Before Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to power some 20 years ago, Israel and Turkey were strategic allies. "In fact, the alliance with Turkey was the most important for Israel's national security other than the alliance with the US," a senior Israeli diplomatic official told Al-Monitor this week on condition of anonymity.

Relations between the countries were intimate, and more importantly, relations between the Israeli security establishment and the Turkish military were strong and based on deep cooperation and common interests. The two countries hosted each other's top brass. Israel was a major supplier of weapons and technology to Turkey, upgrading its tanks and assisting it with drone technology, while Turkey provided Israel with regional strategic support.

"These were the only two democracies in the Middle East," the source added, "and that is how they behaved. The IDF had an almost independent relationship with the Turkish army, which holds the role of 'defender of Turkey’s democracy', and it seemed that this arrangement would last forever."

Those days are gone. Erdogan severed this alliance almost in one fell swoop, conducted a purge at the senior levels of the Turkish army and took his country in an opposite direction, identifying with the Hamas movement in Gaza associated with his own Justice and Development Party. Relations deteriorated, ambassadors were recalled from both capitals and a chill settled over the Ankara-Jerusalem axis.