President Trump’s Mideast moves show why Israeli deterrence is crucial - by Evelyn Gordon

...Despite Iran’s willingness to engage in military provocations, it has shown no desire to risk serious military consequences on Iranian soil. Indeed, it has escalated very carefully, moving up to each new level only after concluding—based on the non-response to previous attacks—that it could do so safely. And so far, it’s been right: Even the attack on the Saudi refineries, its worst to date, drew no military response from Riyadh or Washington. But years of Israeli airstrikes against Iranian and Iranian-affiliated targets have proven that the Jewish state won’t let Iranian aggression go unanswered, and any Iranian escalation will be met commensurately.

Evelyn Gordon..
JNS.org..
16 October '19..

U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest Mideast decisions cast Israeli airstrikes in Syria and (reportedly) Iraq in a different light. Previously, these airstrikes seemed to be aimed solely at preventing Iran from establishing military infrastructure in both countries that could threaten Israel. But it now turns out they were also sending an important deterrent message: If Tehran attacks Israel, Jerusalem will have no qualms about striking back.

The conventional wisdom has been that even if these airstrikes were necessary for Israel’s defense, they posed a real risk of escalation. And obviously, that remains a possibility.

But given Trump’s latest moves, they may actually be making war less likely by letting Tehran know that Jerusalem—unlike, say, Saudi Arabia—won’t sit with folded hands if it suffers a significant Iranian attack like last month’s strike on Saudi oil facilities. The realization that Israel has both the ability and the will to hit back hard might well deter Iran from launching such a strike, even though it now knows that it wouldn’t be risking an American response.

For this reason, much of the rhetoric about how Trump’s recent decisions will affect Israel is overblown, even though the decisions themselves are unequivocally horrible. Strategically, the U.S. withdrawal from northern Syria abandons that area to very bad actors (Turkey and/or Iran). It’s also a moral atrocity, as it abandons the Kurds to Turkey’s tender mercies despite their having been America’s most loyal and effective partner against the Islamic State. And it signals the world that Washington won’t protect its allies, thereby reducing the incentive to be an American ally. Trump’s inaction after Iran destroyed half of Saudi Arabia’s oil processing capacity sent a similar message.

(Continue to Full Column)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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BDS, Turkey and the silence of the (anti-semitic) anti-Israel academics - by A.J. Caschetta

...Real suppression, however, making their persecution fantasies seem absurd, is mostly met with silence. Where is the moral indignation? Yet, there is no shortage of howls of "injustice" and BDS movements criticizing even the slightest perceived infringement of human rights in Israel, a country that ensures human rights and equality under the law to all its citizens.

A.J. Caschetta..
Gatestone Institute.
05 August '17..

In Turkey, academics are currently at the mercy of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who demands their compliance and threatens dissenters. After last July's failed coup (for which Erdogan blamed an American scholar), a series of emergency decrees have specifically targeted Turkish academia. One would think this assault would raise ire from the ivory towers, but as Turkey slides deeper into totalitarianism, academia yawns. The failure of many professors to stand up vigorously and publicly for what they profess is especially notable in those whose careers are focused on the demonization of Israel through various attempts to destroy Israel by suffocating it economically.

All right, it is summer break and everyone is off doing research, writing novels and looking for grant money. But Erdogan's crackdown is not new. Most of it was ignored until January 2016 when he targeted a group of Turkish scholars who called themselves "Academics for Peace" for producing a petition demanding that the Turkish government "end the massacre of the Kurdish people."

Since the failed coup, Erdogan has increasingly behaved like a paranoid dictator flexing his muscles. In the last 12 months alone, he has closed at least 15 universities and confiscated their property. Invoking Article 301 of the Turkish penal code – which amorphously criminalizes insults to "Turkishness," the Turkish government or the Turkish military – he has also closed down numerous publishing houses. He has forced Turkish journals to remove from their editorial boards scholars who criticize him. Hundreds have been fired and blacklisted. Unable to work in Turkey and, with their passports confiscated, unable to leave, they represent the worst-case scenario of every comfortable Western academic who has ever bemoaned the "chilling effect" of Republican presidents and congresses, or who have proclaimed as "McCarthyism" any criticism of their own work. Real suppression, however, making their persecution fantasies seem absurd, is mostly met with silence. Where is the moral indignation? Yet, there is no shortage of howls of "injustice" and BDS movements criticizing even the slightest perceived infringement of human rights in Israel, a country that ensures human rights and equality under the law to all its citizens.

A letter condemning the Erdogan regime and supporting the persecuted academics is the bare minimum one might expect from an easily-piqued group of people who write for a living. Escalations in severity might include organized protests, media events and other kinds of activism to reach audiences beyond readers of The Chronicle of Higher Education and InsideHigherEd. Enlisting the help of celebrities comes next, followed by attempts at isolation in one of the few ways possible to an academic institution, such as cancelling conferences and sporting events convened in the offending state or country. Next come boycotts, calls for divesture of university-controlled funds and sanctioning various individuals.

