Fire aid spurs move to mend Turkish-Israel ties

Israeli daily Haaretz reported over the weekend that after Turkey sent assistance to help Israel put out a massive fire near Haifa last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a representative to a UN committee investigating the Mavi Marmara incident. Quoting a senior Israeli source, the newspaper said Foreign Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu and Israel's Yosef Ciechanover are expected to meet to draw up a draft agreement to end the crisis which has hampered bilateral ties since May, when Israel attacked a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, resulting in the deaths of nine Turks. A Foreign Ministry spokesman, however, said he could neither confirm nor deny this. The Carmel fire is Israel's worst forest fire ever and prompted Turkey to send two firefighting planes and a team of firefighters to help extinguish the flames. The aid thawed the frost between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Netanyahu, who made the first contact in months by calling Erdogan to give his country's thanks.