Washington seems to be at ease with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s potential visit to Gaza and the West Bank in June. Even the Israeli diplomatic sources that spoke to Al-Monitor seem unworried about the visit.

“It’s not us who asked the Americans to say anything one way or the other about Erdogan’s visit to Gaza,” said one Israeli diplomatic source. “There are others visiting Gaza, and we can’t care less that Erdogan joins the crowd.”

So what’s the big deal about Erdogan’s visit there?

In his first visit as the president of the United States to the Jewish state, Barack Obama helped to break the impasse between Turkey and Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extended an apology for the deadly Mavi Marmara incident in May 2010. Since then, the negotiating teams of both sides have held two meetings to determine the compensation that will be paid to the families of the nine Turks killed, but nothing concrete is settled yet. There is also no sign of an exchange of ambassadors anytime soon. On the other hand, there is speculation that Turkey is asking millions of dollars — which has no precedent in similar situations — and that that is why it is taking time to finalize the talks. Israel also wants to make sure that any deal reached on compensation and the principles attached to it get Turkish parliamentary approval to make sure that Israel does not get sued for any action involving this incident in Turkish courts.