Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan

Seems like Israel’s ‘ally’ in the Muslim world, Turkey, has taken a step to the right and is trying to solidify it’s standing in the Islamic world by making overtures to Syria.  It started this week with Turkey canceling a huge military drill with Israel.  By the time we were mid-week, the Turkis Prime minister had blamed the cancellation of the drill on everything from the decision being the ‘will of the people’ to a delay in Israel supplying drones to the Turkish military.  The real slap in the face, of course, was Turkey canceling the drill and turning around and holding a large military exercise with Syria, Israel’s enemy.

And, in case you missed it, Turkey has gone the route of Egypt and the PA (and others) in their television pursuit of the demonization of Israel and the IDF as child killers.

Watch some of it here if you want to barf. ( You can read the denial from the producer of the series that this is about the IDF here)

For a country that’s worried about it’s possible admission to the EU, I don’t see how these moves are going to help unless it’s being made to pressure the EU while at the same time boosting their standing the Muslim world ‘just in case’.  What is clear is that despite the decent military ties Israel has had with Turkey, it cant be counted on as a reliable ally for Israel, must less an honest broker in Israeli/Arab negotiations.

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