Long considered as a moderate force in the region, post-Ottoman Turkey, much to the dismay of many Turks today, is gradually falling more and more into the camp of the staunch pro-Islamist and anti-Israeli thinking. When looking at the Middle East conflict over time what becomes very worrisome is the amazing ability this conflict has, in continuously expanding in scale, in levels of violence, in the choice of more sophisticated weaponry used on the ground, as well as the introduction of new actors in the arena. Major regional actors who until recently had remained on the sidelines of the conflict. Two examples come to mind: Iran and Turkey.

Since the beginning of the Arab-Israeli dispute in 1948 the two non-Arab regional countries, such as Iran and Turkey, had managed to remain out of the dispute. In fact, both Ankara and Tehran enjoyed excellent relations with Israel at all levels: diplomatic, economic and even military. It was not long before other Arab countries began supporting the Arab cause, although most of it came in the form of verbal support, with the richer countries, such as the oil-producing Gulf States and Libya providing financial aide as well.

For many years after the start of the Middle East conflict only the so-called front-line states, those bordering Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and to a lesser degree, Lebanon, confronted Israel.

Eventually Iraq joined the fight, as did other Arab countries. Again, much of this support came in the form of large checks deposited in the bank accounts of the PLO and other smaller groups. Iraq and Syria began financing their own proxy groups in Lebanon and rivalry between the pro-Syrian Palestinian militias such as Saika, or the odd collection of low-level thugs grouped into an outfit called the Red Cavaliers, a group that owed its allegiance to Rifaat Assad, the brother of then Syrian president Hafez Assad, devoted more time in fighting one another than in directing their fire power at Israel. Some countries did send troops to fight, as did Morocco when Rabat dispatched troops to fight in the October 1973 war alongside the Syrians. However the troops sent by King Hassan were part of a regiment that had taken part in an attempted coup and many of the soldiers had been found guilty of treason by a court marital and sentenced to death by firing squad. The king, however, offered the condemned soldiers the choice of being executed as traitors in Morocco or taking their chances and dying as heroes on the front lines of the Golan.

Now as the Middle East conflict is gradually transforming itself into a far more dangerous conflict with the introduction of long-range missiles and the potential deployment of nuclear weapons, if Iran is ever allowed to become a nuclear power.

After Iran, the first of the regional non-Arab powers shifted from being on excellent terms with Israel during the reign of the shah broke off relations after the Islamic revolution took control of the country, now Turkey, anther powerful region country, has been sliding into the pro-Arab and anti-Israel camp. Indeed Turkey had remained largely neutral, one could even say, had remained friendly to Israel over the years. But the trend appears to be changing with relations between the two countries deteriorating as Ankara, under the leadership of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist Justice and Development Party have been adopting a more and more belligerent attitude towards Israel.

For months now relations between Turkey and Israel have been progressively deteriorating and have reached new lows when Israeli president Shimon Peres and Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan went at it in public over the war in Gaza while on a panel in Davos, Switzerland, during a meeting of the World Economic Forum last January.

At the end of the debate, Erdogan, angered by not being given enough time to respond to Peres, walked off stage, saying he would never come back to Davos. And just last week tension between the two countries escalated when Turkish TV ran a series depicting Israeli soldiers murdering children, drawing a rebuke from the Israeli foreign ministry.

The producer of the series denied he was portraying Israelis, saying, “The uniforms only look similar.”  Turkey’s prime minister said this came about as a result of public concerns over Israel’s war in Gaza late last year, and in which about 1,400 Palestinians lost their lives. Overall, this comes as rather bad news for NATO as Italy and the United States cancelled the exercise, saying they did not want to hold the war games without the Israeli air force.

Claude Salhani is editor of the Middle East Times and the author of the newly released book, “While the Arab World Slept: the impact of the Bush years on the Middle East.”