by Geng Xuepeng

    JERUSALEM, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- The relations between Israel and Turkey raised eyeballs again on Tuesday after the two traded barbs and Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon conducted a dramatic summoning meeting with Turkish ambassador to Israel.

    Ayalon called the ambassador Ahmet Oguz Celikkol to a parliament office, instead of his office in Foreign Ministry, on Monday, to express Israeli discontentment over a recent Turkish TVdrama which portrays Israeli intelligence agent as baby-kidnaper.

    At the beginning of the meeting, Ayalon was caught by camera tourge the photographers to pay attention that he and his assistants were sitting in higher chairs than the Turkish ambassador and there was only Israeli flag on the table.

    The meeting has become the focus of the headlines of Israeli media on Tuesday and is seen as intentional humiliation to the Turkish ambassador by many Israelis.

    Israeli Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who made a relations-mending visit to Turkey in November, on Tuesday criticized Ayalon's behavior.

    "The Turkish ambassador's dignity should have been maintained. We have no interest in adding Turkey to the hostile countries," Ben-Eliezer told local news service Ynet from India where he is inan official visit.

    In an apparent explanation, Ayalon was quoted by local daily The Jerusalem Post as saying that the detailed arrangement of the meeting with Celikkol was planned by him and Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and he "didn't want to humiliate him (the ambassador), but merely to convey a message."

    Also on Monday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of violating Palestinian airspace and territorial waters during a joint press conference with visiting Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, slashing Israel's recent air strikes on the Gaza Strip.

    Erdogan's comments were followed by a protest statement of Israeli Foreign Ministry, which says "Israel has the full right to defend its citizens."

    All these added a new weight on the already-strained bilateral relations due to Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip last winter.

    The Turkish government has strongly condemned the offensive, and Turkish military in October banned Israeli air force to join a planned international air force exercise in Turkey reportedly due to Ankara's opposition to Israeli operation in Gaza.

    There were some positive signs emerging between the two countries after Ben-Eliezer's visit to Turkey, and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is scheduled to travel to Ankara next week as another effort to amend the relations, which has been on the up and down for more than a decade and saw booming bilateral trade before the Gaza conflict.

    It remains largely unclear how Barak's visit will come after Monday's meeting in Jerusalem. Turkish Foreign Ministry has summoned Israeli Ambassador in Ankara, Gabby Levy, for clarification on Tuesday, Israeli media reported.