Turkey has long been a key ally of Israel.  In 1949, Turkey was the first Muslim state to recognize Israel.  Since that time, both Israel and Turkey have recognized the importance of this relationship, investing in diplomatic, military/security, strategic cooperation, and economic ties.   Since that time, the US Jewish community has also strongly supported this relationship, recognizing that for Israel, a robust alliance with Turkey - a major Muslim country with significant political weight in the region - was of enormous value on all fronts.

Unfortunately, in recent years relations between Israel and Turkey have become increasingly strained.  Where in the past Israel and Turkey did not see eye-to-eye on every issue, but still succeeded in placing the bilateral relationship above any disagreements, tensions that came to the fore with the 2008-2009 Gaza War and that have deepened since that time - particularly in the wake of the May 2010 Gaza flotilla debacle - today threaten to derail the Israel-Turkey relationship.    

This erosion of the Israel-Turkey bilateral relationship has serious potential negative ramifications for Israel, threatening to deprive Israel of an important and politically powerful ally in the region - one who has, and in the future can, represent a bridge to the Arab and Muslim worlds.  Indeed, as recently as two years ago Turkey was playing a central role in efforts to broker a peace agreement between Israel and Syria.

This erosion also threatens to harm US-Turkey relations, with potential negative ramifications for US national security interests in the region, including its policies vis-à-vis Iraq, Iran and Syria.   

Neither Turkey, nor Israel, nor the United States, is blameless in this cycle of escalating tensions.  

The growing sense that Turkey's government has become more Islamist and is more interested in projecting its power into the Middle East through improved relations with countries like Iran and Syria, even at the expense of Israel, is a source of understandable unease in Israel and among supporters of Israel.  Intemperate public statements and actions by Turkey's leaders and tolerance for hostile depictions of Israel in the media - in particular with respect to Gaza - make it ever more difficult for the Israeli government and its people to view Turkey as a friend, let alone a strategic ally and partner.  Turkey's apparent solidarity with  Hamas and support for the May 2010 Gaza flotilla, which represented a direct and unprecedented challenge to a Gaza blockade that most Israelis viewed as vital to their security, only deepened the sense that Turkey is no longer behaving as an ally of Israel.

The growing sense that the government of Israel is deliberately seeking to undermine Turkey has been fed by actions and statements by members of the Netanyahu government that appear expressly intended to humiliate Turkey and denigrate its importance as an Israeli ally.  Israeli actions and policies that are inconsistent with the goal of achieving Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab peace - whether with respect to Gaza, Jerusalem, or settlements in the West Bank - make it ever more difficult for the government of Turkey to stand with Israel before its own people and before the world.  Such policies include the Gaza blockade, which in the wake of the Gaza flotilla debacle Israel decided to begin loosening, with Israeli officials recognizing publicly that the land blockade on civilian goods, at least, was not necessary for Israel's security. 

The eight years of zero progress on the peace process under President Bush, culminating in Operation Cast Lead, helped turn Turkey's alliance with Israel into a political liability for the Turkish government and fed animosity toward Israel inside Turkey.  Today the absence of a credible peace process that can deal with, among other things, the problems in Gaza - the promise of which was offered by President Obama in Cairo in June 2009 - perpetuates the kind of crises that drive the escalation in Turkey-Israel tensions.  

The imperative now - for Turkey and Israel - must be to work to prevent further erosion of the Israel-Turkey alliance and to begin rebuilding it.  The imperative for the United States must be to engage with both of these allies to help them in this effort, and to support this effort by engaging resolutely and energetically to address the situation in Gaza and to achieve Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab peace.