Karel Valansi, a Middle East expert and columnist for the weekly newspaper Salom and the website T24 , wrote to Al-Monitor in an email exchange that the recent spat “is an unexpected but not surprising development.” Valansi pointed out that officials from the Israeli Energy and Foreign Affairs Ministries had told her how they were expecting to conclude “a deal for energy trade between the two countries … in a matter of 3-4 months.” She went on, “It looks like the flawless progress achieved in the last couple of months was a dream too good to be true.” Valansi, too, pointed to the role of Turkish domestic concerns in Erdogan’s remarks. “Sparring with Israel was a useful tool to gain and increase domestic support in the past. … There are a lot of conferences and exhibitions going on in Turkey about Jerusalem these days. This may be the result of the approaching Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day), the 50th anniversary of the unification of Jerusalem following the 1967 War which will be c...