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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International Hypocrisy and the World's Indifference to the Siege of Cizre

...What may be necessary, however, if the international community does not want to expose itself as completely hypocritical, is to ensure that Turkey’s government can no long blockade and impose collective punishment on either its Kurdish minority. Perhaps it’s time for the blue helmets to ensure that all towns and villages in Turkey, regardless of the ethnicity of their residents, receive food, and full access to medicine, water, and basic health and sanitary services. Surely, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would not want Turkey statistically to fall even further behind the residents of the Gaza Strip.

Michael Rubin..
Commentary Magazine..
13 September '15..







The international press has bizarrely picked up — with credulity — a United Nations report from some time ago arguing that by 2020, the Gaza Strip might be uninhabitable. Here, for example, is the BBC:

The Gaza Strip will not be “a liveable place” by 2020 unless action is taken to improve basic services in the territory, according to a UN report. Basic infrastructure “is struggling to keep pace with a growing population”, the UN Country Team (UNCT) in the occupied Palestinian territory said. It estimates Gaza’s population will rise from 1.6m to 2.1m by 2020. Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza after the Islamist movement Hamas seized power in the coastal territory in 2007.

What the report does not emphasize, of course, is the responsibility for the supposed calamity on the part of Hamas. After all, Hamas has chosen to emphasize terror over development, and has — often with the complicity of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) — diverted funds or co-opted relief supplies, schools, and hospitals to manufacture if not store weaponry aimed at killing Israelis indiscriminately. If Hamas cast aside its genocidal ideology and if the Palestinians ceased their governments’ endemic corruption, they might become like Dubai or Singapore. Then again, diplomats and analysts must exist in the realm of reality and not fantasy. Nor does the report acknowledge that the residents of Gaza enjoy a far greater standard of living in key respects than those living in other countries. Gazans, for example, enjoy greater life expectancy than Malaysians, Bulgarians, Thais, Egyptians, Turks, Brazilians, and dozens of other nationalities. Some have suggested infant mortality has risen under the territory’s Hamas stewardship, but even if such figures are taken at face value, then Gaza has a better situation for infant health than Tunisia, Mongolia, Egypt, and much of Central America. Perhaps Israel’s (legal) blockade — one in which all essential materials, food and medicine gets through, as well as many non-essential goods.

Not every location subject to a security crackdown is so lucky. Take the Turkish army’s ongoing siege of Cizre, a picturesque town (which I have frequently visited) near where Iraq, Turkey, and Syria converge. Earlier this week, I received the following email from a former Turkish official detailing the situation:

This self-declared “State of Palestine” and the chickens coming home to roost for Turkey

...Turkey’s swift recognition of this illegally constituted state for the “Palestinians” – a people only created for the first time in 1964 by the PLO Charter – starkly contrasts with Turkey’s consistent refusal to grant its 15 million ancient Kurdish community – part of the largest stateless minority group in the world – the identical right to their own State in Northern Turkey for the last 90 years ....Erdogan – robbed of his parliamentary majority by the Kurds – is in no mood to support Kurdish Statehood – a position he so enthusiastically embraced for the Palestinians. Turkey seems set to pay a huge price for Erdogan’s hypocritical double standards. The chickens are indeed coming home to roost.

David Singer..
J-Wire..
07 August '15..

Turkey’s championing of the Palestinian Arabs in their quest for an independent State has come back to bite the country with a vengeance – as Kurdish Statehood is once again firmly placed on the political agenda…writes David Singer.Turkey became the first country in the world with an ambassador to “Palestine” – after its envoy in Ramallah, Şakir Özkan Torunlar, presented his Letter of Credence to “State of Palestine” President Mahmoud Abbas on 14 April 2013.

Incredibly this self-declared “State of Palestine” – admitted as a member State of UNESCO on 31 October 2011 and as a non-State observer to the United Nations on 29 November 2012 with Turkey’s active support – lacks the four following criteria required by the 1933 Montevideo Convention to qualify as a State:

1. a permanent population;
2. a defined territory;
3. a government; and
4. capacity to enter into relations with the other states.

Turkey’s swift recognition of this illegally constituted state for the “Palestinians” – a people only created for the first time in 1964 by the PLO Charter – starkly contrasts with Turkey’s consistent refusal to grant its 15 million ancient Kurdish community – part of the largest stateless minority group in the world – the identical right to their own State in Northern Turkey for the last 90 years.

The New York Times’ Tim Arango sums up the current situation:

The Kurds – a population of roughly 30 million spread across Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria – have historically been treated as second-class citizens by autocratic governments and have long dreamed of their own state. Their aspirations were thwarted by Western powers after World War I, when new borders were drawn that carved up the Kurdish communities. But slowly, during the upheaval of the Middle East, the Kurds are now reaching for self-determination.

