Israel, Turkey, Iran and the Arab Uprisings.

international | anti-war / imperialism | other press Friday September 16, 2011 13:57 by Yassamine Mather

Yassamine Mather writes on developments in the Middle East and North Africa. She analyses the breach between Israel and Turkey and the continuing Israeli threat .

The world is only just beginning to realise the international consequences of the Arab awakening. Of course, Israel was the first to express concerns in the first days of the protests against president Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. It joined Saudi Arabia in warning the Obama administration that Mubarak’s downfall would endanger the ‘peace process’ with the Palestinians.

Events in the last few weeks have proved them both right. First came the deterioration of Israeli-Turkish relations. For decades Turkey has been the single most important economic partner of the Zionist state. However, relations between this key Nato ally and Israel broke down after Israel refused to apologise for its deadly 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that resulted in the death of eight Turks and a Turkish-American. In response, Turkey expelled several senior Israeli diplomats, suspended military cooperation and boosted naval patrols in the eastern Mediterranean.

To prevent a repeat of the provocation, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Turkey would send warships to escort future aid boats leaving its territory for Gaza. His comments to Al Jazeera television were the first time Turkey had made clear its willingness to use force to protect ships attempting to break Israel’s blockade of coastal Palestinian territory - a significant ratcheting up of tensions. Sensing its growing international isolation, Israel stated that such a move would be “grave and serious”.

... So it is no surprise that Tehran’s nuclear programme is once again making headlines - Israel supporters Tony Blair and Dick Cheney cynically used the 10th anniversary of 9/11 to exaggerate the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear developments. According to Cheney, “Iran represents an existential threat, and [Israel] will do whatever they have to do to guarantee their survival and their security.”

The new director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, general Yukiya Amano, contributed to the scaremongering when he once again raised the issue of Iran’s non-cooperation with inspectors. President Nicolas Sarkozy of France warned last week that “military, nuclear and ballistic ambitions constitute a growing threat that may lead to a preventive attack against Iranian sites, which would provoke a major crisis that France wants to avoid at all costs.”