Old grievances, new fears:: Arab perceptions of Turkey and its alignment with Israel

This article sets out to examine the triangle of Arab-Turkish-Israeli relations, focusing on the following questions: What factors influenced Arab-Turkish relations, and to what extent was, indeed, the Israeli factor a decisive or even the major one? How did the Arab countries react to the alignent as individual countries and as a collective, and what were the chances for forming a counter-alliance or any other alignment in the region? How did the alignment impact the Arab-Israeli peace process, and did it really weaken the Arab partners' hand on this issue? What impact did the alignment have on the stability of the region and what were the prospects for the future? We start by examining Arab-Turkish relations, both because of the lovehate characteristics that define them and because Turkey's concerns regarding Arab sensitivities were the major brake on the development of its relations with Israel.