The battle for Kobani last year in Syria, which ended in victory for the Kurds after a month-long American-led air campaign, drew Kurdish fighters from around the world and fanned the flames of pan-Kurdish nationalism.

In Iraq, after the Islamic State swept across the north of the country last year and captured Mosul, Kurdish forces took charge of Kirkuk, a city long contested between Kurds and Arabs that sits on a sea of oil and is considered something of a spiritual homeland for the Kurds.

Gains by the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) in the last Turkish elections at the expense of Turkey’s President Erdogan and his Islamist Justice and Development Party (A.K.P) have put added pressure on Kurdish demands for their own State.

"Jerusalem-fetish" and the fairy tales from Uncle Tayyip

...Is Erdogan that one man around whom the Islamic nation should unite for the sake of Jerusalem and Palestine? Erdogan may be thinking that he is the 21st-century reincarnation of Saladin. So may be his Muslim Brothers and Qatari allies. For the rest of the Muslims, all that is merely "fairy tales from Uncle Tayyip."

Does Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
think of himself as a modern-day Saladin,
who will conquer Jerusalem?

Burak Bekdil..
Gatestone Institute.
30 May '15..

It is truly fascinating that Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, a professor of political science, believes that Jerusalem, built a millennium before the birth of Islam, is originally a Muslim city. And, according to the Turkish president, -- Saudis should please not get offended -- Jerusalem is the Muslims' "most important Mecca." Jerusalem has always had a spectacular place in a Turkish Islamist's heart and mind. But pre-election fervour in Turkey has lifted "Jerusalem-fetish" to new heights.

Turkey's Islamists today look like Egypt's second president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, a Pan-Arab nationalist, and his army commanders almost half a century ago. On May 16, 1967, Nasser ordered U.N. Emergency Force Commander, Indar Jit Rykhye, to evacuate his force from the Sinai buffer zone within 48 hours. When Rykhye asked one Egyptian commander if Egypt was aware of the consequences, the commander replied: "Oh sir, I'll meet you at lunch in Tel Aviv." The UN force left, and Egypt and Israel were left alone to fight the 1967 war. This author does not know where the Egyptian commander had lunch the next day, but definitely not in Tel Aviv. His words, however, may have inspired Turkey's leaders.

Prime Minister Davutoglu, formerly foreign minister, has reiterated countless times since he joined the Turkish cabinet in 2009 that, "We will have prayers at the al-Aqsa mosque in the Palestinian capital 'Quds' ([Jerusalem]." This wish remains to be fulfilled. But that does not discourage Turkish leaders from cherishing increasing doses of "Jerusalem-fetish."

When a Kurdish politician said in a public speech that "Jerusalem is the holy city for the Jews," a furious Davutoglu held a rally and said at the top of his voice: "Jerusalem is our holy place;" and that he would never allow the city's "Islamic character" to change.

Davutoglu, in another election rally speech, added: "One day al-Aqsa will definitely reach liberation ... Jerusalem is our eternal cause." In yet another speech, Davutoglu claimed that his government has faced multiple coup d'état attempts only because he says "Jerusalem is our cause.".

In still another, he claimed that Jerusalem's final period in peace was "our (Ottoman) times." And in another, he commemorated "the Turks, Arabs, Kurds, Zaza (a Kurdish tribe) and Arab in the glorious army of Saladin." It is as if, for Davutoglu (and Erdogan), Jerusalem did not exist before 1187. If it did not, why do the Turks talk about its "conquest," a euphemism they always seem to prefer to avoid the word "occupation" or "invasion."

President Erdogan has no less-eccentric ideas. "Jerusalem," according to the president, "is the holiest place of Muslims and it belongs to the Palestinians." In a recent speech, he claimed that Jews are [secretly] educating people on the Zoroastrian faith at mountain camps. "We have evidence [to prove] that," Erdogan added. Yet he has never produced this "evidence."

Most recently, in a speech on May 15, Erdogan said that: "Unfortunately we the Muslims lost our aim to head towards Jerusalem. The water of our eyes froze, making us blind, and our hearts that were destined to beat for Jerusalem are now instead conditioned for rivalry, in a state of war with each other."

Just to Clarify. Who Can Attack Turkish Ships?

...President Erdogan's reaction to the attack on a civilian Turkish vessel by a foreign army was revealing. He said: "Things would have been different had the Turkish ship carried a Turkish flag." That would be Turkey's wrath on Libya, he simply meant, were the Tuna-1, owned by a Turkish company, not registered in the Cook Islands. By the way, what flag did the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara carry? Comoros. Still wondering why Turkey's voice was so loud after the Mavi Marmara incident? For Turkey's Islamists, "what was done" does not matter much. "Who did it" does.

