sealadaigh
Rookie
- Banned
- #21
It's nice of you to share some more of your fantasies with us. With the exception of the US and Canada, only European nations are full NATO members, however NATO has various partnership programs with other nations, and Israel is in one of them through the Mediterranean Dialogue, along with Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, and in and in 2006, Israel and NATO finalized an individual cooperation programme under which Israel is a participating member of NATO's Operation Endeavor, which polices the Mediterranean to search for illegal arms shipments, among other things.
Because Israel has had a close relationship with NATO since 1995, and because Israel has close military and intelligence relationships with nearly all NATO member states, in 2011, Israel proposed opening an office in NATO's headquarters building in Brussels. The only NATO member state that opposed the move was Turkey, but because Turkey threatened to veto the move, Israel withdrew the request. Similarly, Turkey threatened to prevent NATO from installing radars on its soil unless it was guaranteed that Israel would not have access to the data it gathered. Apparently, of all NATO member states, only Turkey shares your hatred of Israel.
the dialogues are far different from membership and, again, there is a very good reason why turkey is a member of NATO and israelo isn't, and it isn't quite as simple as you suggest.
where was israel, by the way, in mid to late may of this year...and don't blame that on turkey. thy to saay this with a straight face..."the invitation was lost in the mail."
This may be a difficult concept for you to process, but with the exceptions of Canada and the US, only European countries are NATO members. Israel cannot be a member nation because it is not a European country, and for that reason, Israel has never made a bid to become a member, but of all non member nations, Israel has the closest working relationship with NATO and the Israeli navy participates in NATO naval operations in the Mediterranean. Turkey is the only NATO member state that has objected to Israel's participation.
it is also, it seems, a difficult cocept for some NATO members to process as well, particularly germany, who has worked to get israel in as a member and turkey, who works to keep them out. perhaps they do not know where europe is.
israel has not made a "bid" per se, but they have definitely made some overatures and inquiries...but they are probabaly like the germans, turks and a few others and also do not know that israel is not european. perhaps the problem lied in the fact that they look so european and not at all like...i forget what they are called...oh yeah...imdigenous people.