Strategic Assessment

In recent years, and especially since Operation Cast Lead and the Gaza flotilla incident, Israel and other Western states have followed the apparent reversal in Turkey’s foreign policy and its distancing from the West with some trepidation. One of the manifestations of this about-face is the growing closeness between Turkey and Iran, along with other members of the radical axis. Turkey is not a party to the extensive criticism of the radicals in the Middle East that is voiced in the West and the moderate Arab states. At times it departs sharply from the positions of other NATO members, for example, in its “mediation” proposal on the Iranian nuclear issue together with Brazil, its opposition to intensifying the sanctions against Iran, and its resistance to the deployment of anti-missile defense systems on its soil.