Hurriyet Daily News published an article by Cihan Celik headlined "Turkey, Israel ‘biggest losers’ of Iran, Syria shifts."
"Turkey and Israel, the two long-lost allies, might have been at odds for the last couple of years over the latter’s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla in 2010, nevertheless, they have lately been met with the very same cold U.S. shoulder from slightly different edges over Washington’s unexpected shifts in both the Iranian and Syrian crises," the article reads.
"For starters, the Turkish-Israeli relationship, which used to be designated as “strategic” for both of the nations and the region due to its religious-based nature, has seen the bottom level after the 2010 Israeli attack on a Turkish-led relief campaign to Hamas-run Gaza Strip and killed nine pro-Palestinian Turkish citizen activists. The two appeared to be soothing the tensions as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced by the U.S. President Barack Obama to apologize to the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for the attack, but the traumatic saga failed to reach an end with the two sides dragging feet on restoring ties. The lingering strain was surely a portrayal of the hard-liner political path and posture taken by both Erdoğan and Netanyahu."
"However, what the two leaders failed to see was that their volatile environment, namely the Middle East, in which their “strategic” relations are highly praised by the U.S.-led Western camp, did not stay the same. Both Turkey and Israel have been served with the “last call” when the United States took a baby step to end its decades-old hostility with Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Perhaps, Obama has not been bestowed a chance to take a picture featuring the U.S. president shaking hands with his Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, but it did not hold him from speaking directly with the “moderate” leader in a late-coming phone call," the author writes.
