Sunday, August 28, 2011

Changing Alliances

Very interesting things are happening in the Middle East. Erdogan's Turkey is becoming more Islamist, letting go of its relationship with Israel.

Israel has concluded that if it can't be friends with the Turks, then the Turks' long-time enemies the Greeks and their allies on Cyprus are an acceptable alternative. This also has energy-drilling implications for both.

Another way Israelis can make trouble for the newly-unfriendly Turks is to provide technical assistance for the Kurds, another historic enemy of the Turks. Turks are now bombing Kurds in northern Iraq. There is talk about the Arab spring morphing into a Kurdish summer, with Israeli help.

Israeli foreign policy echos the words of Lord Palmerston, from Bartleby.com, citing Hansard's Parliamentary Debates (3rd series, vol. 97, col. 122), for March 1, 1848:
We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow.