(Reuters) - Turkey accused Israel on Friday of breaking biblical commandments against killing and said it could cut ties with its one-time ally to a minimum after nine Turkish activists died in a raid on a ship bound for Gaza.
"I am speaking to them in their own language. The sixth commandment says 'thou shalt not kill'. Did you not understand?" Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said in his harshest words yet since Israeli commandos raided the Mavi Marmara on Monday.
"I'll say again. I say in English 'you shall not kill'. Did you still not understand?. So I'll say to you in your own language. I say in Hebrew 'Lo Tirtzakh'," he said in a televised speech to supporters of his Islamist-leaning AK Party.
As relations plunged to their worst since the two countries forged a strategic relationship in the 1990s, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc also said military and economic agreements with Israel were now on the table for discussion.
"We are serious about this subject," Arinc told the Turkish NTV news channel in an interview.
"We may plan to reduce our relations with Israel to a minimum, but to assume everything involving another country is stopped in an instant, to say we have crossed you out of our address book, is not the custom of our state," he said.
Turkey, Israel's only Muslim ally, had already recalled its ambassador and canceled joint military exercises after the nine activists were killed while trying to break a blockade on Gaza.
A spokeswoman for activists aboard another boat trying to run the blockade said they would continue their voyage.
Israel, facing an international outcry over its naval operation on Monday, has vowed to stop the Rachel Corrie, named after an activist killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza in 2003.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered Israeli forces to exercise "caution and politeness" in handling the ship, expected near the waters off Gaza by Saturday.
Together with Egypt, Israel tightened its blockade on Gaza after Hamas took control of the coastal enclave in 2007.
Israel has defended the embargo, saying it stops Hamas from bringing in weapons to fight Israel. But officials said on Thursday Netanyahu was considering modifying the blockade, which would introduce some form of international role in enforcing an arms embargo, while letting in civilian goods.
U.S. CALLS FOR PEACE EFFORTS
President Barack Obama said the incident should be used as an opportunity to advance Middle East peace efforts.
"I think what's important right now is that we break out of the current impasse, use this tragedy as an opportunity," he said in an interview with CNN's Larry King on Thursday.
U.S. envoy George Mitchell, who is mediating in indirect Palestinian-Israeli talks which many observers doubt will achieve a breakthrough, met Netanyahu on Friday.
He held talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday that a Palestinian official said were dominated by the ship incident and the Gaza blockade.
The United States has been less critical of Israel than others, expressing sympathy for its security concerns while also saying the people of Gaza must get the supplies they need.
Erdogan, however, compared the Israeli actions to those of Kurdish militants in Turkey and stood up for Hamas, calling them "resistance fighters fighting for their land."
"The fate of Jerusalem is not different from the fate of Istanbul," he said, in language reflecting the significance of the holy city to Muslims throughout the world. "The fate of Gaza is not different from the fate of Ankara."
Turkey, an officially secular state, recognized Israel soon after its establishment in 1948. In the 1990s it forged military and intelligence cooperation agreements with Israel, when both had hostile relations with Syria. With Turkey a customer for Israeli arms, bilateral trade reached $2.5 billion in 2009.
However, since the AK Party came to power in 2002, NATO's only Muslim member has sought better relations with Iran and Arab neighbors, notably Syria.
The friendship with Israel began wearing thin after an Israeli offensive in Gaza in 2008. Erdogan has become one of Israel's most trenchant critics, as Turkey increasingly asserts itself as a powerful player in the Muslim world.
The row between Washington's two closest allies in the Middle East comes at a difficult time for the United States, when it is pushing to impose new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme.
(Additional reporting by Tom Perry and Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem; Writing by Myra MacDonald; Editing by Jon Hemming)
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