Better A Bad Press Than A Good Epitaph

Marty Peretz
The New Republic
13 June '10

(Marty Peretz, as usual, always a little bit different. Y.)

Actually, the hysteria about the Israeli encounter with the Turkish goons has abated. And it has probably come to the attention of some reasonable people that Recep Tayyip Erdogan is working the seas not exactly for the interests of the Turks but for the Islamic crusade being led by the Iranian clerisy and secret police.

I know little about Erdogan but something more about Turkey. The last century of its history is being betrayed in an avalanche of thuggish holiness. Its economy is not doing as bad as that of Greece. But just wait. Tourism is going down, down, down ... and all for the sacred name of Mohammed. Hey, and what about the Armenians? Please, forget about history. I am as certain that Turkey will get into Europe as I am that Osama bin Laden will get into heaven.

Anyway, all this fuss is about Gaza. No, Gaza is not as splendid as Jaffa, the seductive Arab-Jewish neighborhood of Tel Aviv, where I lived ten years ago and where I am going in October to live for seven months on my high-school teaching stint. But Gaza is also not as horrific as Cairo—nowhere near as horrific as Cairo, which is truly horrific—or other cities “at peace” in the Arab world.

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