One of the most important and least noticed casualties of Israel’s three-week offensive in Gaza was its alliance with the secular Muslim nation of Turkey. As in 2006 during the bombardment of Lebanon, Turkish public reaction to Israel’s operation in Gaza was extremely negative. But this time the Turkish government was a much more vociferous critic of its military partner, and Prime Minister Erdogan went so far as to raise the possibility of Israel’s expulsion from the United Nations. Erdogan was reportedly livid that Israeli had launched the Gaza strikes without informing him, which was particularly humiliating for the Turkish leader since the strikes effectively sabotaged Erdogan’s efforts to mediate between Israel and Syria. At the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, Erdogan delivered a brief, angry rebuke to Israeli President Shimon Peres and dramatically walked off the stage, winning plaudits in Turkey, Gaza, and Iran.

The episode summed up the growing frustration in Turkey’s AKP (Justice and Development Party) government with Israeli policy and showed the strain that the conflict in Gaza had put on Israel’s only alliance with a Muslim country. More than that, though, it reflected growing Turkish disillusionment with all of its Western allies over the last decade. The greatest danger to Turkey and the West now comes from failing to recognize how Western policies have alienated the Turks and misinterpreting their disillusionment as simple rejection.

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Daniel Larison has a Ph.D. in history and is a contributing editor at The American Conservative. He also writes on the blog Eunomia.