For how long?

Two conditions are related. French President Nicolas Sarkozy; Karel Schwarzenberg, foreign minister of the Czech Republic, the new term president of the European Union; Carl Bildt, foreign minister of Sweden, the next EU term president in line; Ms. Benita Ferraro-Waldner, EU external relations commissioner; and Javier Solana, EU foreign policy and security chief, are on a tour in the region. But apparently even such a high-level diplomatic initiative is not enough to stop the Gaza offensive by Israel. Therefore, it is revealed that only the United States can stop Israel.

Let’s be realistic and let’s not expect that the Bush administration which is about to complete its last two weeks in office will unbearably pressure Israel to stop the attacks. This means the Gaza tragedy will at least continue until Jan. 20, the day on which the new U.S. President Barack Obama officially settles in the White House or until a closure date. Since multilateral shuttle diplomacy has already given a start the new American president will seemingly reach a cease-fire decision.

What I mean by a permanent cease-fire is to have a truce over a different cease-fire remained effective between June 2008 and Dec. 19, 2008. That is to say, not going back to "status quo ante." Or in other words, not falling back to the situation before the military offensive launched between Christmas and the new year. And this means ensuring that Hamas will not rocket fire Israel and opening the border gate to Egypt in Rafah under the control of the Palestinian Authority and the EU or an international force.

At this moment, we are in between of the EU’s diplomatic initiative in the region and a resolution to be adopted by the United Nations Security Council, if possible.

Israelis talked to the EU delegation in a strong tone of voice. "Europe must open its eyes. We are not in the business of public relations or improving our image. We are fighting against terror, and we have every right to defend our citizens," said Shimon Peres, as the most reasonable Israeli politician around, adding that Israel was "fighting a comprehensive war against murderous terror, which is of Iran's making."

Scary remarks these are because it seems that reactions escalating in the international public opinion and the EU’s diplomatic initiative have no deterrent effect on Israeli strategic calculations targeting reshuffling the "regional security equation."

Europeans said what needs to be told to Israeli leaders in face-to-face meetings. The remarks that our leaders, primarily Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, have made in front of cameras everyday in Turkey. For instance, Ferraro-Waldner told Peres that "Israel's image is being destroyed," because of its refusal to listen to international cease-fire appeals.

Ferraro-Waldner was quoted as saying that every nation has the right to defend itself, but that Israel's actions in Gaza were disproportionate.

Useless. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced that they will not accept an agreement allowing Hamas to rocket fire within a few months again. "Before the last cease-fire with Hamas began, Hamas had missiles with a range of 20 kilometers. By the end of the cease-fire, the range of the missiles grew to 40 kilometers," told Olmert referring to outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush’s comment who said that the end result of the Gaza offensive is not to prevent Hamas’ rocket attacks but to remove capability of sending rockets in the future.

At this point, the EU cannot stop Israel.

As a matter of fact, they told Sarkozy that the U.N. Security Council presiding by France not to represent a resolution draft envisaging "urgent cease-fire" or Israel will not follow even if one is adopted.

Ironically the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, told on Monday the EU delegation that "Hamas must not be allowed to win its conflict with the IDF (Israel Defense Forces)." Under these circumstances, how the blood bath in Gaza would be prevented?

The issue will end up at the United States door again, which seems remarkably inactive so far. An Israeli columnist, Yoel Marcus, in a "hawkish way" makes the following assessment, "If the United States doesn't come to the Middle East, the Middle East comes to it. The complex repercussions of the conflict make it too dangerous to leave us alone on the battlefield."

This is ironic too; poor Palestinian people are cornered in the Gaza Strip and left alone. As they are showered with bombs, Israel sends warning to United States "not to leave us alone."

These are the bitter facts of the atrocious political stage in the Middle East. This war has introduced a criterion about who will be strong and how much they will be effective in the first quarter of the 21st century in which apparently the "power" will rule.

Unfortunately, Turkey’s "foreign policy capital" which the country is proud of, takes place in the losing side. The Jerusalem Post daily in Israel concluded its editorial the other day as follows:

"ÉWe're not convinced that Turkey has earned the right to lecture Israelis about human rights. While world attention focuses on Gaza, Turkish jets have bombed Kurdish positions in northern Iraq. Over the years, tens of thousands of people have been killed as the radical PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) pursues its campaign for autonomy from Turkey. Kurdish civilians in Iraq complain regularly that Ankara's air force has struck civilian areas where there is no PKK activity.

"THE NEXT Israeli government should weigh whether Israel can accept as a mediator a country that speaks, albeit elliptically, of our destruction. Meanwhile, if Turkey persists in its one-sided, anti-Israel rhetoric, the Foreign Ministry might consider recalling our ambassador in Ankara for consultations.

"Turkey needs to choose between bridging the gap between East and West and flacking for the kind of dead-end Islamist policies championed by Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas Ñ policies that threaten to destabilize the entire region."

Turkey has gained value with the image that it can do what the EU cannot do and with its contributions to the solution of the regional issues. At this point and in this issue, Turkey seems way behind the EU. We’ll see soon how much this will cost to Turkey’s foreign and internal policies.

The war in Gaza has affected Turkey, battered the country’s political influence and wounded our conscienceÉ