Policies Options by the United States
In this article, it discusses a recent incident in Mavi Mara. A Turkish ship passed through an Israeli blockade that caused Israeli soldiers to board the ship. While onboard, they killed nine Turkish activists who supposedly had connections to illegal terrorist organizations. In recent days, Turkey has expelled every Israeli diplomat and promised to escort ships with a naval ship in the future. A report based on the incident stated that Israel was correct in setting up the blockade and questioned the response from Turkey because the members aboard the ship had connections to terrorist organizations.
The United States is now in a predicament to see whom they should back because there are tensions between them. Turkey is taking a strong stance against Israel that is causing problems in the negotiation process. I think the United States should weigh its options before making any drastic changes to its policy. If it changes its current policies it would be favoring one side over another and thus it would a negative ripple. My opinion is that they should still remain neutral until the UN makes a decision or to wait until Turkey actually goes through with its threats.
This is a classic example of game theory because the United States has to weigh its options for what to do. It can either accept Turkey’s action even as rouge as they are or it can succumb to the pressure and try to reprimand Erdogan. If it follows the first path then the UN and Israel might view the US as weak. Also the US might be blamed if Turkey does follow through with its threats. On the flip side, if the United States does enforce stricter policies, it might give Turkey more incentive to back down from its threats. However it might backfire and gives fuel to Turkey’s threats.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-07/turkey-s-clash-with-israel-warrants-a-real-u-s-policy-reassessment-view.html