Questions arose after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan last week called for the creation of an Islamic alliance for Gaza against Israel’s “expansionism,” with critics wondering what such an alliance’s framework could be and whether it is possible in the first place.
“The only step that will stop Israeli arrogance, Israeli banditry and Israeli state terrorism is the alliance of Islamic countries,” Erdoğan said at a vocational school association event near Istanbul. He also said that the recent steps that Türkiye has taken to improve ties with Egypt and Syria are aimed at “forming a line of solidarity against the growing threat of expansionism,” which he also warned Lebanon and Syria about.
To answer why, there are actually two major developments concerning Ankara. The first is the ongoing threat of regional escalation, which would affect regional stability and trade. The other one is the killing of a Turkish American woman by Israeli troops in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. In fact, the call for this alliance must be read as a continuation of the policy that Türkiye has been pursuing since the start of the war. Within this period, Ankara has undertaken and proposed several initiatives, such as a guarantorship model for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or leading a Gaza contact group, which visited diverse capitals around the globe to raise awareness and discuss the situation. Most recently, Erdoğan also called for a summit of Muslim country leaders to discuss the Gaza war, and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan addressed the issue during his participation in the Arab League meeting.
Moreover, Erdoğan, mentioning normalization with Syria and Egypt within the context of the Gaza war, points to Türkiye attaching strategic importance to these two countries. Fifty-one years ago, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel, leading to the Yom Kippur War. At that time, the Muslim world was united. Today, both Cairo and Damascus preserve their geostrategic significance, bordering Israel in terms of preventing escalation and Israel pushing Palestinians across borders to clear the territories for its own purposes.
Although Erdoğan did not mention the scope of how such an alliance’s structure and what its mission would be, there are diverse ways to coordinate policies. A range of sanctions or countrywide boycotts could be an effective answer rather than the individual boycotts pursued by some part of the populations of Muslim countries right now. Let us not forget the influence of the oil embargo decades ago. Another potential area is to make coordinated diplomatic moves to aim for Israel’s isolation. It surely would be influential as Tel Aviv was just on track to normalize its ties with regional Arab countries before the war. For example, Jordan, Türkiye and Bahrain withdrew their ambassadors from Israel in November.
Yet, is an Islamic alliance possible? Muslim countries around the world are far from united – besides their condemning of Israeli attacks on Palestinians and calling for a cease-fire. Since the start of the escalation in Gaza, Ankara has frequently voiced that Israel’s biggest advantage is a disunited Muslim world and has called within this scope to close ranks.
The lack of coordinated policies among Islamic countries is rooted in the fact that all these states have their own specific interests and policies. Egypt and Jordan have peace deals with Israel dating far back and areas of cooperation. The United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Morocco have signed the Abraham Accords brokered by the U.S. to normalize ties. And just before the Oct. 7 attacks, Washington was mediating a similar accord between Saudi Arabia and Israel – which is sometimes mentioned as one of the potential reasons for the Hamas attack. Meanwhile, other Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) members, such as Iran and Yemen, are pursuing their own agenda, answering Israel by military means. Qatar, which hosts Hamas, has positioned itself as a mediator. On the other side, these Muslim countries have been trying to deal with two major problems: the issue of trade and internal public anger. Since the start of the war, populations of Muslim countries have rallied and criticized their governments and monarchies for not doing enough in the face of Israeli atrocities. Explaining ongoing and even growing trade with Israel has been another challenge. According to the Arabian Gulf Business Insight, Israel’s trade with Middle Eastern countries, including Egypt, Morocco and Bahrain, grew until May.
Looking at this picture, it is only natural to see varied responses to the ongoing conflict. However, with the biased stance of the West, inaction of the United States and their continued support for Israel despite tens of thousands of civilian Palestinian deaths, it is a must that the Islamic world steps up their action beyond rhetoric. With the different relations of Muslim countries with Tel Aviv, if looked at from the positive side, it means that each one has its own leverage and tools to pressure Israel toward a cease-fire and fair terms.
