How we wish Theodor Herzl could have seen this week the President of Turkey receive the President of Israel. It’s 120 years since the Zionist prophet met with the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Abdulhamid II, only to be turned down in his bid for the Jews to be given access to their homeland in Eretz Israel. Now the president of Israel was met with an honor guard as the band played “Hatikvah” and Turkish cannons boomed a salute.

What a moving moment. The broadcast images begin with a long guard of mounted cavalry, wearing their white hats and tunics of glorious cerulean, their steeds trotting behind a mounted officer bearing, along the elegant avenue, the colors of the Jewish state. Then appears the presidential limousine, flying the flag on its front right fender. When it pulled to a stop, President Erdogan stepped forward to meet his guest.

It would be a mistake to make too much of all this. Yet it would also be a mistake to make too little. Mr. Erdogan, our Benny Avni reminds us, faces next year an uneasy election. So Mr. Erdogan is scrambling to shore up his foreign policy credentials. His overture to Israel, he believes, will help in Washington, where many are angry with Ankara. It’s a bold move after years of hostility toward Israel and the Jews. 

It would have been understood, too, by Israel’s founding prime minister. David Ben Gurion developed a grand strategy of forging alliances with the region’s non-Arabs as a way to offset  animus toward the Jewish state. Mideast minorities — like the Kurds, as well as the Persian state, and, notably, Turkey — became Israel’s allies. Then Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the Shah in Tehran and made Iran Israel’s bitterest enemy.

The next blow came after Mr. Erdogan assumed power in Ankara.  Cooperation between Israel and Turkey in agriculture, commerce, intelligence, and arms development dwindled as Mr. Erdogan peppered his speeches with anti-Israel rhetoric. Last year the State Department condemned “antisemitic comments” from Ankara. Turkey’s press amplified the animosity, and a television series demonized Israelis and Jews.

Things hit a nadir in 2010, when a group of Islamists joined a flotilla to Gaza from Turkey. After entering Israeli waters, it clashed with IDF commandos. A U.N. report on the Mavi Marmara incident, as it came to be known, found that Israel acted lawfully, but Ankara was livid. Incidents of harassment, arrest, and violence all but ended the willingness of Israelis to spend their vacations in Turkey.  

Which is what makes this week’s meeting between the Israeli and Turkish presidents so affecting. “We agree that we won’t agree on everything,” President Herzog said after his two-hour parley with Mr. Erdogan. Turkey remains a host to Hamas terrorists. Many of Mr. Erdogan’s staunchest supporters remain publicly hostile to Israel and Jews. Israel hasn’t abandoned its warming relations with Greece and Cyprus, long-time foes of Turkey.

Nonetheless, Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, announced that he would visit Israel next month. Turkey might be an iffy NATO ally and relations with America have waned as well as waxed. Yet Turkey’s location makes it a strategic ally of the West. If the entente with Israel lasts, the Free World will benefit. If it fails, we’ll always have the moment when Turkey’s president came to attention as the band played Hatikvah.