Joseph Olmert: Erdogan in Cairo ... Not a New Nasser

The writer is an Adjunct Professor at American University’s School of International Service in Washington, DC. He served as the director of the Government Press Office and was an advisor to several prime ministers.

This is the season of hot air in the Middle East, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is responsible for more than his fair share of it. Not a day passes without a threat/warning/challenge directed at Israel. One threat, which raised a few eyebrows, was that of sending the Turkish navy to escort and defend the next flotilla to Gaza. Hours later, Erdogan’s office published a clarification, according to which the translation to English was faulty. In the meantime, there were those in Israel who recalled the story about the Ottoman admiral who was sent to attack Malta, but couldn’t find it. “Malta yok” (no Malta), he informed his superiors.

Funny stuff aside, the current state of affairs between Israel and Turkey is bad enough. Belligerent statements only serve to inflame it further. Take for example the initial reaction of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. As if by Pavlovian reflex, sources close to Lieberman said he would retaliate by meeting in public with Armenian and Kurdish adversaries of Turkey. Fortunately, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office had enough diplomatic acumen to dismiss the hot air originating from the Foreign Ministry.

Beyond that, the Israeli reaction so far has been very muted, and there are those who argue on the basis of watching Erdogan in action, that this is the right approach if the idea is to calm the high tempers in Ankara. In the meantime, Erdogan is issuing threats against Cyprus over plans to produce newly-discovered natural gas and oil off its shores, a threat that put the Greeks on guard. The Turkish Interior Minister is threatening to invade Northern Iraq to put an end to Kurdish guerrilla operations against Turkey, and in the background there is the Turkish threat to intervene in Syria, in order to put an end to the massacre there. All in all, a very active week for Ankara.

Now Erdogan is visiting Cairo, in what is regarded, somewhat prematurely, as an historic visit, and the anti- Israel rhetoric is already in full force. Ahead of the visit, a choir of adulating commentators were already comparing the Turkish leader to the late Egyptian and Arab icon, Gamal Abdel Nasser…