Turkish officials are evaluating what if any diplomatic damage will result from new evidence of past anti-Semitic remarks by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Samuel Westrop of the Institute for Middle Eastern Democracy just published a series of old comments documented by Western and Turkish sources and going back...

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Turkey’s diplomatic campaigns against Israel are negatively affecting NATO’s operational capabilities, according to Israeli Deputy National Security Chief Eran Lerman. Turkish officials have blocked Israeli participation in a range of international cooperative programs, including counterterrorism forums and forums dedicated to promoting renewable energy. By limiting Israeli participation in NATO exercises...

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Turkey has blocked NATO initiatives designed to enhance the alliance’s cooperation with Israel, according to statements made this week by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Substantively, the claims are likely to cause frustration in Washington and elsewhere, as NATO cooperation with regional allies is seen as crucial to the U.S.’s ability...

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Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has again launched an attack on the “Judaization” of Jerusalem, calling on Islamic countries to wage a “fierce and brutal” campaign against Jewish control of the Jewish state’s capital city: He also called on these countries to invest in various projects in east Jerusalem and...

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An Israeli official dismissed renewed Turkish diplomatic moves against Israel as “brazen hypocrisy,” after Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Wednesday told delegates at an Islamic conference in Cairo that the Jewish state has become an international “pariah.” Citing a recent report by the UN Human Rights Council calling on Israel to evacuate...

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Israeli outlets from across the political spectrum are criticizing Turkey over what Israeli officials are describing as Ankara’s “brazen hypocrisy” in lashing out against Israel on a variety of issues. Analysts and pundits have expressed surprise that Turkey, a country described as having “ethnically cleansed the northern part of Cyprus...

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U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro is declaring that an upcoming trip by President Barack Obama to Israel will “strengthen the ties” between the two strong allies. Shapiro emphasized the “special bond” shared by the two countries, grounded in among other things Israel’s status as the “only democracy in the...

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The air strikes on a weapons convoy in the Lebanon-Syria border area and on a suspected weapons facility northwest of Damascus underscore the complexity of the new security situation Israel will confront in 2013. It seems that in the Middle East, despite the euphoria of the “Arab Spring,” it’s more...

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Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal used a recent speech, carried by Arabic-language media outlet Al-Hayat, to emphasize that Hamas will not accept a Palestinian state alongside Israel. His statement is in tension with recent second-hand leaks the effect that Mashaal was ready to compromise on Hamas’s commitment to the eradication of the Jewish state. The stance...

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Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu over the weekend lashed out at Israel over the reported strikes, urging  the Bashar al-Assad regime – against which Turkey has been waging a two-year proxy war inside Syria – to retaliate against Jerusalem. Davutoglu, described by US diplomatic cables as “exceptionally dangerous” and “lost in neo-Ottoman Islamist fantasies”,...

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