James Jeffrey: “It's unpleasant, it's transactional, it's ugly, but we and Turkey have very similar strategic goals.”

Israel is a major player in the Middle East. Its own security and its work with other countries, for example, to defeat ISIS, and to push back on Iran, is absolutely vital for our overall strategy for the region.

It was a mistake not to tell them before they learned about it from the media.

He has shown little willingness to be flexible on any issue, and at the moment may be concluding that it is better to sit on a pile of rubble with half his population and 60 percent of his country than to compromise.

we would do everything short of military force to try to hold off a Turkish incursion or Turkish military action against them.