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Despite repeated warnings by Israel that a flotilla of ships would be intercepted if it tried to breach the Israeli and Egyptian blockade of the Gaza strip, six ships set off from international waters off the coast of Turkish Cyprus, 230 miles away. Israel says the blockade is necessary to stop arms supplies reaching Hamas. Israeli commandos in three helicopters stormed the convoy in a dawn raid 40 miles off the Gaza coast, with the intention of the Israeli navy towing the boats to the Israeli port of Ashdod. There, the confiscated aid will undergo a security check and will later be delivered to United Nations agencies for overland transit to Gaza. Israel's deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon, accused the convoy of a "premeditated and outrageous provocation", and described the flotilla as an "armada of hate and violence in support of Hamas".

The Israeli attack has sent "diplomatic shock waves" throughout the world, with widespread condemnation of the violence, and several countries have recalled their ambassadors to Israel. Amongst the countries taking action are Spain, France, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Austria and Greece. The European Union foreign affairs chief, Catherine Ashton, has "demanded that Israel mount a full enquiry". With all nations now against Jerusalem, another incident like this could easily spark off the "gathering of all nations against Jerusalem to battle" (Zechariah 14.2).

This is how The Daily Telegraph spoke of the outcome of this incident, as concerns relations between Turkey and Israel. According to Debka (reported in Milestones 28 May), the venture was planned on behalf of the Hamas-linked Turkish-based Humanitarian Aid Foundation which is sponsored personally by the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Erdogan. Apparently, a secret message from Ankara to Jerusalem threatened reprisals if Israel impeded the Turkish-led flotilla, but Israel warned Turkey the convoy would be stopped before it reached Gaza shores.

Turkey, whose nationals comprised the majority of the 700 activists on board, accused Israel of "targeting innocent civilians", and warned of "irreparable consequences" to bilateral relations, immediately recalling their ambassador to Israel. Turkey led international calls to isolate Israel, with Mr. Erdogan saying, "It should be known that we will not stay silent and unresponsive in the face of this inhuman state terror". Although Turkey was once Israel's best friend in the Muslim world and had often played an important bridging role between the Jewish state and its more hostile neighbours, this friendship is now "at breaking point", and it is "difficult to see how relations could possibly revive after this".

However, the Telegraph article pointed out that "Turkey's relationship with Israel has been fraught for some time". The turning point in their relationship was the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip in the winter of 2008-9, when Mr. Erdogan took a leading international role in denouncing Israel. Frustratingly for Israel, he has tried to shore up his credentials in the Arab world and, as if to rub salt into the wound, Turkish ties with both Syria and Iran have improved.

Sami Kohen, a veteran Turkish political analyst made this comment on the situation - "Turkey now is one of the sides in the Middle East conflict. It is quite clearly opposed to Israel. There is now more reason for Turkey to take a more active part in the events of the Middle East, since it has suffered personally from this attack. Now it can justify its anti-Israeli positions, which get a good deal of sympathy in the Arab and Islamic world."

A report by Debka (Milestones 28 May) drew attention to a colossal Syrian-Hizbollah missile deployment, funded by Iran, and pointed in only one direction, Israel. Syria possesses 1,000 ballistic missiles and Hizbollah 1,000 rockets. Following the close of Israel's recent five-day homeland defence exercise against missile attack, all Syrian military units were placed on combat standby, with missile batteries ordered to take up firing positions.

It was also discovered that Syria had assigned 800 Scud D missiles to Hizbollah, ready for removal into Lebanon at one and-a-half hour's notice. These missiles are capable of carrying nuclear or chemical warheads and pose a dangerous threat to Israel. "Never before has any army, least of all a terrorist organisation like Hizbollah, ever commanded so many surface-to-surface strike missiles holding them ready to fire on a neighbour's cities".

The Debka report concluded by saying, "This scenario would sound absurdly unreal anywhere in the world - even in trouble spots. Yet, in the Middle East it is a cruel reality. Syria, Iran and Hizbollah have made military history - and that is why the Middle East is teetering on the brink of war".

We were interested to find a short article in the 27 May edition of The Jerusalem Post, written by a Jew asking the question, "Where is G-d?". The author was concerned that Israel were leaving God out of the troubles they were continually facing. He mentioned that the Syrian dictator, Bashar Assad, had "spoken openly of war" with Israel, while the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had reasserted his "determination to bring about Israel's demise". Hizbollah was busy rearming and its "thug-in-chief, Hassan Nasrallah, boldly declared that Israeli commercial and civilian shipping could come under attack". In the south, rocket-fire resumed from Gaza, and Palestinian terrorists took every opportunity to attack Israeli soldiers guarding the frontier. He concluded, "In every direction, it seems, our enemies are gearing up for a war of extermination. The arc of iniquity that stretches from Beirut to Damascus, and from there to Teheran and all the way back to Gaza, is not just rattling its sabre, but may be getting ready to unsheathe it".

