Israel's Flotilla Crisis is Really About Turkey

By Eugene Epshteyn


It seems everyone today has their two cents to add on how to handle Israel's supposed "crisis at sea." For the record, Israel faces double standards that no country faces today -- even North Korea, which torpedoed a South Korean naval vessel killing 46 sailors and so far has gotten away with it without so much as a formal protestation from the international community. The knee-jerk reaction to condemn Israel before receiving any information on the event, a condemnation issued even by allies in Western Europe and Asia, is a grave development. As the leaders of allied countries officially condemn Israel before even going through proper diplomatic channels to verify the claims, it seems as if the Jewish State is clearly descending the path to becoming a pariah state.

Shocked from the international fallout, Israelis have frantically turned to local media channels, seeking answers to what many Israeli media channels proclaimed as an IDF "debacle" or "blunder." The Israeli media, in typical fashion, launched a yellow press witch-hunt to seek out a trigger-happy soldier, naïve politicians, or an unprofessional minister to blame for this alleged bungling – and everyone came out to lay blame on Israel's bad PR. But the true debacle is not neither military nor political, nor is it due to Israel's lethargic PR approach. Rather, this was from the onset a bi-national diplomatic incident between Jerusalem and Ankara and should have been treated as such.

Turkey's Islamist-leaning ruling party is no friend of Israel. Constant attacks on Israel by Erdogan and his henchmen are all too familiar to the diplomats and journalists in Europe and the region; the "Flotilla of Peace" was just another Turkish sponsored escalation. This was foreseen by many experts here in Israel, and was seen as such by most Israeli officials and even by some in the media, but there was no official policy to react to or to prevent it.
 

The reason for this is Israel's peculiar and innate fear of upsetting the Turks, a fear that has ended tragically for Israel's position in the world. The writing was on the wall last year when Erdogan diplomatically slapped Israel's President Peres on-stage at Davos, an incident which itself was merely an extension of an incendiary rhetoric campaign waged by Turkey's government concerning the Gaza War.

Despite these earlier acts of Turkish aggression, the Israeli establishment continued to look to Turkey with hopeful eyes. It's as if Jerusalem has been desperately trying to save relations with Turkey, as a doctor might attempt saving a dying limb, despite the obvious risk to the greater body. But at this point in time it's clear that Turkey itself, with this latest act of enmity (if not before) has de facto severed relations with Israel.

Accepting this new reality, Israel must treat the flotilla episode as what it actually is: an act of political adventurism by the Turkish government, which officially sponsored the flotilla effort and the IHH, the Jihadist organization, listed as a terror group by Israel, the CIA, and other terrorism experts, and which manned the flotilla operation. While Israel's initial actions, before the embarkation of the boats, should have included an immediate call-in of Turkey's ambassador to explain the purpose and goal of the flotilla (as "humanitarian aid" is not the reason it was sent), it must now, in the aftermath, seek a new strategy.

Prime Minister Netanyahu should begin by recalling Israel's ambassador as he files formal complaints with the UN against Turkey. Israel should demand an impartial investigation into the level and extent of official Turkish support for the flotilla (asking questions like why a ferry that on the open market would fetch between $4 million and $7 million was sold – by the Turkish government – to flotilla organizers for a mere $800,000), and should make clear that from the Israeli perspective the responsibility for the deaths aboard the ships rests not with the “activists,” however violent they might have been, but with Ankara.

But Israeli policy must go beyond this, accepting a new form of relations between the two Mediterranean nations. Experts and analysts have been grappling with a key question since the first rifts with the Turks began two years ago: why is Turkey doing this and what was the reason for this latest provocation? No doubt our allies would also want to know why we think this was an act of state sponsored provocation by the Turkish government and not simply the action of independent peace activists and NGOs.

The answer to this may be difficult to swallow, but we must come to terms that all signs point to Turkey's religious and geopolitical shift; and the means to achieving this shift is to delegitimize Israel and all relations with it. This would allow Turkey to eventually distance itself enough from Israel to break ties with the consent of its citizens -- as well as the EU and Americans. After all, who wants to maintain ties with a “bloodthirsty” pariah state?
 

Many experts in the region are trying to explain what motivates Erdogan and his party. But it doesn't take a Bismark to realize that Erdogan has been realigning Turkey from within and without to re-establish its regional influence and role along Islamic lines. Turkey's ruling party has come to terms that it will never join the EU as a full member. Erdogan also knows that global US influence is waning and the Euro Zone will no longer be able to offer them the basket of financial goodies it once could. Thus, Turkey needs to find itself new allies and that is why it is realigning ties to despotic Middle East regimes. Just as Islamism has taken the rug from under Pan-Arab nationalism, so too has it turned Ankara from Turanism and Pan-Turkism towards a dark road of Islamism.

So where does Israel fit into Erdogan's grand plan? Middle East regimes have been using Israel as a scapegoat for decades to deflect focus from their despotism and catastrophic military and socio-economic policies. Moreover, Israel is a hated figure in the Islamic world, and being an Islamic party Erdogan's AKP no doubt shares the same stereotypes and hatred of Israel. Because of this, Israel must be quick and unwavering, making clear to the world that the current Turkish regime has derailed Kemalist Turkey onto a path of confrontation with Israel and the West in general.

Israel is under real threat of de-legitimization by Turkish actions, and the threat is greater than the one posed by Iran and the Arab League. Everyone by now expects to hear it from Ahmadinijad, but hearing it from Erdogan has truly damaged Israel irreversibly – and perhaps this was the irreversible damage meant by Turkey's foreign minister when he recently spoke of “irreversible consequences.”

We must now up the ante: it's Israel's duty to educate the world on what is going on in Turkey and the Islamic grip that has taken hold of it. Israel must convey to allied countries that the flotilla is at core and on its surface a bi-national issue between Ankara and Jerusalem. When talking with diplomats and journalists about Turkey's latest, but certainly not last, provocation, Israel must make clear that these provocative actions are part and parcel to the new Islamification of Turkey's foreign policy.