The ‘new Israel axis’

Even a cursory glance at the news, daily columns, and social media commentaries emanating from pro-Israeli and Zionist circles related to Israel for the past few weeks reveals an interesting pattern. Almost all of them draw attention to three points. The first is the new axis emerging in the region after Israel’s massacres in Gaza. The second is the inadequacies of the Obama administration. And the third is Turkey. These three dynamics also appear in exaggerated sentences in the mainstream western media. They have become a “prepackaged discourse” produced by the Israeli propaganda machine, ready to be consumed. These Zionist cliches that are nothing but insults to basic morals and intelligence are presented as “strategic analysis” of the tragedy that’s going on.

Let’s begin with the first “strategic” observation. According to this analysis, Israel, with its massacres in Gaza, built a new axis. This new axis consists of the United States-Israel-PLO-Egypt-Saudi-Arabia-UAE-Jordan. No, this is not a typo. This combination is really being presented as “new”. They have just discovered the axis that has been known to anyone who had the slightest interest in the region for at least the last 30 years. If they had included Assad, Maliki or Iran, even Hezbollah, we could have at least said they were adding a new dimension. The only thing new about the Israel axis is a Syria in which Hamas cannot survive, a cruel Tehran that supports it implicitly, and the destructive role the Baghdad administration played for the last four years.

The issue here is not anti-Israelism. It is clear that some of the governments listed along the Israel axis, especially Syria and Iran, are “anti-Israel”. In other words, being against Israel does not necessarily mean exclusion from the “new axis” fashioned by Israel. The most important factor that brings the “new Israel axis” together is that neither of them hesitates to wage bloody wars against the peoples’ will for change. The axis that is positioned against this “new Israel axis” is composed of Turkey-Syrian resistance-Ikhwan-Hamas and Qatar.

The second so called strategic analysis regards the Obama administration. The effects of the tension that persisted between Netanyahu and Obama until 2013 continue to be felt. The commentaries do not see America’s support of the Gaza massacre, its’ turning a blind eye to the Sisi coup, silence on Syria and becoming a spectator to Maliki’s dictatorship as enough. They are not even rational enough to account for Hamas’s involvement in the process if a ceasefire were to occur with Turkish efforts. They can’t prevent themselves from demanding that Israel’s next operation “should be named Kerry” while simultaneously cursing him. While the Gazans can’t understand why the US has chosen to remain a mere spectator to the massacres, Israel does not even recognise the fact that Hamas will be on the other side of a ceasefire. Another dynamic at play in the stalled ceasefire process is the attempt to prevent Egypt, the most active partner of the new Israel axis, from falling below the threshold set by the ceasefire Turkey and Morsi actualised in 2012. 

The Turkey factor

The last strategic observation relates to Turkey. The observation that Turkey has taken a stance against Israel at every massacre it undertook in Gaza since 2008 is reiterated. Not just that, but it is also mentioned that Turkey is the only barrier between Israel and the full approval of all the actors of the new axis. That is to say, if it weren’t for Turkey to which Israel had to apologise to, it would be free to do as it pleased in the region. At least, America would continue to remain passive and the Arab administrations would not feel Turkey’s pressure. Israel has to face the Turkey factor - a factor that intervened in Israel’s Gaza attacks with Davos in 2008, with Morsi in 2012 and by directly involving Hamas in 2014.

There is nothing new about the role the new Israel axis, fashioned as support for Israel, is supposed to play.  The “new axis” would have existed regardless of Israel’s most recent atrocities in Gaza. What brings the “new axis” together is neither Israel nor Gaza. The real motivation is holding on to the regional status quo. And this translates into Israel biting off more than it can chew in the region. In other words, Israel has to protect both the “new axis” it cites as a success story and all its actors. And everyone who was able to discern the “three Israels and two Americas” that appeared in the last four years with Assad, Sisi and Maliki also has the ability to understand what this really means for the region.  

- Taha Ozhan is the president of SETA Foundation at Ankara. He is an academic, writer and columnist for Star Daily and Daily Sabah. He appears on a weekly political debate show on national TV. He frequently comments and writes for international media. His latest book, Normalization Pains (2014), was about the Kurdish issue. 

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye. 

Photo credit: Buildings destroyed in Gaza by Israeli air strikes (AA)