Just when it looks like the entire world has lost its collective mind, practicality arises from an unexpected source.

Events in Turkey indicate that much of the Turkish public increasingly believes that their Prime Minister blundered by unnecessarily provoking a crisis with Israel.

If crises often provide opportunities, however, the long-term results of the flotilla incident might be just the opportunity to restore Turkish-Israeli relations to where they were before Turkey’s current Islamist government took power.

It now appears that the average Turk — for lack of a better term - approximately 70% of the population who is not part of the political establishment, the academic establishment, or the media — now understands that this crisis has hurt Turkey internationally and politically and that there was no reason for Turkey to provoke Israel.

It looks like the United States isn’t the only nation whose government is experiencing backlash from its citizens.

All over Turkey, people are asking the following questions:

Q: Where is this place called Gaza; who lives there?

A: The Palestinians – not Turks.

Q: Why are they trapped there?

A: Because Hamas is there, and will not work with the Palestinian Authority.

Q: Why should Turkey help them when Egypt – an Arab country - is also blockading Gaza, and none of the rich Arab petrodollar countries is helping the people in Gaza?

A: We are not a country as rich as the Arab petrodollar countries; they should help their own people. The Turkish government, our government, should use its money to help our poor, our laborers, and the people out in the eastern part of our country, nine out of ten of whom do not have enough money to put bread on their tables.

Q: Why then did our Prime Minister provoke this crisis?

A: This is an Arab affair. We are Turks. If the Arabs will not help themselves, and we do not have the basic necessities that we need, why should we worry about them? They do not help their own people, let alone other poor Muslims like ourselves. This is not our affair; we should not have been involved.

One elderly Turk summarized this attitude as follows: Why is there all this commotion about Gaza? There is very little difference between us and the Jews. We go to our mosques and they go to their mosques (i.e., Jewish synagogues). We eat Halal meat and they Jews eat their Halal meat (kosher meat). So, I do not understand why we are trying to protect these Palestinians. Why aren’t the Arabs helping their follow Arabs as we Turks are helping each other?

Erdigan (presumably): Ooops!

Yes, transcending even the game of global politics is one time honored tradition, that of remembering whom ones true friends are.

Moreover, many of these people are beginning to understand the value of the Turkish-Israeli relationship in positive ways they did understand before. For example, Israel helped Turkey, both militarily and internationally, with political support in the United States. For example, Israel and American Jewry have been helping Turkey over the years in Turkey’s lobbying efforts in Congress. Israel has also helped upgrade Turkish military equipment. Israel has also shared with Turkey intelligence information about the terrorist threats facing Turkey.

That’s what I’m talking about!

Continue reading here.

Hat Tip, TIP! (The Israel Project).