The Turkish-owned ship Mavi Marmara, which took part in the
2010 "Gaza flotilla" that attempted to break Israel's navel blockade
 of Gaza. (Image source: "Free Gaza movement"/Flickr)

Burak Bekdil..
Gatestone Institute..
22 May '15..

"This is the first time in history that a foreign army has killed civilian Turks in peacetime!"

This is how government-friendly media justified Turkey's reaction to Israel when, in May 2010, the Israel Defense Forces raided the "Mavi Marmara," a ship in a Turkish-led flotilla off the Gazan coast, and killed nine pro-Palestine activists aboard.

Any reader could be tempted to believe that Turkey was preparing to go to war with Israel.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, then foreign minister, insisted that "This is Turkey's own 9/11."

Turkey asked the United Nations Security Council to summon an emergency meeting. It knocked on other doors too: NATO, the European Union (EU), the Arab League and the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Then Prime Minister (now President) Recep Tayyip Erdogan called to discuss the Mavi Marmara crisis with U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Erdogan's portrayal of the incident contained words such as "state terrorism," "an attack on world peace," "piracy," "thuggish state," and "massacre." He said that:

- Israel must definitely be punished,- Israel will pay a very heavy price for this,- Israel murdered innocent people at sea, and- [Addressing and threatening Israeli citizens:] Israel is openly exposing your security to great risk.

Since the incident, Turkey's relations with Israel never normalized. Neither country has an ambassador in the other's capital. Turkey has vowed to isolate Israel internationally until Israel has apologized, paid compensation to the families of the victims, and removed the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip (which a UN commission probing the Mavi Marmara incident later declared to be legal).

One might, initially, understand the Turkish ire. After all, a foreign country's military had targeted a civilian ship and killed people aboard, with or without good legal reason. After all, again, the vessel that was attacked was not a Turkish frigate intending to shell the Israeli coast. So, Turkey's justified anger presumably had nothing to do with the inherent anti-Semitism of its Islamist rulers. Really?

Lunacy and Turkey's Obsessive Fantasy

...The idea that there are crypto-Jews or secret friends of Israel is increasingly popular with Muslims who are waging political, ideological and sectarian wars among themselves.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu

Burak Bekdil..
Gatestone Institute..
05 May '15..

In his 2007 bestseller book, "The Children of Moses," quirky Turkish writer Ergun Poyraz claimed that then Prime Minister [now President] Recep Tayyip Erdogan was a crypto-Jew.

The book's cover depicted Erdogan and his wife in a Star of David, and portrayed Erdogan as a secret agent of "international Jewry."

Only six years after the publication of "The Children of Moses," in 2013, Erdogan, along with Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei and UN official Richard Falk was on top of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's annual list of the top 10 anti-Semitic and anti-Israel slurs. If one asked Poyraz, the author of the book, he would most likely explain Erdogan's deep anti-Semitism with another conspiracy theory: his public anti-Semitism is a perfect "disguise" for him to serve the Jews.

Turkish writer Ergun Poyraz (pictured at left being taken to court by counterterrorism police) wrote the 2007 bestseller "The Children of Moses," which claimed that then Prime Minister [now President] Recep Tayyip Erdogan (pictured at right) was a crypto-Jew. Poyraz was arrested later that year and eventually sentenced to 29 years in prison for "conspiring" against the government.

Erdogan's ideologically inherent anti-Semitism, often expressed in a blend with his anti-Zionism, is only too well-known internationally. In 2013, the year he "won the award" for his anti-Semitism, he said that Zionism was a crime against humanity.

The Middle East has never been short of conspiracy theories. But the idea that there are crypto-Jews or secret friends of Israel is increasingly popular with Muslims who are waging political, ideological and sectarian wars among themselves.

Recently, a top Iranian military commander accused Saudi Arabia of following the footsteps of Israel. "Saudi rulers follow Israel as a role model," said Brigadier General Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards.

Only a few days earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had appeared on television with his own version of conspiracy theories, this time pointing to Egypt under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, one of Turkey's regional nemeses, as Israel's "secret ally." Davutoglu said: "A [invisible] hand wants Assad to survive. Just like Sisi ... Neither Assad nor his family has done any harm to Israel. ... Sisi continues with the siege of Gaza. Because for Sisi, Israel's security is more important than human dignity in Egypt."

Davutoglu illustrated a stereotypical Islamist's judgment: When I have ideological, political or sectarian cold wars with my co-religionists and they refuse to convert to my worldview, it must be because they are the secret allies of Israel.

Guess Who Inspired an Antisemitic 'Documentary' That Says Jews Have Been 'Mastermind' For Over 3,500 Years?

