Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak on Whether Hamas Doomed Israeli-Turkish Relations

The Tikvah Podcast

Tikvah

Judaism, Politics, Religion & Spirituality, News

4.6 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 3 November 2023

⏱️ 71 minutes

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Summary

After years of acrimony, several recent meetings between Israeli and Turkish leaders seemed to suggest the possibility of a gradual thaw in relations between the two most powerful nations in the Middle East. Such a reconciliation, combined with a growing relationship with the Arab states in the Gulf, might have firmed up an alliance structure in the region powerful enough to deter Iran and its many proxies.

The Hamas massacre on October 7 has thrown a wrench into that possibility. Senior Hamas operatives live in Turkey and operate there under its protection. On October 11, Erdogan criticized the “shameful methods” that Israel used to strike Hamas targets. On October 25, he disputed the idea that Hamas is a terrorist organization at all, calling them instead mujahadeen—soldiers engaged in jihad. On October 27, he called Israel a war criminal and a pawn of the West. Ambassadors in both nations have been recalled.

Are relations doomed to degrade further? Can they be rescued? Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak is a longtime observer of Turkey based at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security and also at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University. In June 2022, he wrote an essay in Mosaic looking at Israeli-Turkish relations. Here, he speaks with Mosaic editor Jonathan Silver to look at that question in the wake of October 7.

Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.

Transcript

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0:00.0	On September 19, 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Turkish President Recep
0:14.0	Taip Erdogan met in New York.
0:16.7	That meeting followed an earlier visit to Turkey in March 2022 by Isaac Herzog,
0:22.1	Israel's president and ceremonial head of state.
0:24.8	This meeting was in turn preceded by a visit from Israel's foreign minister at the time,
0:29.4	yet your lapid.
0:30.7	After years of acrimony, these meetings seemed to suggest the possibility
0:35.0	of a gradual thaw in relations between Israel and Turkey,
0:39.0	perhaps the two most powerful militaries in the region. Such a reconciliation,
0:43.8	combined with a growing relationship with the Arab states and the Gulf, might have brought
0:48.5	about an alliance structure that could have been a powerful deterrent force against Iran and its proxies. The Hamas massacre
0:56.6	in the Western Negev on October 7th changed everything. In the domain of Israeli-Turkish relations,
1:02.8	some elemental facts could no longer be dispensed with. Turkey supports Hamas. Senior Hamas operatives
1:10.4	live in Turkey and operate there under its protection.
1:13.6	Israel does not trust Erdogan and the government he leads, and Erdogan gains enormous political
1:19.6	advantage by his embrace of jihadists and his severe and false criticisms of Israel.
1:25.6	Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Silver. On October 11th, Erdogan
1:31.2	criticized the, quote, shameful methods that Israel used to strike Hamas targets. On
1:36.3	October 25th, Erdogan disputed the idea that Hamas is a terrorist organization at all,
1:41.4	calling them instead Mujahad. That is, soldiers engaged in jihad,
1:45.6	in Muslim holy war. In an address to a mass pro-Palestinian rally in Istanbul on October 27th,
1:52.6	Erdogan called Israel a war criminal and a pawn of the West. Ambassadors have been recalled,
	...

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