Erdogan-Peres clash will impact Mideast peace bid

Davos, Switzerland: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan left the World Economic Forum in Davos after dramatically walking off the stage following a furious exchange with Israeli President Shimon Peres over Israel's recent actions in Gaza.

As he stalked off the stage, Amr Moussa, Secretary General of the Arab League, applauded Erdogan's actions, and Moussa refused to join the end of the session.

One implication of the row is that Turkey may not be able to continue as a broker between Syria and Israel, which means that this unusually personal and angry exchange may have wider implications for the future of peace in the Middle East if it is allowed to continue.

On the stage on Thursday night, Erdogan spoke first and outlined in detail how Turkey had acted as honest broker in the recent indirect talks between Syria and Israel. Erdogan described how Israel's Prime Minister Olmert launched the attack on Gaza without giving Turkey any idea that it might happen, despite Turkey's close involvement in talks connected to Gaza.

Strong criticism

Erdogan strongly criticised the war in Gaza, saying "Think of the military power of Isreal. Can Gaza match this? It was a disproportionate response. And Israel then rejected the UN resolution."

"There is a lot of talk about Hamas but they are not the only people in Gaza. There are also civilians, and their democratic rights are not being respected." Erdogan added that "Now we have to open the crossings, so that people can experience their rights" and he was clear that Israel also has a right to its security so he said that "if arms are being smuggled into the area, if the tunnels open into Egypt, then Egypt has to stop the flow."

Next to speak was Amr Moussa, Secretary General of the Arab League. He made a point of condemning Hamas's random attacks on Israel, but he also spoke in furious terms of how desperate the situation was in Gaza, with people starving and infrastructure destroyed. He spoke of how the West Bank is under military occupation, and how if people are desperate the will fling stones.

He then bitterly pointed out that the Arab Peace Initiative has been on the table for seven years, and there has been no response from Israel. He said that although Peres might very well say he liked it, this is not a formal response from the government of Israel.

Hysterical attack on Hamas

Peres then spoke and was clearly rattled. The normally calm and impurterbable president launched into an almost hysterical attack on Hamas, describing them as terrorists. He included the bizarre statements "There was no siege of Gaza. There was never a day of starvation in Gaza. All Hamas wanted was to bring in was rockets from Iran."

Peres also seemed to reply to Moussa on the Arab Peace Initiative, but made the odd claim that the problem with the API was Iran. He said "The problem with the API is the Iranian ambition to rule the Middle East, since Iran supplies arms to Hamas. We were not left with a choice,"

Erdogan was clearly angry during Peres defence of Israel's actions in Gaza, and when Peres stopped talking, Erdogan jumped in to reply, saying "I feel that you feel a bit guilty. You kill people. I remember people who died on beaches. I remember two former prime ministers of Israel who were happy when they entered Palestine in tanks. In Gaza the UN centre was hit. Schools and mosques were hit."

As the exchange became a free for all, and the chairman tried to stop the session, Erdogan walked out, and was seen later in the corridors of the conference centre is talks with his political team on what to do. He left Davos later that day.