...Erdogan's December 12, 2014 speech, which focused on this "mastermind" concept, inspired the production of a two-hour "documentary" by one of the leading Turkish television channels, the pro-AKP A Haber. The film, titled "The Mastermind," first aired on March 15, 2015 and has been broadcast repeatedly since then; in addition, the Turkish Islamist pro-AKP media are circulating the film on their own websites...According to this film, Jewish "domination of the world" goes back 3,500 years, to the days of Moses....The following is an overview of the film

MEMRI..
Special Dispatch No.6021..
14 April '15..

Since October 2014, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has regularly referred to the concept of a "Mastermind" (ust akil, "supra-intellect," in Turkish) that, he says, is plotting against Turkey. This concept has been applauded by the Islamist pro-AKP media. Erdogan's December 12, 2014 speech, which focused on this "mastermind" concept, inspired the production of a two-hour "documentary" by one of the leading Turkish television channels, the pro-AKP A Haber. The film, titled "The Mastermind," first aired on March 15, 2015 and has been broadcast repeatedly since then; in addition, the Turkish Islamist pro-AKP media are circulating the film on their own websites.

According to this film, Jewish "domination of the world" goes back 3,500 years, to the days of Moses. The film presents three Jewish historical figures who, it claims, shaped the Jews' hunger for power: the medieval Spanish philosopher and Torah scholar Moses Maimonides, Charles Darwin (who was not in fact a Jew), and German-American philosopher Leo Strauss.

The following is an overview of the film:

Source: Youtube.com/watch?v=YPLslrRQ4Zs, accessed April 13, 2015

Erdogan: The Mastermind – "You Know Who It Is"

"The Mastermind" opens with images of the Star of David, and images of a replica of the Temple in Jerusalem, and then an excerpt of President Erdogan's December 12, 2014 speech is shown, with him saying: "I am emphasizing this: Do not think that these are operations[1] that target me personally. Do not think that these operations are against our government or any [political] party. My friends, the target of these operations and initiatives is Turkey, Turkey's existence, her unity, peace, and stability. They are especially against Turkey's economy and its independence. As I have said before, behind all these there is a Mastermind, which has now become part of our national conversation. Some ask me, 'Who is this mastermind?' and I say, 'It is for you to research this. And you do know what it is, you know who it is.'"

"We Have To Look For The Mastermind In Jerusalem Where The Sons Of Israel Live"

The narrator then begins: "The Mastermind, whose roots go back thousands of years, who rules, burns, destroys, starves the world, creates wars, organizes revolutions and coups, establishes states within states – this 'intellect' is not only Turkey's curse, but the curse of the entire world. Who is this mastermind? The answer is hidden inside truths and facts that can never be called conspiracy theories.

"This story begins in the very old days, 3,500 years ago, when Moses brought his people out of Egypt to Jerusalem. The only guide he had was the Ten Commandments. This is what was placed inside a wooden Ark which was later brought into the Temple of Solomon.

"This is not myth but fact. And we have to look for the mastermind in Jerusalem where the sons of Israel live."

A Belated Remembrance. When Jews Rely On Others’ Goodwill

...while we welcome any empathy with the Jewish people, we cannot but suspect that rather than voicing genuine remorse, Turkey’s memorial served as a cynical ploy to expediently disguise other sentiments. For Israelis, more than anything, the Struma powerfully illustrates what happens when Jews rely on others’ goodwill.

The ill-fated Struma illustrates what
happens when Jews rely on others’ goodwill.

Sarah Honig..
Another Tack..
09 March '15..

The excesses of Chutzpah never cease to amaze. A galling example was provided by Turkey’s purportedly big-hearted recent memorial for the 768 Jewish refugees (103 of them babies and children) who drowned off its coast on February 24, 1942 when WWII already raged.

These refugees from Nazi horrors were packed like sardines on the unseaworthy Danube barge Struma which left the Rumanian port of Constanza heading “illegally” toward British-mandated Eretz Yisrael. It barely made it into Istanbul Harbor. It couldn’t continue. Its makeshift motor failed. There was no fuel, food or water.

Contrary to what was asserted at the ceremony, Turkey was hardly magnanimous.

Moreover, for the first time in 73 years, official Turkey saw fit to remember but not to apologize – although it insisted on Israel’s apology for foiling the 2010 Mavi Marmara provocation. In its first-ever Struma commemoration, Turkey’s foreign ministry very belatedly – almost three-quarters of a century inexplicably too late – “extended condolences to the victims’ relatives and to Turkish-Jewish citizens.”

The ministry averred that “Turkey always, adopts a humane approach with respect to humanitarian tragedies that occur in its vicinity.” It also was content to blame the Struma’s sinking on the Soviets, realizing full well that they unknowingly only delivered the coup de grace to the helpless refugees.

