ASSESSMENTS

Geopolitics Keeps Pushing Turkey and Israel Back Together

Oct 8, 2018 | 09:30 GMT

A map shows the Middle East, including Turkey and Israel.

The on-again, off-again relationship between Turkey and Israel appears to be moving toward reconciliation.

(HANS SLEGERS/Shutterstock.com)

Highlights

Turkey and Israel's strategic alliance in the Middle East, fostered by their shared aim to limit Iran and prevent Arab states from aligning against them, will preserve their relationship through most external shocks.
Intensifying U.S. efforts to find regional allies it can rely on to contain Iran helps keep the two countries together.
Turkey's defense of Palestinian statehood will always be a caustic wedge between the two: While it provides Turkey with important credibility in the Muslim world, it conflicts with Israel’s defense strategy.

Israel and Turkey appear to be testing the waters in preparation for resuming diplomatic relations. Officials from the two countries are thought to have met in the United Arab Emirates last month to discuss improving their diplomatic ties, which have been on pause since May. Other signs also point to a rapprochement: Turkey recently sent an economic attache to Israel, and Israel recently opened an internal job listing for an ambassador to Turkey. The two countries -- sometime allies, sometime enemies -- are again being pushed toward reconciliation as they move to counter Iran, cope with U.S. demands and defend their positions in the Middle East....

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