Thursday, October 27, 2011

Israel Isolated? Israel Has Friends--And Turkey Is Being Left Out In The Cold

Omri Ceren writes that Israel-Cyprus Military Exercises Show Turkey is Increasingly Isolated, based on an article that those exercises themselves may be a not so subtle message to Turkey, which has tried to impose itself into the deep-sea drilling in the Mediterranean:
The exercises are particularly noteworthy in light of a rumored incident over Cypriot airspace, where Israeli and Turkish planes may or may not have almost had an “aerial encounter.” If there are to be incidents in the area as American influence precipitously declines, the signal is presumably being sent–Cyprus and Israel will be on one side and Turkey will be on the other. Israel and Cyprus’s newly forged ties are in line with recent moves made by Athens and Sofia to solidify their mutual defense interests with Israel.
More to the point, it's beginning to seem as if Turkey just can't get along with anybody these days:

In the Arab and Muslim world, Turkey finds itself at odds with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood over democratization, distanced from Iran over missile defense, and alienated from Syria over the Arab Spring. With Russia also alarmed at Turkey’s moves against energy exploration, seemingly the only reliable ally Erdogan has left is President Obama.
Read the whole thing.

By comparison, Israel is not isolated at all.

In fact, even without comparing Israel with Turkey--Israel is doing quite well in forming diplomatic relations--with countries such as states in former Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, most African and Asian states, rising powers such as China and India, with Nigeria, Muslim states such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, countries on the Pacific Rim such as South Korea and Australia, with Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia, Poland, and the Dutch.

As for Turkey, instead of being the New Ottomans--they appear to be the odd man out.

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