Obama in Israel

Turkey restores diplomatic relations with Israel after President Obama secures surprise apology for 2010 commando raid to enforce Gaza blockade

Prime Minister Benjamin Nethanyahu personally apologized for the raid to enforce a naval blockade of Gaza that resulted in nine deaths on a Turkish ship. In Israel, Obama also laid wreaths at the graves of Zionism founder Theodor Herzl and assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Jordan is the final stop on his four-day trip to the Middle East.

BY MATTHEW KALMAN / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2013

PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AP

President Obama listens to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their visit to the Children's Memorial at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.

JERUSALEM — President Obama brokered a surprise peace deal here Friday but it was between Israel and Turkey, not the Palestinians.

Obama helped secure an Israeli apology for a 2010 commando raid on a Turkish ship that resulted in nine deaths while Israel was enforcing a naval embargo on Gaza.

SAUL LOEB/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

President Obama observed a moment of silence in the Hall of Remembrance at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, alongside Israeli President Shimon Peres (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally extended Israel’s regrets and offered compensation in a phone call to his long-furious Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. At one point, Obama even got on the line.

URIEL SINAI/GETTY IMAGES

President Obama pays his respects in the Hall of Remembrance after a wreath was placed on his behalf.

In return, Turkey restored full diplomatic relations between the two nations — once close allies in the fractious Middle East.

Before departing for Jordan and the final leg of his Middle East trip, Obama made a series of visits in Israel filled with symbolism.

PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AP

President Obama looks at photos of Holocaust victims in the Hall of Names at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.

He paid his respects at the graves of murdered Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Zionist founding father Theodor Herzl.

URIEL SINAI/GETTY IMAGES

President Obama was joined in the Hall of Remembrance by Israel's President Shimon Peres, Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate Avner Shalev, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau and the Abnkor Children's Choir.

Following the Jewish tradition of laying a simple stone on a tomb when visiting, Obama brought to Rabin’s grave a pebble from the Martin Luther King Memorial in Washington.

He also toured the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem — the biblical birthplace of Jesus — and paid his respects at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial.

PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AP

President Obama said the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial illustrates the depravity to which man can sink but also serves as a reminder of the ‘righteous among nations who refused to be bystanders.’

Wearing a Jewish skull cap, Obama re-kindled the memorial flame in the stark hall containing the names of the death camps and ashes from the Nazi crematoria, and then toured the Children's Exhibition where he heard recited the names of some of the 1.5 million Jewish children killed by the Nazis among a mirrored darkness illuminated by hundreds of flickering lights.

MUHAMMAD HAMED/REUTERS

President Obama participated in an official arrival ceremony with Jordan's King Abdullah II in Amman.

Obama’s stop at Herzl’s grave, whose vision for a Jewish state predated the Holocaust, seemed intended to undo the message of Obama’s 2009 Cairo speech where he suggested that the main reason for Israel's existence was the suffering of Jews in the Holocaust. That Cairo speech drew harsh criticism in Israel.

At Yad Vashem, Obama said, “Here on your ancient land, let it be said for all the world to hear ... the state of Israel does not exist because of the holocaust, but with the survival of a strong Jewish state of Israel, such a holocaust will never happen again.”

JASON REED/REUTERS

Jordan's King Abdullah speaks during a joint news conference with President Obama at Al-Hummar Palace in Amman.

Hours earlier, speaking to Israeli students, he reminded his audience of Dr. King's respect for Jewish tradition and the lessons of next week's Passover Seder that celebrates the liberation from slavery to the promised land.

"To African Americans, the story of the Exodus was perhaps the central story, the most powerful image about emerging from the grip of bondage to reach for liberty and human dignity," Obama said.

"As Dr. Martin Luther King said on the day before he was killed, "I may not get there with you. But I want you to know that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.'"