Over the past few months, Turkey has been hinting that it would like to pursue a diplomatic rapprochement with Israel. Bilateral trade relations between the two countries continue to thrive, but diplomatic ties are minimal, at best.
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Ankara, it seems, seeks to come in from the diplomatic cold. Last week, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz was invited by his Turkish counterpart to attend an international summit on regional and global matters. Energy is a field in which Turkey seeks to bolster ties with Israel and Steinitz is highly likely to accept.
Jerusalem's policy vis-à-vis Ankara should be one of "trust but verify" as there is no reason at this point to believe that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – a friend turned virulent critic – has changed.
Still, the fact of the matter is that Erdogan has never crossed any red lines and that his rhetoric was designed to curry favor with constituents while economic and other ties continued to be strong.
The Turkish president has been gradually falling from grace in his own country and across the Middle East. His vision of regional Turkish hegemony was rendered hollow by the defeats dealt to the Muslim Brotherhood in Arab states, and Ankara has missed its chance to collaborate on natural gas explorations with Greece, Cyprus, Israel and Egypt.
All this, however, pales in comparison to the ominous shadow cast by the Biden administration. Washington reserves its soft tones and placating messages for the Iranian enemy while verbally pounding its allies in the region.
First came the Saudis and now it is Turkey's turn. Over the weekend, the US recognized the 1915 atrocities against Armenians as genocide – something presidents before him avoided. Erdogan simply doesn't enter into Biden's considerations.
The fear of Washington's moves in the political, security, and especially economic spheres is effectively pushing Ankara in Israel's direction.
True, Jerusalem and Ankara are unlikely to resume the close alliance they once shared, as ties seemed doomed to forever be clouded by Erdogan's gaffes, but the two countries have many common interests on which to cooperate, from the Iranian issue to the Syrian question, to harvesting natural gas from the Mediterranean.
It is also worth remembering that Turkey is no more hostile to Israel as some of our Arab neighbors, such as Jordan or Egypt, with whom we have peace treaties, but where economic ties do not run as deep.
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