Get email notification for articles from Zvi Bar'el Follow Jul. 14, 2021 6:14 AM Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s 40-minute phone call with Isaac Herzog on Monday was more than a routine congratulations to Israel’s new president. Erdogan isn’t into small talk, and when the two men said they discussed improving ties between their countries, Erdogan was referring to concrete steps. In December 2020, his office leaked that he planned to appoint a new ambassador to Israel. It even said the ambassador would arrive in March 2021. The nominee back then was Ufuk Ulutas, who headed the SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research and even studied at the Hebrew University.