Over the past week, reporters covering President Yitzhak Herzog's visit to Turkey have in fact been invited to an event known in Pino as the "Erdogan-Herzog Festival."
Fortunately, some of them were not tempted to attend the visit celebrations and their reports mentioned other days, completely non-festive, in the two-country relationship, which were not the chemical of the president's last festive stay in Turkey.
In view of the order of honor that greeted the Israeli president, and despite the extreme cold, it seems that Recep Tayyip Erdogan has instructed the ceremonial directors to do everything to impress the guest's entourage from Israel, to obscure memories of days when he himself insulted Israel unrestrained.
During the two days of the visit, President Erdogan did not apologize nor did he apologize to Herzog for his past insults.
Indeed, President Herzog was invited for the purpose of reconciliation and blurring of difficult events.
To my impression he acted with restraint, as was his custom, while expressing satisfaction at the opening of the new chapter in relations with the President of Turkey.
However, there are skeptics about the truth of Erdogan's intentions.
They find it hard to believe that the Turkish tiger has indeed become his swan.
I did not expect President Herzog to adopt my view that he should have rejected the invitation to visit before apologizing to Erdogan for the many difficult things he has hurled at Israel and its leaders over the past few years.
President Erdogan may have hoped that investing in Israeli hospitality would erase the memory of those insults, but he would not be surprised if, after another violent confrontation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Erdogan resumed his days of resentment with Israel.
In my opinion, it is doubtful whether he controls the style of his statements, due to the upheavals in his moods.
This assessment can be verified with US administration officials, who are short-sighted in view of the nature of ties with the head of state, a NATO partner.
If one delves into the content of his statements in the past, one can conclude that Erdogan has antisemitic feelings.
But as long as Israel extends to Turkey some assistance to improve the economic situation, especially after President Herzog's visit, it is doubtful whether Erdogan will return to the status of an undesirable personality.
He knows the formula, according to which Israel opens the gate to the White House.
It's currently a conditional friendship.
Israel has already given up: under pressure from Turkey, it is blocking any sign of identification with the memory of the Armenian genocide.
In general, Erdogan is aware that neighboring Muslim countries are resentful of his desire to restore relations with Israel.
He will carry out his forced manners in the spirit of the strictly polite courtships the like of which the Muslim leader of Turkey has already demonstrated in the past week.
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