Barry Rubin adds another piece of news into the regional puzzle:

The leader of the main opposition, Ataturkist and social democratic party, Kemal Kılıdaroğlu stated that Prime Minister Erdoğan, “Almost declared war against Israel in his party’s meeting….Our party displays a more moderate and careful approach. Foreign policy can’t be carried out with heroism but with reason. The Turkish Foreign Ministry should publicly disclose correspondence made with Israel so that we may all learn whether Israel warned Turkey or not.”

Now you might ask yourself what is Kılıdaroğlu hinting at here? And the answer is important and potentially explosive. There is a widespread story, which cannot yet be verified but seems to be more than a rumor, for why this tragedy might have happened. People ask: Why did the Israeli soldiers land on a ship where they should have expected to be received with a violent attack?

According to some people who are in a position to know, here’s the reason: Erdoğan assured Israel that the ship’s passengers were peaceful and there would be no violence. That’s why Israel approached taking and diverting the ship in the manner it did. Is this true? I don’t know but it is definitely a story to watch

He doesn’t state who his sources are, but connects this to the governmental link noted in the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center report released today.

It would help to explain the apparent intelligence lack on the part of the Israelis. Erdogan may well have really and truly set Israel up, and the incident no doubt has the Israeli’s reeling with the implications.

This, if true, would amount to Erdogan revealing his hand to the Israelis, and completely dropping the facade of being a regional honest broker.

Would the perceived gains to the Turkish Islamist IRK party justify such a “coming out” of the Turkish orientation towards Israel?

Arguably, it would. Just look at the outrage Israel is witnessing throughout the world, then consider that this outrage has been greatly mitigated by the (relatively) quick release of the aerial videos. Imagine the reaction if Israel didn’t have such evidence so readily available.

Erdogan may well have expected this incident, which he may have helped to orchestrate, would deal a much heavier blow to Israel’s credibility and image than it actually has.