 There's a real crisis currently between Turkey and Israel. Previously the two were allies, worked military to military cooperation, all kinds of economic reforms between the two countries. What's happening now and why is this a danger to the region and to relations abroad? They have been tensions in the Turkish-Israeli relationship since the Israeli invasion of Gaza at the end of 2008 and the public confrontation between Turkish Prime Minister Agdogan and Israeli President Shimon Peres in Davos in the early 2009. But the origins of the current crisis go back to the flotilla incident last year when a Turkish ship was boarded by Israeli commandos and eight Turkish citizens and a Turkish-American were killed. The UN investigated this and the report was issued at the beginning of September. That did not satisfy Turkey because it suggested that the Israeli blockade of Gaza was legal and Turkey moved to downgrade its relationship with Israel immediately. It reduced the diplomatic relationship to a second secretary level. It also declared that it would take the issue to the International Court of Justice and also said that Turkey would move to guarantee the freedom of navigation in the eastern Mediterranean, in effect, suggesting that there might be a possible military confrontation between Turkey and Israel. Clearly, the two countries are at loggerheads and that creates additional problems, of course, for the U.S., which has good relations with both Israel as well as Turkey. But the Turkish-Israeli alliance was a very important one. Why do both countries seem so quick to be able to forego it and dismantle it? Well, I think both countries tried to avoid getting into the kind of situation that we're in now, which is really a diplomatic impasse, with the very real possibility that it's going to get worse before it gets better. The two sides had four secret meetings, even as the U.N. was meeting to finalize its report. But they were ultimately unsuccessful. The Israeli government, which is a coalition, was in a difficult position. At least one faction within the coalition was saying that if there was an apology that it would consider relieving the coalition, and Prime Minister Netanyahu obviously decided to pay the diplomatic cost of a worsening relationship with Turkey, then the domestic political cost that an apology would bring. All politics is local, even in the Middle East, I suppose. Absolutely. A big test case coming up for the U.S.-Israel relationship is, of course, the vote on Palestinian statehood at the U.N. this week. What's Turkey's role in that equation? From the very beginning of this campaign to get the U.N. to recognize Palestinian statehood, Mr. Erdogan has been very supportive. He's had a number of meetings with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, including one in Cairo during his visit, and he's been supporting it to such an extent that he'll spend this whole week in the U.N. to support the effort and to maximize the number of votes that the Palestinians would get if it comes up in front of the General Assembly. President Obama has already announced that the U.S. will veto it because it does not believe that a unilateral move by the Palestinians is conducive to a peace settlement. So when the two men meet, this is the issue that they will take up. What is the status of the U.S.-Turkish relationship right now? President Obama, as I said, is being very supportive of an enhanced Turkish role in the Middle East. Throughout the crisis, he's been consulting closely with Prime Minister Erdogan, with whom he has an excellent relationship. In fact, the fact that Turkey is now involved in a difficult relationship with Israel and given the close relations between the United States and Israel, a special relationship, as it's been often called, it seems likely that President Obama will find it more difficult to maintain this close relationship if the Turkish-Israeli relationship worsens. What are the best hopes for repairing these relationships going forward? Well, ideally, Turkey and Israel, perhaps through a quiet secret dialogue, work out a compromise. But that seems unlikely in the near future. As the issue has gone public and both sides have taken public positions, the Israelis show no sign of backing down in the poorest part. The Turkish side doesn't show any inclination to back down. And it seems unlikely that President Obama, with less than a year to go or just the over a year to go to elections, has the kind of domestic political clout to move on this issue if he does not have the support of the friends of Israel on Capitol Hill. So it very much looks as if things could get much worse before they get better. Fascinating dynamics at work here. Bulin, thank you very much for your time. Thank you.