ISRAEL/NATO/RELIGION/TURKEY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “US President Donald Trump asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to assist in the release of an American pastor detained in Turkey, Israeli and US officials told CNN on Friday [7-27-2018]. The Israeli official would not divulge details of their conversation, or when the request took place, but the two leaders spoke on the phone on July 14, just days after Trump met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the NATO summit in Brussels. A senior US official told CNN that in exchange for Turkey’s release of Andrew Brunson — who has been detained in Turkey since October 2016 — Israel agreed to release Ebru Ozkan, a 27-year-old Turkish woman held in Israel on suspicion of aiding Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza and has been designated a terrorist organization by the US and Israel. The deal — the details of which were first reported by the Washington Post — was agreed to by Trump and Erdogan at the NATO summit, the US official said. The White House did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.”
–Oren Liebermann, Elise Labott and Judith Vonberg, “Trump sought Israel’s help to free American pastor in Turkey, officials say,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, July 27, 2018 11:59 am