Mid-East turmoil drives Israel and Turkey together again

After a six-year hiatus, Israel and Turkey on Tuesday signed a pact restoring formal diplomatic relations, bolstering economic development, and giving both countries a much-needed ally in the increasingly conflicted Middle East.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the agreement will boost stability in the region, and his counterpart in Ankara expressed a similar view.

“With this deal, the process of returning ties to normal has begun,” said Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.

But beneath the starched sentiments lies a deeper rift. The two countries, once close allies, have been bitterly separated since 2010, when Israeli naval commandos raided a Turkish aid flotilla trying to break through a blockade of Gaza. The maritime conflict swiftly turned deadly, with 10 Turks killed, including an American with dual citizenship, and more than 50 wounded. Istanbul accused the commandos of opening fire, but Jerusalem claimed its soldiers acted in self-defense only after the Turkish activists attacked mob style, with clubs, knives and pipes. When neither country could agree on who was to blame, Turkey cut military and economic ties with Israel and extracted its ambassador.

But in recent months, regional instability, the rise of Islamic State, and Russian and Iranian engagement in the Syrian conflict collectively dwarfed resentment over the blockade incident. Israel and Turkey found themselves alone and in need of allies, but experts say it is unlikely the two countries will ever fully restore security cooperation.

“Israel and Turkey may restore ‘correct’ relations but bilateral relations [cannot] be close as long as Turkey allows Hamas terrorists to maintain offices in Turkey,” said James Phillips, senior research fellow for Middle Eastern affairs at The Heritage Foundation. “What emerges will be a cool relationship, not an alliance.”

The Islamic militant group Hamas, labeled a terrorist organization by Israel and the West, is another point of contention between Israel and Turkey. In the past decade, the terrorists, who control the impoverished Gaza Strip, have engaged in three major conflicts with Israel. Turkey, on the other hand, has close ties with Hamas and some say Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has tried to take on a savior role in the Gaza Strip.

Israel maintains a grip on Gaza’s maritime traffic, in an effort to prevent Hamas from importing weaponry. This week’s reconciliation deal will allow Turkish humanitarian aid through the Gaza blockade, but with tight Israeli regulation.

“[The blockade] is a supreme security interest of ours. I was not willing to compromise it. This interest is essential to prevent the force build-up by Hamas and it remains as has been and is,” Netanyahu said.

In addition to humanitarian aid, Israel also will allow Turkey to invest in a series of development projects in Gaza, particularly to address water and energy shortages. The Gaza Strip is desperately impoverished, and the United Nations in 2012 estimated it will be completely uninhabitable by 2020 if conditions continue to decline.