Adding to all that, he said Israel's closest ally, the United States, "has increasingly turned hostile to us and our interests, badgering us to make still more concessions to the enemies gathering at the gate. Like it or not, we are very much a nation that is dwelling alone". Summing up the situation, he said, "Our foes dispatch daily reminders that their intentions are anything but peaceful", adding, "It is hard to escape the feeling that something ominous is in the air".

The writer then drew attention to the fact that Israel's generals and defence officials appear constantly on the television "insisting that Israel is strong and we are ready". Whilst he hoped it was true, he spoke of their "over confidence", suggesting it was a "recipe for disaster". It was in such circumstances that he exclaimed, "How refreshing it would be to hear them invoking some reliance on the Almighty and putting G-d back into the national conversation. Why aren't we turning to Him in this hour of need?". He quoted a rabbinical leader who once said, "G-d is only where we let Him in", and concluded, "Now, more than ever, would be the perfect time to do so". On a personal note, the author said of himself, "I am a man of faith, and I believe our deliverance will assuredly come".

On Friday, 28 May, the 189 member states of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty ended a month-long meeting by signing an agreement calling for "a nuclear weapons-free Middle East", and stipulating that, in 2012, "a conference will be held aimed at enforcing that decision". A reasonable idea? Not to Israel!

Israeli officials decried the fact that "Israel was mentioned repeatedly during the meetings, and in the agreement, while Iran was not directly referenced even once". A statement released by the Prime Minister's office called the resolution "deeply flawed and hypocritical; it ignores the realities of the Middle East, and the real threats facing the region and the entire world. It singles out Israel, the Middle East's only true democracy and the only country threatened with annihilation. Yet the terrorist regime in Iran, which is racing to develop nuclear weapons and which openly threatens to wipe Israel off the map, is not even mentioned in the resolutions".

President Obama also criticised the focus on Israel at the meeting and in the resolution, but nevertheless gave his stamp of approval to the document and to the 2012 summit. This will ultimately work "to force Israel to declare its nuclear arsenal and open its nuclear facilities to inspection". The analyst, Yossi Melman, writing in the Israeli newspaper, Ha'aretz, noted that "the meeting was only able to produce such a strong resolution because the Obama administration had essentially betrayed Israel and its security". Melman also claimed that Obama is "far more interested in his own agenda, even at the cost of Israel's security. Obama knew the focus of the conference would be Israel, and that its primary aim would be to strip the Jewish state of any nuclear weapons it may possess".

Israel's ties with Canada have flourished thanks to the enthusiasm of the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. One of Mr. Harper's first moves as Prime Minister was to cut funding to the Palestinian Authority after the Hamas victory in legislative elections. At the United Nations, Canada "consistently supports Israeli positions". A junior minister has stated that "an attack on Israel would be considered an attack on Canada". (Truly, a young lion of Tarshish!).

President Barack Obama has "officially brought his nation into the ranks of the Alliance of Civilisations" which, since its inception in 2006, has pushed the idea that the over-riding reason for the Muslim-Western rift is Israel, its settlement activity, and very existence", and that "global tensions were driven primarily by the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Authority". Obama announced in a statement released by the White House that "joining the Alliance of Civilisations is yet another way to forward his vision of active US engagement with other nations and international organisations". However, many in Israel fear it will only further drive a wedge between America and the Jewish state, and further embolden the enemies of both Israel and the United States.

The Palestinian Authority chairman, Mahmoud Abbas, revealed on 28 May that he does not intend holding direct negotiations with Israeli leaders until Israel and the Palestinian Authority have reached a US-mediated final agreement regarding the borders of a future Palestinian state. Those borders must include Jerusalem as the capital. Mr. Abbas told a news conference, "It is the aim of negotiations to lead to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital". He hoped that an agreement regarding borders would be reached within four months, the deadline set by the Arab League.

A report by Israel National News commented, "The subject of borders, and the Palestinian Authority's demand for Jerusalem in particular, is widely considered one of the most hotly disputed issues in Israel-Palestinian Authority negotiations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has categorically refused to split Jerusalem, saying, "Jerusalem was always ours, will always be ours, and will never be divided".