Turkish-Israeli relations are in a hostile state and both sides have their own opinion as to how things got this way. Israel says that Turkey is looking for regional leadership and therefore is abandoning Israel. Turkey removed the Israeli ambassador and cut military ties because it believes that Israel oppresses Palestinians and they refuse to apologize for killing the activists on the Turkish flotilla last year.
Both countries have followed very similar paths in the past few decades in terms of their political shifts. They were previously run by western educated elites that were aggressively secular and after the political shift they became populist etho-religious countries with a strong sense of nationalism. Turkey and Israel gone back and forth with controversial diplomatic actions such as giving the Turkish ambassador a lower seat at a table with no refreshments or flag.
Currently Turkey is looking to establish its Middle Eastern identity because it feels rejected by Europe. On the other hand Israel is looking to the new Europe because of its quickly deteriorating ties in the Middle East. The United States is working to resolve the conflict because both countries are key allies.
I like this mucho. I didn't know that about Turkey. I think it's interesting how all these things could potentially combine to tear apart the Middle East. That wouldn't be cool considering what's already happened in many Arab nations in the past ten years.
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