Why Are So Many Observers Missing Turkey’s Potential as an Israeli (and American) Ally?

Even in the three weeks since Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak’s astute essay “Can a Renewed Alliance Between Israel and Turkey Stabilize the Middle East?” appeared in Mosaic, Israeli-Turkish rapprochement has widened and deepened. Just last Thursday, the Israeli foreign minister Yair Lapid travelled to Ankara, where he was warmly received by his Turkish counterpart, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, who announced that the two countries are working toward an exchange of ambassadors.

Dramatic cooperation between the Israeli and Turkish intelligence services coincided with the meeting of the foreign ministers, demonstrating to both sides that their relations had progressed to a more productive stage. Prior to Lapid’s visit, Jerusalem had learned that an Iranian terror cell was plotting to attack Israeli targets in Istanbul and to kidnap a former Israeli ambassador and his wife who were vacationing in Turkey. After the intelligence was shared with Ankara, the two sides worked together at a level that was, according to the Israelis, exemplary. The Turks rolled up the cell without anyone being killed or wounded. Lapid proudly announced that “the lives of Israeli citizens have been saved thanks to security and diplomatic cooperation between Israel and Turkey.”

The growing warmth between Jerusalem and Ankara obviously discomfits Iran and its proxies. Even before Lapid returned home, the Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei sacked the official responsible for the botched operation in Istanbul. On the same day, Hizballah’s secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah met with Hamas’s political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Beirut, their first meeting in one year. According to Hamas and Lebanese sources, the two discussed the threat to their interests posed by growing Israeli-Turkish cooperation.