The relations between Israel and Turkey have played a decisive role in shaping the foreign policy of both countries over the past three decades, initially promoting closer cooperation in the economic sphere, and later in the strategic and military fields through successive agreements, which were characterized – by third parties but not by themselves – with the term alliance.

Factors influencing the Israeli-Turkish rapprochement during the 1990s emerged with the formation of a new international framework after the end of the Cold War and the rise of the U.S. as the sole global superpower. This new state of affairs made it imperative to reassess the vital interests and priorities of Israel and Turkey, in light of the degradation of their strategic significance in their broader geopolitical space.

The cooperation between Israel and Turkey, at its peak in the 1990s, was less based on the emergence of the two as allies in defending common positions, and more on leveraging factors that could be beneficial to one country or the other. Specifically, we mention the support from the Jewish lobby on Turkish issues before the U.S. Congress or Turkey's mediating initiatives in the efforts to normalize Syrian-Israeli relations.

Additionally, the conclusion of economic contracts and the influx of Israeli capital into the Turkish market further broadened the cooperation, both by providing Israeli know-how and engaging in military equipment transactions, as well as through cooperation between the intelligence services, namely the Turkish MIT and the Israeli Mossad.

However, by the late 2010s, the approach of the two partners seemed to have reached its limits, considering the gradual rift in relations with the Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip in 2008, the verbal exchanges at the Davos Conference in 2009, and particularly the Mavi Marmara incident in 2010.

The policy of utilizing the common interests of Turkey and Israel may have been overly optimistic, failing to take into account the emotional charge of the Turkish people regarding the Palestinian issue. The degradation and "freezing" of diplomatic relations between the two states occurred at a time when Turkey was intensifying its ties with the Arab world and while the international developments of the "Arab Spring" were altering the established order in the region.

In the absence of cooperation with Turkey and with the discovery of energy reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean, Israel subsequently sought new partners to reinforce its geopolitical position and to revive the "doctrine of external periphery" of the 20th century.