GATESTONE
by Burak Bekdil
June 28, 2015

Israeli Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold reportedly met secretly in Rome with Turkey’s top career diplomat, Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu. 

For Turkey’s Islamist government, breaking up with Israel, a credible regional ally until 2009, was a calculated move. Then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s famous Davos tirade against Israel’s then President Shimon Peres was the beginning of Turkey’s willing road accident with the Jewish state: a systematic campaign based on anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic rhetoric and action that would capture votes at home and help Turkey powerfully emerge with its neo-Ottoman ambitions on the Arab Street. It did, leaving no appetite in Ankara for détente — at least, until June 7, 2015. READ MORE