The Turkey-US-Israel triangle (Israel Hayom)

– “It seems that every time a Turkish politician comments on Israel they are doing it to tease us. Last week it was the Turkish foreign minister who boasted that his country “succeeded” in isolating Israel and “bringing it to its knees.” Behind the Turkish web of insults stand the Islamist neo-Ottoman leanings of the ruling party, which uses the Gaza flotilla debacle as a vehicle for its vitriol.

Ankara’s fighting words cannot hide the fact that Turkey’s diplomatic and strategic reality is changing, placing their continued hostility against Israel in doubt. Among other things, Turkey cannot ignore the growing tensions between itself and Iran. The tensions are fueled not only by Turkey’s consistent condemnations of Syrian President Bashar Assad – Iran’s close ally – but also, and perhaps mainly, by the significant ideological and practical differences between the two nations’ versions of Islam, as both countries rely on religion to drum up support in the Arab world.

Last week, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader accused Turkey of running a “Western-like secular political structure, not suitable or compatible for Middle Eastern countries in the post-Arab Spring era.” This is not just an ideological contest – this is something concrete. Who will gain influence in Iraq now that the Americans are gone – Shi’ite Tehran or Sunni Ankara? And there are additional contributing factors: Turkey is a member of NATO, which makes it an ally of the “despised” Americans, and it has agreed to host U.S. missiles aimed at Iran. In response, Tehran has threatened that it would target Turkish bases in retaliation for any potential Israeli or U.S. attack on Iran.”

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