Several downfalls occurred in 2010. First, in May of that year, israel lost Turkey as a strong regional ally after Israeli forces opened fire killing nine activists on board of the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara that aimed at breaking the Gaza blockade imposed on the enclave following the takeover of Hamas, an Islamic group considered terrorist in israel. Although relations with Turkey received a crack before, in 2008 during Israel's operation Cast Lead, when Israel killed more than a thousand Palestinians, many of whom were civilians, the Mavi Marmara was just another nail in the coffin of Israel-Turkey bilateral relations.
Then it was the direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority – led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas – that never brought a breakthrough. Israel declared its commitment to the two-state solution, vowed to remove hundreds of checkpoints across the West Bank to make it easier for the Palestinians to move in the area, promised to cooperate with Palestinian forces to curb potential terror threats, and even instituted an unprecedented 10-month-long moratorium on new construction in Judea and Samaria – but that wasn't enough to reach a deal, as Tel Aviv also urged the Palestinian Authority to recognise Israel's legitimacy as the nation-state of the Jewish people and demanded the demilitarisation of any future Palestinian state.
The year was concluded with the eruption of the Carmel fires, the deadliest…
