Seth J. Frantzman
Jerusalem Post, May 29, 2023
“Ankara’s politics of stoking tensions and then climbing down and asserting that tensions lead to respect may be out of step with the modern Middle East.”
With Turkey’s elections now decided and the unsurprising victory of the long-time ruling AKP Party and its leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Israel will once again be dealing with the same government in Ankara as it has in the past. Turkey and Israel reconciled relations over the last two years, and an acrimonious era of tensions between 2009 and 2020 has shifted rapidly to bring closer ties.
These ties may be close only on the surface, however, because significant challenges remain, and Ankara’s media often hint at conspiracies and other scandals that could upset the Apple cart. Israel’s leadership today is also cautious and not prone to naïve thinking. It understands Israel’s growing power and position.
Both Israel and Turkey are growing in their strategic power, and they recognize how this new politics, which is not just post-Cold War but also part of a shifting world order, works.
The outcome of the Turkish election isn’t a major surprise in Israel. Israeli politics also has had its moments over the last decade and a half, when it appeared that a large coalition of centrist, left- and right-wing parties might push longtime leader Benjamin Netanyahu aside.
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