US rabbi says Israeli president's visit to Turkiye shows strong Washington-Ankara ties

By Betul Yuruk

NEW YORK (AA) – Rabbi Marc Schneier, a prominent leader of the Jewish community in the US and former schoolmate of Israeli President Isaac Herzog who assisted in his meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkiye, said the two leaders' summit demonstrated that Washington and Ankara have strong relations

Rabbi Schneier, the head of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, who was in Ankara during Herzog's two-day official visit on March 9, spoke to Anadolu Agency in New York on Thursday on Turkiye-Israel and Turkiye-US relations.

He and Herzog have known each other since their school days, when the president's father was posted as Israel's ambassador to the US.

Noting that he developed good relations with Murat Mercan, the Turkish ambassador to the US, and that their efforts paved the way for the Turkish and Israeli presidents' meeting in Ankara, he said the summit's main achievement was stronger relations between Turkiye and the US.

Fixing bilateral ties with Israel will significantly contribute to re-establishing relations with the Jewish community in the US and the American administration, according to Schneier.

In Ankara, the rabbi was in contact with US Ambassador to Turkiye Jeff Flake, who said that Washington was closely monitoring the Turkish-Israeli meeting as well as the peace process between Turkiye and Armenia and Ankara's mediation efforts to end Russia's war in Ukraine.

The meeting with his Turkish counterpart left the Israeli president deeply impressed, he remarked.

In terms of future political developments, he indicated that the foreign ministers of the two countries intended to meet in Israel after the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan to discuss a myriad of subjects, including the natural gas pipeline project.

According to the rabbi, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett may pay a visit to Turkiye following Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu's visit to Israel.

He believed that the improvement in Turkish-Israeli relations will have an impact on Ankara's relations with Washington and that President Joe Biden may invite Erdogan to the US in the near future as a tangible indicator of how relations are developing and an important first step toward better ties.

Normalization of Israeli-Turkish relations would benefit the Palestinian issue as well, he asserted, emphasizing that he believed in a two-state solution to the conflict and that Turkiye could play a role in this context.

Turkiye wielded enormous power over the Palestinians and Hamas, he added.

*Writing by Ali Murat Alhas