The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and Turkish Foreign Policy

Abstract

In our increasingly globalizing world, there is one thing that has the potential to affect all of our lives in the same detrimental way. Regardless of nationality, religion, or language terror challenges people's lives and changes them in ways that one cannot reverse. In such situations the Palestinian Question is one of the first issues brought about by terrorists to justify their actions.The world's attention is many times shifted away from the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict to other incidents which are believed to be in need of a more urgent reaction. However, the Palestinian Question remains the source of many ills that in turn disrupt the security and stability of not only the Middle East but the whole world. For years, the dominance of individual leaders from both the Palestinian, as well as the Israeli side have been strongly felt in their policy making process, respectively. Unique ambitions, suspicions, and inflexibilities of these leaders have always hindered the peace attempts in one way or the other. At the same time, the biased proposals and peace plans of the United States and few attempts by the not that fervent European countries, have not worked and actually worsened the situation.Up till now, Turkey has not taken an active role in the Middle East Peace Process, either. It has only made declarations in support of the Palestinian cause and acted in line with the decisions of the international community. However, it has a more thorough knowledge of the history, and has a better grasp of the dynamics of the region than either the United States, or the European countries, which have come up with peace plans and proposals that were rather futile. It also has good relations with both the Palestinians and the Israelis at the same time, which is an asset which none of the countries of the region acquire.At a point where all efforts by powers foreign to the region have failed, it is time for Turkey to make initiatives of its own to bring the sides together to directly discuss the most critical issues. As time proved, it is pointless to plan a cooling off period, expecting confidence building measures to be of any use. At this point in time, hoping the sides will start negotiating without any hatred towards and suspicions of each other would be utterly naive. Thus, it is most essential that discussions start with critical final status issues, such as the right of return of refugess, the status of Jerusalem and the borders of the Palestinian state.