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Turkey and Israel are at loggerheads again, and this should come as no surprise.

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon recently staged a rebuke
of the Turkish ambassador in Tel Aviv over the contents of a Turkish
television show. Israel subsequently apologized, but this will go down
as yet another milestone in the ongoing tension between Turkey and
Israel.

Despite some Israeli and American efforts to paint Turkeys
objections to Israeli policies as anti-Semitic, people in the business
of statecraft understand very well where Turkey is coming from.

They recognize that disagreements between Turkey and Israel are
likely to continue provided there is no recognizable change in issues
such as improving the humanitarian situation in Gaza. They also
recognize the complete and immediate freezing of settlements and the
overall posture of Israel toward the peace process if one can still
talk about such a process.

I remember vividly the days when the United States criticized
Turkey for engaging with Syria at a time when Washington and the
Europeans were trying to isolate Syria. Today we see a full reversal of
US and European policies; both the US and Europe now recognize that
engaging with Syria is the right course of action.

Then, Turkeys views on the Middle East were shunned and disregarded
in my view, primarily due to the inability to make the me... >>>