Turkish PM: Excluding Israel reflects "the conscience of our people"

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan explains his decision to exclude Israel from a NATO military drill earlier this week:

"There are diplomatic sensitivities in the region which we had to take into consideration... and we took into consideration the conscience of our people ... because our people did not want Israel's participation," he told Al Arabiya television.

Incidentally, take a few minutes to watch a portion of this video (beginning about 39:00) of the Davos World Economic Conference last January. The look on Erdogan's face as Israeli President Shimon Peres gives an eloquent defense of Israel is telling. I believe the expression is, "staring daggers."