Which Is It?

"It's positive, but count me pessimistic that it restores the Turkish-Israeli alliance."
"Somebody says Zionism is fascism, or Zionism is racism, they are saying Israel doesn't have a right to exist."
Clifford May, President, Foundation for Defence of Democracies, Washington

There's a clear air of absurdity around a situation where an encircled and embattled state existing in a greater geography shared with nations of another heritage, political ideology, ethnicity and religion, must vigilantly and constantly protect itself from attack. International law permits such a state to use all legal means to do so. Using the territorial integrity of borders to cut off access to munitions to a threatening party is held to be universally justified.

But the State of Israel, which has suffered one collective military assault after another from its neighbours determined to remove its presence, is held to a standard of defensive tactics not expected from any other country. The narrow Gaza strip inhabited by Egyptian-heritaged Palestinians and led by the terrorist group Hamas sworn to annihilate Israel, is carefully guarded to ensure that weapons are withheld from their robust arms caches.

Areas of civil address throughout the Western world find it fundamental to their leftist beliefs in the world of academia and organized labour to slander Israel as an occupier of choice, not a defender of its people's right to exist. The Gaza blockade looms as an offense against humanity in the minds of the compassionate Western left, and Muslim nations are content to manipulate that empathy to their advantage.

Turkey, under a decade-old new Islamist government that has steadily turned the nation back to the fundamentals of Islam, eschewing Kemal Ataturk's enlightened separation of Islam from the politics of his then-backward country in the wake of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, yearns for a return to the fold of Muslim entitlements and a caliphate it is eager to lead.

Under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey became increasingly incensed over Israel's efforts to protect itself from Arab and Muslim hostilities, and convinced that Israel is deliberately withholding the potential for statehood from the Palestinians. PM Erdogan embraced the extreme Islam of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and its partner Syria, looking as well with approval on Hezbollah and Hamas, finding it expedient to separate itself from Israel.

The "apology" that Turkey has demanded from Israel, despite that Turkey was itself responsible for permitting a blockade-running armada to set out from its shores, with the lead ship the Mavi Marmara and its Turkish thugs aboard violently attacking Israeli naval officers boarding the ship, causing the death of nine Turks, represented an absurdity. The injured party held to be responsible for the outcome of the accuser's ill-judged tactics.

American President Barack Obama prevailed upon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to deeply apologize to his Turkish counterpart, satisfying the demands that Mr. Erdogan has clung to. As though their once close relationship before the advent of his Islamist Justice and Development Party, would be resurrected and everything turned back to the time of shared interests, exchanged intelligence, military co-operation and energetic trade.

The security ties that ensured the Turkish-Israeli alliance would remain in effect has simply ebbed. Turkey saw its future being more enmeshed with its Muslim neighbours than with its long-time Jewish neighbour. Signs of estrangement between the two countries pre-dated the Gaza blockade as Turkey gradually took itself out of the orbit of friendship with Israel, scorning it instead for its purported human rights offences against Palestinians.

The U.S. has continued to have warm ties with Turkey, as a NATO country, and a friendly link, along with Jordan and Israel, in the Middle East. President Obama in particular enjoys a sound personal relationship with Mr. Erdogan, who himself aspires to become as influential in the Muslim world as Mr. Obama is in the world of international affairs. For Mr. Obama, mollifying the Islamist government of Turkey is essential to ongoing relations.

The unfolding scenario of potential wide-scale mayhem arising out of the carnage in the Syria conflict has placed the security of Israel, Jordan and Turkey in particular in some doubt. All of the named countries are concerned about the possibility of chemical weapons falling into the hands of militias. Or being used by the Syrian regime, and slop-over from the civil war over into their borders, already overrun with needy refugees.

President Obama was exercising his foreign policy judgement in enticing Prime Minister Netanyahu to attempt to heal the schism that has erupted between his country and Turkey. Turkey's immediate reaction was one of triumph. In the Arab/Muslim world it is a celebratory triumph when a perceived enemy shows any sign of weakness by capitulating to the demands of a challenger.

By that measure capitulation is calculated to demean the character of the assumed weaker link. One who has allowed the other to burnish their credentials at the expense of the submissive one; a situation of ongoing conflict ensues with more pressure placed on the perceived weaker of the two combatants; peace does not ensue where it might in any other tradition or societal heritage.

While President Obama felt vindicated that his efforts had borne fruit, that the "moment was right" for his overture to attempt a repair of the relationship was satisfyingly successful, the perception of Clifford May of the Foundation for Defence of Democracies in all likelihood presents a far more skilled and experienced reading of the situation.

While Israel, which has its sensibilities and sensitivities firmly grounded in the Western social experience of shared mores, could use the reestablishment of cordial and useful relations with a Muslim country, it is likely they are under no false illusions themselves, simply hopeful that by some miracle good will come out of the situation.

For his part, Mr. Erdogan is swaggering on his stage, having made it abundantly clear that he feels he calls the shots, and all the demands that he has imposed upon Israel for the possibility that Turkey might feel generous enough to reinstate a portion of their previous relationship -- though Turkey requires that reinstatement as a practical matter just as much as Israel -- demanding that the blockade of Gaza be lifted.

According to the Associated Press, Mr. Erdogan has announced his intention to embark on an April trip to Gaza. “Normalization will happen the moment there is an implementation. But if there is no implementation, then I am sorry,” he warns Israel of his demand that any building materials, weapons, or any other items no longer be vetted before entry to Gaza.  Erdogan insists: the blockade must be lifted.