The Israeli attack on the Turkish-flagged "Freedom Flotilla" that aimed to break the siege and blockade on the Gaza Strip is threatening the once strategic relationship between Israel and Turkey. Turkey considers the incident an attack on its sovereignty and has warned that relations with Israel will never be the same.
Turkey was the first Islamic country to recognize Israel in March 1949. Over the past 60 years, the two countries developed a very strong relationship. Israel has been a major supplier of arms to Turkey. Military, strategic and diplomatic cooperation between Turkey and Israel were accorded high priority by the governments of both countries, which share concerns with respect to the instabilities in the Middle East. They have joint military committees and have held joint military exercises until very recently. Trade and tourism between them is considered the best in the Middle East region, which is otherwise hostile to Israel.
But diplomatic relations between the two countries were strained after Israel launched a war on the Gaza Strip in 2008-2009 that took the lives of more than 1,400 Palestinians, mainly civilians. Turkey heavily criticized Israel’s conduct during its assault on Gaza, and Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s subsequent walk-out from the World Economic Forum in Davos humiliated Israeli President Shimon Peres and ignited a wave of criticism and incitement from both sides. But relations between the two countries had already changed since the election in 2002 of the Islamic Justice and Development party.
The Palestinians, especially Gazans, along with other Arabs, have welcomed the bold and courageous policies of Erdogan, describing them as representative of a new Ottomanism. The Israeli attack on the flotilla gave even more prominence to Turkey and its government. Palestinians in Gaza waved Turkish flags and decorated their homes with portraits of Erdogan. Ismail Haniyeh, the deposed prime minister of Hamas, posted a Turkish flag next to the Palestinian flag during last Friday’s sermon.
Erdogan has defended Hamas and told the Obama administration that Hamas is not a terrorist organization, but rather a resistance group dedicated to fighting the Israeli occupation. He also called on the international community and the Quartet to engage Hamas because it won Palestinian legislative elections in 2006. The international condemnation of Israel’s raid on the flotilla and new calls to end the siege on the Gaza Strip have even led many Israelis to declare that it is Israel that is now under siege while Hamas is gaining more international recognition.
But how far can Turkey go with its current policy toward Israel and Hamas? Some analysts are skeptical of Turkey’s new Middle East policy and believe that the refusal of Europe to accept Turkey into the European Union caused Turkey to shift its policy eastward and advocate the Palestinian cause to improve its position vis-a-vis the United States and Europe. Some have also suggested that this new policy is only a public relations stunt to show the Islamic world that Turkey is on its side, because Turkey had long been silent on major issues important to Arabs and Muslims, not least the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
And Turkey has its own domestic constraints: first, the secular military establishment is strong enough to intervene when it feels that Turkish secular values are threatened. In spite of the recent weakening of secular elements, the battle between secularists and Islamists is far from over in Turkey. Second, Turkey’s war with its Kurdish minority must be taken into consideration in analyzing Israeli-Turkish relations. Israeli support for Kurdish rights is one of the key factors in the damage done to Israeli-Turkish relations. Turkey is also a member of NATO, which is dedicated to the collective national security of its members.
The Palestinians are obsessed with any country or leader that advocates their rights and stands up against Israel. The Palestinians supported Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and Saddam Hussein of Iraq for that very reason. Now the pattern is being repeated with Erdogan. The failure of Palestinian leaders to end the Israeli occupation and liberate occupied land has led Palestinians to cling to desperate fantasies. Even though many of these leaders exploited the Palestinian cause for their own personal agendas, Palestinians have not learned the lessons from past experience.
Can Turkey terminate its relations with Israel? And if so, would Turkey do that for the sake of the Palestinians and Islam? Palestinians should know that no one can help them if they cannot help themselves. The key is to reorganize their internal house and adopt a national political program that can be used to recruit international pressure on Israel.
Mkhaimar Abusada is a professor of political science at al-Azhar University in Gaza. This commentary is published by DAILY NEWS EGYPT in collaboration with bitterlemons-international.org.
