Orientul Mijlociu

Jerusalem is well aware that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has a long list of own interests behind his rapprochement campaign.

Israeli diplomats are dubious but pleased at the burgeoning romance between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Israeli President Isaac Herzog. Erdogan is not very popular in Israel, to put it mildly, while Herzog in his first seven months in office is shaping up as an active, influential, moderating and popular figure, venturing out of the confines of his largely ceremonial post. “With Erdogan, it’s all about interests,” a top Israeli diplomatic source in Jerusalem told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. “With Herzog, it’s his nature. He is like that, a kind of new [late President Shimon] Peres, an inveterate optimist who will always turn risk into opportunity, an enemy into a friend. He simply wants to be influential.”

The Turkish president seeks to bolster Turkey’s ties to the Arab world.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Monday in a fence-mending visit that is part of Ankara’s broader strategy of ending its regional isolation and drawing Gulf funding to its battered economy.

Intelligence agencies and private analysts say there is little doubt Islamic State senior leaders already have a good idea of who will be next to lead the terror group as it seeks to reestablish a physical caliphate and strike at the West.

The Yemen conflict is spilling further out of the war-torn country, posing a growing threat to U.S. military personnel and citizens in the Gulf region.

The United States is sending additional forces and equipment to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) following four Houthi missile and drone attacks on the country in January.

Last week, U.S. President Joe Biden ordered a team of U.S. special operations forces to carry out a raid in northern Syria that is now stoking legal controversy. The mission targeted a residential compound where Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi had been holed up with his family and civilian neighbors. By the end, al-Qurayshi and a disputed number of civilians were dead.

Recent signs of a thaw in ties between Israel and Turkey after a decade of frosty relations are yet another reflection of how the Middle East’s changing regional order is not only leading to the emergence of new relationships, but also to adjustments in old ones. The thaw is in part the result of a regional realignment that has left Ankara more isolated, but it is also being driven by Israel’s shifting priorities and Turkey’s urgent economic and political challenges.