The Israeli military operation against the Freedom Flotilla will carry numerous repercussions, the direct political facets of which have started surfacing – especially at the level of the peace talks, Israel's relations with America and the West in general and the increasingly deteriorating image of the Israeli state before the international public opinion and governments alike. In this context, the statement of the Security Council, although unbinding, consecrated the international consensus over the condemnation of the Israeli practices, stressing the necessity to adopt measures to help the blockaded Gaza Strip in a way that completely contradicts Israel's wishes. More importantly on the long run is this first confrontation of its kind in the history of Turkish-Israeli relations. Indeed, Turkey will stage a popular and official reception for its citizens who fell “martyrs” to the bullets of the Israeli soldiers while exercising their “duty of solidarity” with the Palestinian people. In other words, those Turks were “martyred” for the Palestinian cause, and this martyrdom made the Turkish-Israeli confrontation move to a new stage on the qualitative level, extending well beyond the mere Turkish interest in finding a peaceful solution in the region whether through indirect negotiations between Syria and Israel or through the “rehabilitation” of the Hamas movement to render it a partner in the peaceful solution along the Palestinian track. Turkey has entered the heart of the conflict with Israel and has become a party in the confrontation of its policy. In this context, the Israeli military operation against the Freedom Flotilla may be perceived as being an upshot of the conflict between the two wills (and perhaps the two wishes) of Israel and Turkey in regard to the Palestinian cause. Israel adopted the confrontation decision even if by force, and acted this way toward the Freedom Flotilla whose arrival to the Gaza Strip would have entailed the lifting of the Israeli blockade imposed on the Palestinians and would have defeated its policy and undermined its status in the area east of the Mediterranean Sea. For its part, Turkey, which officially sponsored the Freedom Flotilla, gave the impression – through its organizers – that the trip will be conducted regardless of the consequences. Indeed, the organizers rejected the alternatives to deliver the aid to the Strip in a way other than the direct maritime route, thus confirming the symbol of the lifting of the blockade. It is no secret that the Turkish government sponsored the convoy, which included six ships carrying hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists from around the world and hundreds of tons of aid. All of this requires organization and funds extending beyond the capabilities of non-governmental humanitarian organizations, which gives the impression that the Freedom Flotilla is a political process whose organizers wish to send a message saying they have moved from the stage of verbal solidarity to that of practical action in favor of the Palestinian cause. It is also no secret that the organizers and participants – for the most part – belong to the Islamic movement or more specifically to the Muslim Brotherhood, and that they include leaders from this movement from the Maghreb to the Gulf. This revealed that the government of the Islamic Turkish Justice and Development Party, which sponsored the convoy, also sponsored a common action for the Arab Islamic movement – the Sunni one in particular – in a first-of-its-kind political phenomenon. True, Islamic solidarity in general, and particularly that of the Arab Muslim Brotherhood with Hamas, has never faltered. This time however, it was seen under the tutelage of Turkey and its ruling party which – in light of the policy adopted by its government – launched a new action that did not correspond to what is attributed to Hamas in terms of its predisposition toward the extremist anti-peace Iranian policy. Turkey did not engage in a confrontation with Iran, as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan rather sought a peaceful solution for its nuclear problem. However, Turkey as a state utterly rejects Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons since any major power imbalance that may be entailed by this step, will impact Ankara's new role and revived economic and strategic interests in the region. Therefore, instead of a direct confrontation with Iran, Turkey may have chosen to influence the positions taken by Iran, including the Palestinian cause, which necessarily meant a confrontation with Israel. Hence, the bloody Israeli military operation against the Freedom Flotilla conveyed the Israeli rejection of this new Turkish role, as well as its meanings. This was spontaneously expressed by the prime minister of the ousted Palestinian government and leader in Hamas Ismail Haniyah when he talked about Turkey as the “land of the Islamic Caliphate,” and this is what could be deduced from Erdogan's speech before the Turkish parliament yesterday.
