Mere hours after ordering the Israeli ambassador to Turkey out of Ankara over the so-called Israeli "slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza," and exchanging offensive tweets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, "Grandpa" Recep Tayyip Erdogan is completely satisfied with himself.
Erdogan is visiting in London with the head of the extremist anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox sect Neturei Karta in Britain, Rabbi Elhanan Beck. Beck is heaping compliments on the Turkish president and praising his decision to kick the Israeli envoy out of Turkey. "If everyone acted like you do, the Zionist state would have collapsed long ago," Beck told Erdogan.
Neturei Karta is a curiosity, nothing more than an annoying gimmick. Ultimately, this whole brouhaha can probably be laid at the door of former Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon. When in office, he took care to have the Turkish ambassador to Israel sit on a low stool on camera so that "everyone will see how we scold him from above."
But Erdogan isn't a curiosity. The Turkish president is a charismatic leader with a serious personality disorder and a short fuse. He is a pragmatic Islamist and a stand-out opportunist. His hatred for Israel borders on anti-Semitism, and he cannot hide his frustration with the strength of the Zionist state and its achievements. He is a man of rigid thinking and prejudices, but also clearly a political animal.
The Turkish president is joined at the hip to the Muslim Brotherhood and is known as a devoted admirer of Hamas. But his support for that terrorist organization is rooted less in religious ideology than in his open desire to harness the "crimes of the Israeli occupation" and the "suffering of the Palestinian people" as tools to help make him the leader of the Sunni Islam world. His aspiration is similar to the one driving the Shiite ayatollah regime in Tehran. This is the reason why he summoned the 57 representatives of the member nations of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation – to present them with "ways of responding to Israel's actions against the peace-loving Palestinians in Gaza" and Hamas, which "is only trying to defend its land."
But there is another reason why the Turkish president has recently blown a gasket over Israel. Next month, Turkey will be holding an early parliamentary and presidential election. When they are over, Turkey will begin its transition to a regime state. The position of prime minister will be eradicated, and the president – Erdogan – will have nearly unchecked presidential authority. By expelling the Israeli ambassador and consul and attacking Israel verbally ahead of the election, he will spur the voters to support the man who is about to become their dictator.
The calls in Israel Wednesday to respond to Erdogan's move by completely cutting off ties with Turkey, as well as expressions of regret that Israel agreed to compensate the families of the Turks killed in the raid on the Mavi Marmara in 2010 are understandable, but not justified. The main point of the compensation agreement was to prevent IDF commanders and soldiers from the threat of lawsuits, and it did. Israel and Turkey trading barbs this week are not a reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
As long as Erdogan is the leader of Turkey, there is almost zero chance of any major improvement in Turkish-Israeli relations. But not all Turks are supporters of Erdogan's Justice and Development Party and his government, just like not all Gazans are Hamas supporters.
Israel was right to respond to Erdogan with an eye for an eye, both by immediately rejecting accusations Turkey is making against it and by ordering Turkish diplomats to go home. It has shown that there is a time to let things blow over, and a time to respond. Both countries have sent signals that this is a temporary situation – until the next time the man in Ankara's Presidential Complex loses it.
