Moments before Mr. Obama left for Jordan, [Israeli] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telephoned the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and apologized for deadly errors in Israel's 2010 raid on a Turkish ship that was trying to bring aid to Palestinians in Gaza. After years of angrily demanding an apology, Mr. Erdogan accepted Mr. Netanyahu's gesture, and both sides agreed to dispatch envoys to each other's nations, having recalled them in 2011. Israel and Turkey have a host of shared economic and security interests. Turkey also could play a strategic role in Washington and Jerusalem's efforts to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, as well as in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It was the Palestinian issue that opened the rift between the two, when Israeli commandos raided the Turkish ship, the Mavi Marmara, as it was trying to break Israel's blockade of Gaza to deliver supplies. Nine people were killed in clashes on board, prompting an international outcry, several investigations and a rebuke by the United Nations. Mr. Erdogan's office, in turn, said he had accepted the apology on behalf of the Turkish people," and that in his conversation with Mr. Netanyahu he had emphasized their nations' shared history and prior eras of friendship and cooperation.
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