In what diplomats and officials are deriding as a “kangaroo court” and a “show trial,” Turkey has opened proceedings in absentia against four Israeli officials that Ankara blames for Israel’s 2010 interception of the terrorist-linked Turkish vessel which was trying to breach Israel’s legal blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. The announcement comes in the aftermath of Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan telling reporters that he intends to personally visit the Gaza Strip, a move that would boost Hamas and to which the U.S. State Department has registered strong objections. Erdogan, whose Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) has seen its regional foreign policy crumble, has become increasingly strident and at times erratic in his hostility toward Israel, insisting to the Washington Post last September that Israel is threatening to wipe Iran off the face of the Earth.

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