What Has Been Is What Will Be: The 2015 Israeli Elections and the State of Turkish-Israeli Relations

Abstract:

The most notable aspect of the 2015 Israeli parliamentary elections was that the incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has entered his fourth (and third consecutive) term in office as Prime Minister. His views, his right-wing coalition, and his hesitant nature as a decision maker make it unlikely that he will push for serious peace negotiations with the Palestinians. As the quality of Turkish-Israeli relations is very much linked to the state of Israeli-Palestinian relations, a true improvement (beyond just normalization, which in itself is difficult to achieve) in Turkish-Israeli relations remains unlikely.