End of Israel's Periphery Alliance

Reports that Turkey would halt military cooperation with Israel and not send back the ambassador it withdrew after the deadly Israeli commando operation to stop a Gaza aid convoy make it apparent that the partnership between Ankara and Jerusalem are coming to an end. Moreover, the rupture in the relationship between these two governments indicates that one of the major components in Israeli national security -- the so-called Periphery Doctrine of forming alliance with non-Arab states in the periphery of the Middle East, with which Israel had not direct conflict, including Turkey, Iran and Ethiopia, as well with ethnic and religious minorities, like the Maronites in Lebanon and the Kurds in Iraq -- has been tossed into the dustbin of history.