Turkey sharply ratchets up its threat of war with Israel. Three Turkish frigates were ordered to the eastern Mediterranean and instructed to disable Israeli military ships if encountered outside Israel's 12-mile territorial waters. This was reported by Turkish naval sources Sept. 12 as Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was due in Cairo for a controversial visit - in defiance of the Egyptian government's effort to cool the crisis in relations with Israel.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan this week coolly moved his country towards an armed clash with Israel – not just over the Palestinian issue, but because he covets the gas and oil resources found opposite Israel's shores. He has ordered Turkish warships to enter the eastern Mediterranean in the belief that by breaking Israel's Gaza blockade, he will win kudos as the first Muslim leader to challenge Israel militarily on behalf of the Palestinians and Arab acclaim as the big shot of the region.

For two years, Turkey has tirelessly maligned Israel, aided its enemies and schemed to destroy its army's strategic value as a key American ally. This campaign hit a serious contretemps in the UN report out Friday, Sept. 2 which justified Israel's Gaza blockade and its navy's interception of a Turkish vessel bent on breaching that blockade, although Israel was assailed for its "excessive response" to the violence of Turkish extremists.  Ankara thereupon expelled the Israeli ambassador and suspended its military accords with Israel.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan applied the brakes to the process of reconciliation with Israel when he learned Wednesday, July 6, that the UN inquiry commission into last year's Turkish-led flotilla had ruled Israel's naval blockade on Gaza legal. Eight Turks and a Turkish-American were killed in a clash with Israeli commandos who boarded the Mavi Marmora. The UN ruling meant that Israel was within its rights and the Turkish vessel's attempt to break the blockade was illegal. 

Despite the regrettable loss of life, Israeli soldiers acted professionally, with restraint and purely in self-defense against the violent resistance they encountered aboard the Turkish Mavis Marmora on May 31, 2010. Their interception of a flotilla aiming to break Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip was legal under international law and so is Israel's naval blockade on Gaza. The nine deaths followed hostile Turkish IHH action against the Israeli boarding unit.

Muammar Qaddafi's son Seif al Islam may have made too much of a splash by consigning the MV Almathea (Al Amal) to challenge Israel's Gaza blockade: As Israeli warships encircled the ship Wednesday, July 14, a group of US Democratic senators' interest was drawn to his international charity which commissioned the expedition and called for its links with BP to be investigated.
The ship is now on a westerly course for Egyptian El Arish - or Libya.

Ominous clouds gathered over the Mediterranean Thursday, June 24 after Israel announced that ships bound for Gaza would be deemed "enemy vessels" and halted by its navy. Hizballah shot back with a threat of violent retaliation, while Israel's northern commander warned the IDF was prepared to deal with threats from Lebanon by "appropriate means."
Fearing war, Lebanese PM Saad Hariri acted to stall the sea campaign.

Barring surprises, the sea campaign against Israel's naval blockade of Gaza spearheaded by Turkey may have run its course, debkafile's Middle East sources report. Beirut is close to abandoning the Lebanese convoy, Damascus has turned away requests to use its ports, Cyprus is negative and even the Iranian expedition appears snarled. In the last 24 hours, Israel won US, European and Mahmoud Abbas' support for its sea blockade after its cabinet approved the delivery of all civilian goods to Gaza over land.

Shin Beit (Israel's internal security service) director Yuval Diskin sternly warned Tuesday, June 15, that the steps embarked on by prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and defense minister Ehud Barak to ease the Gaza siege gravely imperiled Israel's security.
Transferring inspections of Gaza-bound vessels from the Israeli Navy to international monitors or foreign ports would leave Israel wide open to a "gigantic security breach." On land, he said, Hamas had piled up 5,000 missiles, a few of which could reach Tel Aviv.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, after responding to US pressure for establishing an independent public probe of the May 31 flotilla incident, is also quietly falling back under the international clamor to ease the sea and land siege of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip by installing international supervisory mechanisms in place of the Israeli military and navy.

debkafile's political sources note for the first time, Israel has exposed its military activities to a public probe in which international figures take part.

The US military engineers helping Egypt build a steel anti-smuggling wall along the strategic Philadelphi Route dividing Gaza from Sinai were suddenly recalled this week, debkafile's military sources report, during the talks President Joe Biden and Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak held in Sharm el-Sheikh. Anxious to placate Turkey, Washington abandoned its half-a-billion dollar investment in the steel wall and turned to reviewing the Netanyahu government's future.

Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad assured Turkish leaders whom he met in Istanbul Tuesday, June 8 that Iranian "aid" vessels heading for Gazan waters within days will not shrink from a head-on clash with Israel.  On the Turkish-Israeli conflict, he said it would "change many issues in the world and mark the final countdown for Israel's existence."
debkafile reports Iranian and Turkish leaders agreed to synchronize the hoped-for clash with the Security Council sanctions vote - as a stunt for heading it off.

Israel, Turkey and the Hamas have quietly embarked on a war at sea, debkafile's military sources report. Monday, June 7, Israeli commandos intercepted Hamas frogmen heading for a large-scale seaborne attack on an Israeli target and at least four were killed. Turkey is investigating suspicions of a covert Israeli hand behind the deadly Kurdish terrorist attack on its Iskenderun base on May 31. Our sources disclose that Ankara posted anti-air missiles there in mid-May to protect Syria and Hizballah against potential Israeli air strikes.

Turkey threatened Friday, June 4 to break off relations unless Israel apologizes for the commando raid on its flotilla as prime minister Recep Erdogan hurled more abuse on Jerusalem and declared: "I do not think Hamas is a terrorist organization." Earlier, Israel offered offer to allow pro-Hamas activists aboard the Rachel Corrie to monitor its civilian freight's entry to the Gaza Strip - to no avail. A tape just released recorded Turkish activists on flotilla as saying before attacking Israeli commandos: "Remember September 11."