Author: Josef Olmert, Ph.D.

Turkey was another Middle Eastern country, alongside Iran, which from day one of Israel’s existence was regarded as a likely and desirable friend, possibly an ally, of the Jewish state. The story of the relationships between Israel and Turkey can be considered a typical Middle Eastern story in as much as it is based on a long historic legacy whose implications are felt to this very day.

Many so-called experts have already closed the chapter titled the Syrian civil war. For them, the war is over, Assad won, and now we can go back to deal with the least non-existent but most talked-about conflict in the Middle East, that is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

It is arguably the case that momentous events are happening in the Middle East with regard to Israel’s position there. Put in sum, the political outcome of them is the transformation of Israel’s role from being the hated bogey man out of the system of Middle East regional relations to becoming a legitimate actor within this very system.

The ISRAEL-UA -US dramatic announcement was actually not a well-kept secret, as speculation swirled for a long while, that ”something” was cooking up. Frequent not-so-secret visits of Head of Mossad in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, flights of Emirates Airlines to Tel Aviv, Israeli sportspeople competing in the UAE with Hatikva played there, and the Israeli flag raised.