Turkey’s official line nowadays is that the Struma was only anchored in its waters “for a few days.” In fact, it was a 75-day (from December 12 to February 24) spectacle of apathy and inhumanity in which the Turkish role was most prominent.

Turkey was then supposedly neutral but its much-ballyhooed nonalignment didn’t extend to outcast Jewish refugees. The Arabs – who were openly and unreservedly Nazism’s avid collaborators – pressured London into denying endangered Jews asylum in the Jewish homeland and His Majesty government did precisely that.

Ankara adamantly refused to let anyone off the crippled boat except for the handful who had British entry visas. Turkey’s premier argued that “Turkey cannot be expected to serve as a refuge or surrogate homeland for people unwanted anywhere else.”

So now the world has learned the real culprit behind the murders

...Commenting on the Paris massacre, the Lord Mayor suggested that Israel was annoyed with the Lower House of French Parliament for voting for the recognition of a Palestinian state, and with France’s vote in favor of a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution calling for the same recognition. He unmasked the plot: “Israel certainly doesn’t want this sentiment to expand in Europe. That’s why it is certain that Mossad is behind these kinds of incidents: Mossad enflames Islamophobia by causing such incidents.”....Meanwhile, other Turks who use the same logic to impress may be less lucky. In 2011, one of two Turkish celebrities who was accused of raping call girls defended himself by saying that the whole incident was an "Israeli plot against him." This author has not since learned whether the man targeted by Israel was found guilty or acquitted.

The mayor of Turkey's capital city[Image Source]

Burak Bekdil..
hurriyetdailynews.com..
16 January '15..

This columnist’s first of a few encounters with Melih Gökçek, the unchallenged mayor of the Turkish capital since 1994, was through a press release from the municipality, sent by fax to this newspaper, in the mid-1990s. It was grotesquely (but cutely) signed: Melih Gökçek, Lord Mayor of Ankara. It caused laughter in the newsroom. But no one knew the Lord Mayor of Ankara would not always be naively amusing.

In 2011, the nationalist-turned-Islamist Mr. Gökçek promised to erect an Algerian genocide/massacre monument right across the French Embassy compound in Ankara if the French parliament went ahead with a bill recognizing the Armenian genocide. In fact, Paris ended up recognizing the Armenian Genocide, but Mr. Gökçek’s monument still remains to be erected right across from the French Embassy compound. Meanwhile, French defense companies are making an impressive comeback to the lucrative Turkish market, with President François Hollande having risen to become President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s “new Berlusconi.”

Last summer, when a Turkish-Kurdish pop star wrote on her Twitter account, “May God bless Hitler. He did far less [than he should have done to Jews],” the popular mayor of Ankara replied: “I applaud you!” And when hundreds of angry Turks hurled stones and rocks at, and tried to break into, the Israeli diplomatic missions in Ankara and Istanbul, the Lord Mayor of Ankara said: “We will conquer the consulate of the despicable murderers.” Just like the Algerian genocide monument waits to be erected, the Israeli diplomatic missions remain to be conquered.

Mr. Gökçek may have a couple of unkept promises to the people of Ankara. He may have the habit of applauding people who admire Hitler. But the Lord Mayor’s more important virtues make him absolutely eligible for either of two strategic positions: The head of counter-intelligence at the National Intelligence Agency (MİT) or the head of the anti-terror unit at the special operations unit.

Commenting on the Paris massacre, the Lord Mayor suggested that Israel was annoyed with the Lower House of French Parliament for voting for the recognition of a Palestinian state, and with France’s vote in favor of a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution calling for the same recognition. He unmasked the plot: “Israel certainly doesn’t want this sentiment to expand in Europe. That’s why it is certain that Mossad is behind these kinds of incidents: Mossad enflames Islamophobia by causing such incidents.”

So now the world has learned the real culprit behind the murders. The French prosecutors and the International Criminal Court know which organization to indict for the killings: Mossad, the same silly spy network that in the past was caught red-handed by sending spies of various bird species to Turkey, with metal rings around their legs stamped “Israel.”

A reminder that hateful conspiracy theories are not only found in dark corners

...He has our attention today because of this: Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek has alleged that last week's deadly attacks on a French satirical magazine and a kosher supermarket in Paris that left 17 people dead are the result of France expressing support for Palestine, and that Israeli intelligence is behind the attacks, the semi-official Anadolu news agency reported.

The mayor of Turkey's capital city: Dangerous
and offensive conspiratorial views that ought
to be more widely recognized [Image Source]

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
14 January '14..

It's too easy for Westerners to skim an article mentioning a man called Melih Gökçek and to ignore what it says.

But for those prepared to drill down a little and to try to understand the non-English-language viewpoints on offer in the world of ideas, what he has been saying is worthy of urgent attention.

