Pistol shots before the break of down on May 31, 2010, signaled the plummeting of Israel-Turkey relations to an all time low. The shooters, frogmen from the IDF’s elite Shayetet 13 naval commando unit had rappelled from black-hawk helicopters onto the deck of the Mavi Marmara in the Eastern Mediterranean, where they were swarmed by a stick-wielding mob.When the dust settled, nine Turkish citizens lay dead, seven IDF commandos were injured, and Israel was dealing with a fresh round of international condemnation.RELATED:Above the Fray: When Turkey felt betrayed by IsraelTop Middle East story of 2010: The Stuxnet virusAnalysis: Ups and downs in Europe-Israel 2010 tiesThe Mavi Marmara was one of six ships taking part in the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” organized by the Free Gaza Movement and Turkish charity IHH that sought to break the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip. The ships brought some humanitarian supplies, but their most important cargo were the cameras and broadcasting equipment that aired their message around the world in real time, before the Israeli hasbara machine could even get its shoes on.The deaths on board the Mavi Marmara shone a light on the Gaza blockade in ways which surpassed Hamas is Gaza's wildest dreams. Instantly, people across the world began to question whether the blockade was purely a security measure, or a form of collective punishment against the people of Gaza meant to weaken the ruling Hamas government. For the first time, the international community began to ask why items such as pasta or coriander were intermittently banned by the Israeli blockade, which on paper was presented as a security measure meant to protect the Israeli homefront from Hamas rockets and Iranian-supplied armaments that would rain death on the Israeli countryside if the blockade was lifted. Less than a month later, Israel approved a plan to allow virtually all non-military items to enter the Gaza Strip. Egypt also eased their restrictions on the territory, opening the Rafah border crossing on the border with Gaza.On the Israeli side, many saw the incident as the swan song of Israel’s solid, mutually beneficial military and economic alliance with Turkey. Instantly, large swaths of the Israeli public forgot that Turkey was the first Muslim country to recognize Israel (in 1949) and to disregard the strategic strength and billions of dollars in free trade annually that Israel gains from the alliance. Instead, Israelis began to question the merits of an alliance with Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey, which long before the Gaza flotilla raid showed signs of a worrying tilt away from the secular, western foundations of the modern Turkish republic.In a sense, the raid on the flotilla was the culmination of a decline in Israel’s relations with Turkey ever since Erdogan became prime minister in 2003. The writing was already on the wall, with a number of highly publicized incidents including Erdogan’s verbal sparring with President Shimon Peres at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2009, and Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon highly publicized upbraiding of Turkish diplomat Ahmet Oguz Celikkol in January 2010, who he forced to sit in a low chair in a tense meeting held to express Israeli concerns over a grossly anti-Semitic miniseries aired on Turkish TV.Like other military and diplomatic conflagrations in the past, the Gaza flotilla’s aftermath was most felt in its exposure of Israeli weaknesses. Instantly, the world saw that even with Israel’s vaunted military and feared intelligence agencies, the country had no solution for a lightly-armed group of protesters playing chicken with the Israeli navy on the high seas. The flotilla also showed that in the absence of a sweeping, precise military solution, Israel’s diplomats fall far short of filling the void.
Top Israeli news story of 2010: The Gaza flotilla raid
Like other military and diplomatic conflagrations in the past, the Gaza flotilla’s aftermath was most felt in its exposure of Israeli weaknesses.
Pistol shots before the break of down on May 31, 2010, signaled the plummeting of Israel-Turkey relations to an all time low. The shooters, frogmen from the IDF’s elite Shayetet 13 naval commando unit had rappelled from black-hawk helicopters onto the deck of the Mavi Marmara in the Eastern Mediterranean, where they were swarmed by a stick-wielding mob.When the dust settled, nine Turkish citizens lay dead, seven IDF commandos were injured, and Israel was dealing with a fresh round of international condemnation.RELATED:Above the Fray: When Turkey felt betrayed by IsraelTop Middle East story of 2010: The Stuxnet virusAnalysis: Ups and downs in Europe-Israel 2010 tiesThe Mavi Marmara was one of six ships taking part in the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” organized by the Free Gaza Movement and Turkish charity IHH that sought to break the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip. The ships brought some humanitarian supplies, but their most important cargo were the cameras and broadcasting equipment that aired their message around the world in real time, before the Israeli hasbara machine could even get its shoes on.The deaths on board the Mavi Marmara shone a light on the Gaza blockade in ways which surpassed Hamas is Gaza's wildest dreams. Instantly, people across the world began to question whether the blockade was purely a security measure, or a form of collective punishment against the people of Gaza meant to weaken the ruling Hamas government. For the first time, the international community began to ask why items such as pasta or coriander were intermittently banned by the Israeli blockade, which on paper was presented as a security measure meant to protect the Israeli homefront from Hamas rockets and Iranian-supplied armaments that would rain death on the Israeli countryside if the blockade was lifted. Less than a month later, Israel approved a plan to allow virtually all non-military items to enter the Gaza Strip. Egypt also eased their restrictions on the territory, opening the Rafah border crossing on the border with Gaza.On the Israeli side, many saw the incident as the swan song of Israel’s solid, mutually beneficial military and economic alliance with Turkey. Instantly, large swaths of the Israeli public forgot that Turkey was the first Muslim country to recognize Israel (in 1949) and to disregard the strategic strength and billions of dollars in free trade annually that Israel gains from the alliance. Instead, Israelis began to question the merits of an alliance with Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey, which long before the Gaza flotilla raid showed signs of a worrying tilt away from the secular, western foundations of the modern Turkish republic.In a sense, the raid on the flotilla was the culmination of a decline in Israel’s relations with Turkey ever since Erdogan became prime minister in 2003. The writing was already on the wall, with a number of highly publicized incidents including Erdogan’s verbal sparring with President Shimon Peres at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2009, and Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon highly publicized upbraiding of Turkish diplomat Ahmet Oguz Celikkol in January 2010, who he forced to sit in a low chair in a tense meeting held to express Israeli concerns over a grossly anti-Semitic miniseries aired on Turkish TV.Like other military and diplomatic conflagrations in the past, the Gaza flotilla’s aftermath was most felt in its exposure of Israeli weaknesses. Instantly, the world saw that even with Israel’s vaunted military and feared intelligence agencies, the country had no solution for a lightly-armed group of protesters playing chicken with the Israeli navy on the high seas. The flotilla also showed that in the absence of a sweeping, precise military solution, Israel’s diplomats fall far short of filling the void.