JERUSALEM — President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talked Turkey — and achieved a rare thaw in Mideast relations.
In a dramatic conclusion to Obama’s three-day visit here, Netanyahu phoned Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan and apologized for the Israeli Navy’s 2009 attack on a Gaza flotilla that left nine dead. The flotilla was defying an Israel-imposed blockade.
Erdogan accepted the apology, according to a senior White House official, and the two countries and key US allies agreed to normalize diplomatic relations.
Netanyahu confirmed the truce.
“They agreed to restore normalization between Israel and Turkey, including the dispatch of ambassadors and cancellation of legal steps against Israeli soldiers,” a statement from the prime minister’s office said.
Strengthening ties between the two military powers is considered key to a host of regional issues, including how to deal with Iran and any restart in Mideast peace talks.
Last month, Erdogan called Zionism a “crime against humanity,” but this week he told a Danish newspaper his comments were misunderstood.
Netanyahu made the call from a trailer at the airport in Tel Aviv just moments before Obama took off for Jordan. At one point, Obama, who was also in the trailer, jumped on the call, sources said.
Netanyahu told his counterpart he “regretted that that incident had led to a deterioration in their relations” and acknowledged “some operational mistakes,” according to a senior White House official.
Erdogan “accepted that apology,” the official said.
But some Israelis blasted Netanyahu’s mea culpa.
Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s former foreign minister, called the apology a “serious mistake,” Haaretz reported.
And Rep. Eliot Engel (D-Bronx), a staunch supporter of Israel who accompanied Obama on the trip, also was skeptical.
“Erdogan has made some disgusting statements. Let’s see now if the attitude changes,” Engel, the top Democrat on the House international-relations committee, told The Post from Tel Aviv.
The diplomatic flourish came on a day filled with symbolic visits by Obama.
He toured Yad Vashem, Israel’s solemn museum of the Holocaust, and placed stones at the graves of Zionist leader Theodor Herzl and slain Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin.
Obama also had a travel mishap, when his helicopter was grounded because of a sandstorm. The president had to travel by motorcade to Palestinian-controlled Bethlehem.
On the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Obama told reporters that John Kerry, his new secretary of state, is going to try to jump-start negotiations.
At a press conference with King Abdullah of Jordan, Obama also promised $200 million to help the kingdom deal with refugees from the war in Syria, calling the human costs “heartbreaking.”