Israel must be on the same page and work out there differences...

Just like in real life brothers sometimes fight, but in the end we are family or Allies for this matter.

Brother? A brother would not send terrorists and support terrorists who threaten to destroy us. If there ever was a brotherhood between Israelis and Turks, it's long dead by the hands of AKP.

[500]

Great. These conferentions are absolutelly useless. No one is going to share their secret tactics on conferention with 30 countries. Thanks to Erdogan for saving my tax money.

[truthseer]

Brother? A brother would not send terrorists and support terrorists who threaten to destroy us. If there ever was a brotherhood between Israelis and Turks, it's long dead by the hands of AKP.

Ah yes, terrorists are not those who think that shooting a womb is killing two 'terrorists' at the same time. How silly of me to think, for even a moment, that killing pregnant woman for no reason was a bad idea? After all, that's preemptive action, isn't it?

[mr42O]

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Keep terrorist like Isreal away along with USA too. If Isreal is coming invite AQ and Taliban too.