Israel had one good friend in the Middle East, Turkey, with which it had excellent political, trade and more importantly military relations. Israel taught the Turks how to fight against the Kurds and Turkey bought advanced Israeli weaponry. Turkey also served as a conduit to the wider Muslim world.
But in its infinite wisdom, the Israeli government decided to go all Stalinist on the Turks, calling in its ambassador for a carpeting which included, get this, seating him on a low chair while being lectured by deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon.
Now the Turks are recalling their envoy.
Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Binyamin Ben-Eliezer on Tuesday expressed his outrage over the "humiliation" of the envoy, which he perceived as "picking a fight with a country with 72 million Muslims.
Former Israeli ambassador to Turkey Alon Liel told the station that "a new sort of diplomacy" had been invented, and that Lieberman had "made up a new way of reprimanding."
"This time, they made him sit on a low chair, next time maybe they'll make him crawl, and who knows, maybe the time after that they'll beat him up at the entrance," he said.
Kol Hakavod Israel.