The ultra-right wing parties, their actions and their ideology seem to be holding the Netanyahu government at ransom are in fact a liability to the survival of the state of Israel.

The image created by these radicals in Israel among the Turkish people are that Israelis hate the Palestinians and they are prepared to erase them from this earth, they have no intention of living side by side with the Palestinian people and that Israel has grand designs to expand its borders all the way into Turkey.

Yet, there is a mass of people in Israel that want peace with the Palestinians and they strongly oppose the iron fist policy of their government against the Palestinian people. The general fear among the Israelis that the Arabs are out to get them and eradicate them from the region and the refusal of hardline Palestinian groups to acknowledge the right of the state of Israel to prevail are increasing the support for the Israeli extremists.

In the past decades Turkey enjoyed, at times, close and, most of the time, normal relations with Israel, but the acts of violence by Israel against the Palestinian people and the Israeli attitude on Jerusalem has always been a stumbling block.

It is time we supported the people among the Palestinians and the Israelis who want peace and reconciliation.

It is also time that a new and serious pace effort should be taken to, first, end the confrontation between Israel and the Palestinians, do confidence building and then to open the way for a negotiated settlement of the Palestinian issue. This means while everyone agrees that the Israeli state should prevail they should also use every means at their disposal to put an end to the dominance of the hot heads on Israeli and Palestinian policies.

Today all the trends are steering in the negative direction.

The Israeli administration, encouraged by the arrogant behavior of President Donald Trump to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel and his announcement to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to this ancient city, has stepped up its intransigent behavior.

The Israelis have moved to introduce capital punishment practically for the Palestinians. A draft law on capital punishment was approved on its first reading by a thin majority of 52 to 49, which proves there are many people in Israel who do not want more confrontation. The draft has to be approved in a second and third reading to become law. Such a move will not help end the conflict or create an environment for reconciliation.

Then there is the law that cleared the Israeli parliament where from now on it will need the approval of at least 80 Israeli deputies to approve any part of Jerusalem being given back to the Palestinians. Can such a move help end the conflict or create an environment for reconciliation?

On top of all this, the continued expansion of the Israeli state into Palestinian land by building new settlements to house radicals is a no starter.

Now, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the European Union could well get together as honest arbitrators and get the ball rolling for building bridges between Israel and the Palestinians.