The Turkish government can say nothing positive about Israel. On Sunday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeated his now-classic line that Israel is the “spoiled child” of this region, and that it conducts “state terror.” While there might have been some truth in the Turkish government’s criticism of Israel, its comments seem to carry no weight in Jerusalem.

Erdogan, like his Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, was reacting to Israel’s reported attack in Syria targeting a military convoy and a research facility that supposedly had advanced weaponry destined to reach Hezbollah. Turkey, so far, has not counter-argued that the target was not carrying any weaponry, but it did declare that Israeli war jets should not dare to fly over a Muslim country.

“Is there a secret agreement between [Syrian President Bashar al-]Assad and Israel?” questioned Davutoglu on Saturday. “The Assad regime only abuses. Why don’t you use the same strength that you use against defenseless women against Israel, which you have seen as an enemy since its establishment?”

Two things: Davutoglu must be aware that the minute there was retaliation by Syria against Israel, that would carry a serious potential to turn into a regional war. Second, why has Davutoglu — or the Erdogan government, for that matter — not shown the same sensitivity to the Syrian women abused by the opposition? The fact is that Turkey should have been able to state these wrongdoings without taking sides based on a principled position.