By Herb KEINON The Jerusalem Post 03/01/2011
The deterioration in Turkish-Israeli ties has much to do with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's efforts to gain domestic support from those on his political right, according to a US cable placed on the WikiLeaks web site on Monday.
The cable, written on October 13, 2009, by US ambassador to Turkey James Jeffrey and coming months before the Mavi Marmara incident that sent ties between the two countries on a downward spiral, said that while the Turkish Foreign Misty and the "Turkish General Staff agree with us that a strong Turkey-Israel relationship is essential for regional stability, PM Erdogan has sought to shore up his domestic right political flank at the expense of this relationship."
Jeffrey wrote that while Erdogan's "Islamist-leaning" Justice and Development Party is "squarely in the driver's seat," it "fears an erosion of its political base from more conservative/Islamist parties." Jeffrey wrote that Erdogan's high-profile outburst against President Shimon Peres at the World Economic Forum in Davos shortly after Operation Cast Lead in 2009 was the "first in a series of events the results of which we and his staff have sought to contain.