He's a Turkish lawyer and journalist who has held down the very influential role of mayor of Turkey's capital city Ankara (population: 4.6 million) for more than two decades, having won municipal elections in 1994, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014. For the three years before that term started, he was an elected member of the Turkish parliament. Politically, he is aligned with the ruling Justice and Development Party, the AKP, which "developed from the tradition of Islamism, but has officially abandoned this ideology in favour of "conservative democracy"" [Wikipedia]. He has more than two million Twitter followers.

Plainly no fool and by no means an underachiever. But a man of considerable malevolence. This for instance:
In early July 2014 Gökçek supported the antisemitic tweet made by Turkish singer Yıldız Tilbe: "God bless Hitler, it was even too few what he did to the Jews, he was right" and "The Jews will be destroyed by Muslims, in the name of Allah, not much time left for it be done". [Wikipedia]

He has our attention today because of this:

(Continue)

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How a Population Dropped to Two - Ethnic Cleansing of Jews in Turkey

...The sweet little secret in both Turkey and Europe is that anti-Semites do not need the existence of a Jewish state to attack or threaten Jews. Hatred of Jews did not start with the re-establishment of the state of Israel. The truth is that those who carried out ethnic cleansing of Jews are the last persons who should whine about the non-existent Israeli "occupation." Israelis are not occupiers in Israel. Israel is the home of the Jews; you cannot be an occupier in your own home. Israel has the legal, moral and historical right to exist as a sovereign state.

Uzay Bulut..
Gatestone Institute..
15 December '14..

The latest anti-Semitic statement in Turkey was made on November 21 by Dursun Ali Sahin, the governor of Edirne, a city in Eastern Thrace. Governor Sahin announced that because he was angry at Israel, he would turn the city's synagogue into a museum. "While those bandits [Israeli security forces] blow winds of war inside al-Aqsa and slay Muslims," he said, "we build their synagogues. I say this with a huge hatred inside me. We clean their graveyards, send their projects to boards. But the synagogue here will be registered only as a museum, and there will be no exhibitions inside it."

In response to the uproar that followed, Governor Sahin phoned the Chief Rabbi of Turkey, Ishak Haleva, to apologize and, according to the newspaper, Salom, said his statements had been misunderstood and distorted by the media.

The Director General of the General Directorate of Foundations, Adnan Ertem, then said that the synagogue would, after all, remain a house of worship.

More shocking, however, is the demographic makeup of Edirne's current population.

Before the Turkish Republic was established in 1923, the Jewish population of Edirne, for centuries a home to Jews, was 13,000, as reported in the detailed essay "The Jews of Edirne," by Rifat Bali, an independent scholar specializing in the history of Turkish Jewry. But by 1998, Edirne had three Jews left: Yasef Romano, who was born in 1938, and Rifat and Sara Miftani, a couple who owned a shop there.

Today, the current Jewish population of Edirne is two.

The Jewish presence in Edirne dates back to early Byzantine times, during the rule of Roman Emperor Theodosius I (reigned 379-395 CE). During the Ottoman Empire, Edirne -- home to many Jewish intellectuals, scientists, musicians, publishers and merchants -- was as central to Jews as Constantinople (Istanbul) and Thessaloniki.

What happened?

Excellent Question. Who Exactly Does Turkey Support?

...Will Erdogan downgrade Turkey's diplomatic ties with the U.S. and five Muslim nations because their militaries killed a Turkish citizen outside of Turkish territory? No. Probably because, in the pragmatic Islamist thinking, one does not properly qualify as a "martyr" if he gets killed by an army (or armies) other than Israel's.

Burak Bekdil..
Gatestone Institute..
07 October '14..

Last week, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden had to zigzag between the truth that accidentally spilled out of him and Washington's pragmatism. In a speech at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Biden said: "[Turkish] President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan, he is an old friend, said you were right, we let too many people through, now we are trying to seal the border."

The "people," however, whom Erdogan said Ankara had "let through" were the jihadists whom Turkey had supported with arms and money, and who have now become an international nightmare.

In other words, the U.S. vice president was publicly saying that the Turkish president had confessed to supporting terrorists.

Then Erdogan threatened: "If he [Biden] really said that, he would become history for me." Finally, a White House statement announced: "The vice president apologized for any implication that Turkey or other allies and partners in the region had intentionally supplied and facilitated the growth of ISIL or other extremists in Syria."

Erdogan has never hidden that he is ideologically a next of kin to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. Hamas's overseas command center happens to be based in Turkey. Erdogan has been Hamas's staunchest (non-Hamas) cheerleader in the last decade, and the Brotherhood's key regional ally. Press reports say that Turkey has recently welcomed in the Brotherhood's top brass, who were expelled on Sept. 13 from their five-million-star hotels in Qatar. Ankara has not denied that it is offering a safe haven to the leaders of the Islamist organization.

