It may be redundant to write this, but Philip Klein’s recent posts on the flotilla attack are very poor. It is jarringly illogical to claim that Hamas’ refusal to allow flotilla aid into Gaza proves that “the flotilla was not a humanitarian mission to deliver aid to suffering Palestinians.” How Hamas responds to the aid provided by the flotilla after Israel seized the flotilla has nothing to do with the purpose or intent of the people participating in the flotilla. Were Klein not looking for some way to shift attention or deflect blame from the government that just killed nine civilians in international waters, he would probably see that.

The other post is worse in a way because it is more misleading. Klein sets out to debunk the “myth of a strong Israeli-Turkey friendship” by rehearsing the usual litany of complaints, as if Israel had no part in the deterioration of relations. He seems to think that Turkey is to blame when it objects to Israel engaging in excessive military action against Gaza. Being the great fan of context and accuracy that he is, it’s strange that Klein didn’t mention one of the main reasons why Erdogan was particularly offended by the Gaza operation. Just before Operation Cast Lead began, Erdogan had been using his improved relations with Syria to mediate an Israeli-Syrian peace in which the Olmert government was supposedly interested. Olmert turned around almost immediately after meeting with Erdogan and launched the operation against Gaza. Erdogan understandably felt that he had been left in the dark about Israel’s intentions and saw Olmert’s decision as sabotage of his mediation effort. In other words, the Turkish government was attempting to help Israel with a long-standing diplomatic problem, and Israel rewarded them by making Erdogan look like a fool. Add to that the damage and the deaths caused by the operation and the genuine outrage the Turkish public felt about these things, and one can understand how Erdogan has become so combative.

Since the Netanyahu government came into office, it has been actively contributing to the downward spiral of Israeli-Turkish relations. In response to an offensive Turkish television show, Israel’s Foreign Ministry deliberately and publicly insulted the Turkish ambassador, which led to the last major diplomatic row before now. To protest objectionable content produced by Turkish citizens, Israel drastically overreacted by further wrecking relations with the Turkish government. Erdogan does demagogue the Palestinian issue, but everything the Olmert and Netanyahu governments have been doing for the last year and a half have provided him with more than enough ammunition.

Four years ago, the AKP government had reasonably good relations with Israel. The “myth” of friendship Klein dismisses was quite real. Things began going wrong when Israel responded to Hizbullah’s capture of three of its soldiers by launching a full-scale war against all of Lebanon. Like most other nations, Turks were appalled by what Israel had done, and relations began souring from then on. Even if one wants to blame Erdogan for being irresponsible in demagoguing and whipping up Turkish anger, there would have been no occasions for his demagoguery if Israel had not engaged in its excessive and destructive military actions in Lebanon and Gaza.

Speaking of Lebanon, just consider what Israel did in response to the capture of three of its soldiers and then look at how mildly Turkey has responded to the deaths of several Turkish civilian citizens at the hands of Israeli armed forces. If there had not been a strong relationship between Turkey and Israel prior to the last four years, such a provocation would have led to a much more confrontational response than the one we have seen. For that matter, Erdogan has made clear that his quarrel is principally with Netanyahu’s coalition government. As Hurriyet reported yesterday:

Erdogan made it clear that Turkey has no problem with either the Israeli people or the Israeli state, calling on the country’s citizens to stand up against the Netanyahu-Lieberman government, which he said hurts the interests of the Israeli people.

That leaves open the very small possibility that Israeli-Turkish relations might be repaired at some point in the future if Netanyahu’s government falls in the near future. At the very least, it suggests that even now Erdogan does not want to rule out rebuilding the relationship. Turkey and Israel did have a constructive, mutually beneficial relationship. Thanks largely to disastrously bad leadership in Israel that has provided Erdogan with a perfect foil for demagoguery, it is now in ruins. It is ridiculous that American hawks who cheered Israel on all along cannot admit to Israel’s part in the wreckage of a valuable alliance, but it is simply false to claim that the alliance was never strong.