Israeli foreign policy towards Turkey since 2011: from adverse asymmetry to equivalence?

Turkey was the first Muslim-majority country to recognise Israel de facto in 1949. Since then, Israeli foreign policy towards Turkey has generated stimulating academic debate, converging around the assumption that Israeli foreign policy towards Turkey is defined by an adverse asymmetry (Bengio in The Turkish-Israeli relationship: Changing ties of Middle Eastern outsiders, 2004 and in Insight Turkey 11(2):43-55, 2009; Inbar in Israel Affairs 11(4):591-607, 2005) that favours Turkey. Israel, it has been argued, has always been in the position of courting Turkey, the senior partner in the relationship. This article challenges this contention. It proposes a new analytical framework that encompasses foreign policy friction, discord and alignment and an integrative approach to examine the strategic, economic, military and energy aspects of Israeli foreign policy towards Turkey. The within-case study methodology employed shows that the confluence among the policies pursued by Israel since 2011-amid regional trends and a shift from a unipolar to a multipolar global order-has prompted a shift in Israeli foreign policy from an adverse asymmetry to an equivalence-based engagement with Turkey.