Friday's failed military coup in Turkey was not just a fool's errand -- it was an errand undertaken by fools. There is simply no other way to explain how the officers leading it were defeated via electronic and social media. The digital age has seen its fair share of successful uprisings. This one in Turkey will not be remembered among them. Perhaps it was because those leading the coup thought waging it in the media would be a winning strategy, as if controlling the media was the same as controlling the country. This is similar to how 30 years ago some generals believed winning simulated battles on a table was enough to win a war. The conspirators were victims of their own digital perceptions, as seen by the fact their opening gambit focused on the media and not on arresting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, making the entire thing seem like a bad joke. But even looking at the botched uprising as a play for perception rather than a political power play offers no saving grace, as the conspirators failed to properly get their message across and failed to encourage the masses opposing Erdogan to rally behind them. But with the conspirators' identities still unclear, one has to wonder who, or what, was the driving force behind the coup. Was it the work of those seeking to reinstate the secular legacy of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey? The work of the moderate Islamists supporting exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen? Or perhaps the work of an Islamic State proxy group- The lack of a clear message worked in favor of Erdogan. He gave an unequivocal order for his supporters to flood the streets en masse, leaving his rivals gobsmacked and huddled in their homes, bracing for this countermeasures. Those will likely included a purge of all liberal elements from the ranks of the military and the supposedly independent judiciary and media. Erdogan will walk away from this coup a far stronger leader, and being a borderline megalomaniac his strongman tactics will most likely be underscored. His demand that the U.S. extradite Gulen -- an American citizen -- is an example of Erdogan's weak character: He knows U.S. President Barack Obama will deny his request. Despite the tensions in Turkey, the world already knows how to deal with Erdogan, and as the Americans say, it will simply be more of the same, with the usual twists courtesy of Islamic State attacks in Syria and Turkey's clashes with the Kurds and with the EU over the refugee issue, all while Erdogan works to improve relations with Israel and Russia. This particular event will allow Israel to enjoy the stability Erdogan can maintain in Turkey. It will be more of the same, and perhaps even a little more than that.
