NATO 'Singing Israeli Tunes http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51772

Although top-level Turkish politicians have intimated that the damage caused to their bilateral ties with Israel by the flotilla massacre could be irreparable, a Turkish diplomat said "there is a chance" that Israel's ties with NATO will remain sturdy. "NATO finds Israel useful," Jeff Halper from the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, a human rights organisation, told IPS. "Israel has a tremendous role in patrolling the whole Mediterranean and in gathering intelligence." 

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO's secretary-general, said Jun. 7 that he would be opposed to any reduction of contact between the alliance and Israel. According to Rasmussen, dialogue with Israel is necessary to help ensure peace in the Middle East. "We owe it to the Palestinian people and we owe it to all the people in the Middle East to facilitate the peace process," he said.

He did not mention that Israel has become an important supplier of the high- tech weaponry - principally pilotless drones - use by the alliance in the war it is fighting in Afghanistan.John Jennings, a researcher on how Israel's occupation of Palestine breaches international law, said there is a "parallel mentality" behind the deepening relationship with Israel and NATO, on one hand, and Israel and the European Union on the other. These moves are "going to be to the detriment of the Palestinians," he added.