Allow me to remain extraordinarily skeptical about nascent Turkish-Israeli rapprochement.
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While meeting Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Ankara last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he believed that "this historic visit will be a turning point in relations between Turkey and Israel. Strengthening relations with the State of Israel has great value for our country."
Turkish-Israeli reconciliation, of course, would be a good thing, with important strategic benefits for Israel. For example, it is important to ensure Turkish cooperation in, instead of opposition to, Israel's gas export plans. Overall, a Jerusalem-Ankara détente would usefully enhance regional stability.
Except that it is hard to believe. Erdogan is a true-blue antisemite of the old school, who believes in classic myths like the Protocols of the Elder of Zion (where Jews control the global banking and media conglomerates, etc.). He honestly hates Israel, and his preference is to lead a pan-Islamic coalition to crush Israel.
Erdogan's state-controlled press has driven an aggressive, antisemitic, and anti-Israel public discourse in Turkey, clearly aimed at delegitimizing Israel. (Will that now change? Israel should be watching this closely.)
Erdogan continues to lead anti-Israel campaigns at every opportunity, including the global assault on Israel regarding Gaza border riots and other conflicts with the Palestinians. His favorite accusation is Israeli "genocide" against the Palestinians, and his favorite Palestinians are Hamas leaders.
Saleh al-Arouri, a top commander of Hamas's military wing and the terror group's deputy political chief, operates from Turkey.
At a summit that Erdogan summoned a few years ago in Istanbul of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation, he libeled Israel with torture of Palestinian children "like the concentration camps during World War II, with methods that would put Nazis to shame."
All the while, Turkey continues to considerably weaken the Western strategic alliance by problematic collaboration with Syria, Iran, China, and Russia – despite Turkey's NATO membership. (There is no mechanism for turfing Turkey out of the alliance).
On the nuclear issue, Erdogan has sided throughout with Iran, declaring Turkish support for Tehran's "peaceful nuclear program" and voting repeatedly against American-initiated sanctions against Iran. Turkish banks openly cooperate with Iranian banks to circumvent Western sanctions.
Furthermore, Erdogan has led a Turkish invasion of Jerusalem. He is investing tens of millions of dollars per year in Islamic missionary (Dawa) activities, renovation of Moslem institutions, holiday handouts, and social networking in eastern Jerusalem – glorifying terrorists and explicitly calling for violent resistance to Israel. Turkish-backed clerics and other radical Islamist actors have led troublemaking on the Temple Mount and other subversive activities.
The Turks seek to weaken Israel's hold in the holy city and to bolster Erdogan's claim to leadership of the Moslem world on a path to a global Islamic sultanate. While it is important not to exaggerate the Turkish threat, Erdogan's interference in Jerusalem clearly needs to be checked.
Israel knows why Erdogan is all-of-a-sudden seeking photo-ops with the Israeli president (and, one assumes, with Bennet and Lapid, sometime soon, too). It is because Turkey is in the dumps internationally, with the Biden administration and global business leaders shunning Turkey. The Turkish economy is in big trouble. Herzog specifically, and Israel more broadly, is Erdogan's "teudat hechsher," his koshering certificate, his badge of renewed respectability.
Israel should give this hechsher to Erdogan only if the Turkish dictator broadly cleans up his act.
I hope that the Prime Minister's Office, National Security Council, Foreign Ministry, and other Israeli security agencies overseeing the new attempt to patch things up with Turkey – are paying attention to all this with sufficient alacrity.
Erdogan needs to be handled cautiously and, yes, respectfully. He also needs to be cut down to size.
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