The basic distrust that Israel’s diplomatic and security leadership feels toward Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was further exacerbated May 26 when a court in Istanbul issued international arrest warrants against senior officers who served as members of the Israeli army’s General Staff when Israel took control of the Mavi Marmara flotilla.

Israeli experts in international law downplayed the significance of this legal procedure; the political leadership called it “a mere political move, one which it is doubtful any respectable country will abide by.”

Turkish diplomatic sources explained that this is part of a long legal process, which will stop the moment Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approves the reconciliation agreement waiting on his desk. Besides the reparations agreement and the approval of facilitating Turkish civilian aid to the people of Gaza, the agreement also includes a mechanism to rescind all legal claims against the IDF officers and the State of Israel. Jerusalem is now waiting to see how things develop, but sources nevertheless stress that there is room for a significant Turkish gesture to prove that the Turkish government is committed to ending the crisis.

Gabby Levy, Israel’s last ambassador to Ankara, was expelled from Turkey following the Mavi Marmara incident. In a conversation with Al-Monitor, he shares his assessment that the Turkish government will ignore the decree issued by the court in Istanbul, and possibly even take steps to ensure that it is not implemented. This would be part of a process of rebuilding trust, which Ankara now is hard at work to promote while it waits for a dawdling Netanyahu to approve the normalization agreement between the two countries.

The feeling that a historic reconciliation between Israel and Turkey is right around the corner has even reached the corridors of the Knesset in Jerusalem. Knesset member Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz), who heads the Knesset lobby to promote regional cooperation, called for a rare and special meeting in the Knesset titled “Israel and Turkey: Heading toward a New Chapter in Their Relationship” together with Mitvim think tank. The session took place May 20. The guest of honor: Yasar Yakis, one of the founders of Erdogan’s AKP (Justice and Development Party) and foreign minister of the first government formed by the Islamist party in 2002.

Read the article in full at Al-Monitor.