Turkey hardly to defend Gaza aid flotilla and to make life hard for Israel

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Turkey’s threat to send warships to protect aid convoys to Gaza is unlikely to trigger  conflict with Israel, but the dramatic deterioration in relations between the one-time allies could jeopardise Israeli energy ambitions.Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the stakes with Israel on Thursday, saying he would dispatch the navy to escort any future flotillas to Gaza and prevent a repeat of an Israeli raid last year that killed nine Turks.Ankara has already downgraded diplomatic relations with Israel and halted defence trade following the Jewish state’s confirmation last week that it would not apologise for the deadly 2010 assault on a boat challenging its Gaza blockade.Despite the intensifying rhetoric, it seems hard to believe that the region’s two biggest military powers, both important allies of the United States, would face off over the Palestinian enclave Gaza, which is ruled by the Islamist group Hamas.“It won’t turn into a military confrontation, because the Turks aren’t stupid. It’s absurd to think a Nato country would get into a military confrontation with Israel,” said Gad Shimron, a retired Mossad officer and defence expert.By the same token, it seems unlikely that Erdogan will let the matter drop, with many analysts seeing his repeated criticism of Israel as a calculated bid to boost his standing in the Arab world and assume a dominant role in the Middle East.Tellingly, he made his comments to Al Jazeera, the pan-Arabic television station, upping the ante just days before he is due to visit a trio of Arab countries, including Egypt, which has itself fallen out with Israel in recent weeks.“Erdogan thinks the easy target is Israel, but he doesn’t know if it will pay off. He is taking a gamble,” said Yossi Shain, a professor at both Tel Aviv University and Georgetown University in Washington.“He wants to be the champion of the Arab and Islamic world, but it is not clear whether he can.”.../129