In short, to finish off the jihadists who have captured large swathes of land in Iraq and Syria, Washington will now work with the man who until recently funded and reinforced these same jihadists (and their various offspring) and is proud of his love affairs with Hamas and the Brotherhood. More ironically, a U.S.-led coalition of nations including Arab states recently killed one of Erdogan's heroes when the coalition forces struck an ISIS camp in Syria.

The Fabrication and Myth of the Palestinian Underdog

...Clearly, Israel has many strengths, including a thriving economy, a relatively powerful army, and strong American support. But as Hanson noted, it’s still a tiny country with few friends and many enemies, and anti-Israel protesters intuitively sense this. So don’t be fooled by their pretensions to “moral indignation” against Israel’s “oppression of the underdog.” They’re just doing what mobs have done since time immemorial: targeting a victim they see as fundamentally vulnerable.

Evelyn Gordon..
Commentary Magazine..
21 August '14..

One of the enduring myths of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is that much of the West supports the Palestinians out of natural sympathy for the underdog. Victor Davis Hanson of Stanford’s Hoover Institution effectively demolished that myth last week, pointing out that if sympathy for the underdog were really driving the massive pro-Palestinian demonstrations sweeping the West, one would expect to see equally massive demonstrations in support of occupied Tibet, the undoubted underdog against superpower China, or embattled Ukraine, the equally undoubted underdog against superpower Russia. In reality, he argued, anti-Israel sentiment flourishes not because Israel is Goliath, but because it is David:

Israel is inordinately condemned for what it supposedly does because its friends are few, its population is tiny, and its adversaries beyond Gaza numerous, dangerous and often powerful.

Or to put it more bluntly, condemning Israel entails no costs and frequently provides benefits, whereas supporting it could invite retaliation from its numerous enemies. So just as Western countries are reluctant to push China on Tibet for fear that China will retaliate by barring access to the world’s largest market, or to push Russia too hard on Ukraine because Russia is a major natural gas producer with no qualms about cutting off supplies to its political opponents, they often find it easier to push Israel than to push its enemies.

Take, for instance, the cases of Qatar and Turkey, currently Hamas’s two main patrons. Qatar is Hamas’s leading financier, giving it hundreds of millions of dollars per year to build its rocket arsenal and tunnel network; it hosts Hamas leader Khaled Meshal; it reportedly torpedoed an emerging Hamas-Israel cease-fire deal by threatening to kick Meshal out if he signed; and according to former Israeli Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin, about a third of all cement imported to Gaza for Qatari-sponsored projects was instead diverted to Hamas’s tunnel network–presumably with Doha’s willing cooperation, since EU-managed projects suffered no similar diversions.

The Precedents of Syria, Turkey and the Nightmare Scenario

...The problem is that such an agreement only works if it’s strictly enforced, meaning any noncompliance produces massive punishment. Otherwise, even the thinnest façade of compliance will suffice to enable the signatory to maintain its nonconventional weapons program with impunity, which would be Israel’s nightmare scenario on Iran. And there are three reasons for thinking that’s precisely what the Syrian agreement will do.

Evelyn Gordon..
Commentary Magazine..
18 September '13..

Martin Kramer wrote an illuminating post yesterday on why American handling of the chemical-weapons crisis in Syria has unnerved Israel by causing it to doubt that America would attack Iran’s nuclear program if necessary. While I agree with his conclusion, I think that’s only part of the story. After all, most Israelis would prefer to resolve the Iranian nuclear crisis diplomatically, so one could argue–as some Israeli commentators have–that Syria sets an encouraging precedent: American threats to use military force seemingly persuaded Damascus to give up its nonconventional weapons voluntarily, which is precisely what many Israelis hope will happen in Iran.

The problem is that such an agreement only works if it’s strictly enforced, meaning any noncompliance produces massive punishment. Otherwise, even the thinnest façade of compliance will suffice to enable the signatory to maintain its nonconventional weapons program with impunity, which would be Israel’s nightmare scenario on Iran. And there are three reasons for thinking that’s precisely what the Syrian agreement will do. One is that the agreement is problematic to begin with, providing ample opportunities for evasion. The second, as Kramer explained, is that President Barack Obama’s original decision to punt the question of using force in Syria to Congress makes any military action to punish noncompliance unlikely. The third is Obama’s track record of refusing to enforce the agreements he brokers even when punishing violations wouldn't necessitate the use of force, and would hence be much easier.

Nothing better illustrates this than an astounding interview given by the Greek ambassador to Israel last week. According to Spiros Lampridis, six months after Israel apologized to Turkey for its botched raid on a 2010 flotilla to Gaza–under an agreement personally brokered by Obama that was supposed to result in Turkey resuming normal relations with Israel–Ankara is still vetoing any NATO cooperation with Israel.

The Irrationality and Madness of King Erdogan

...Madness, unfortunately, cannot be compartmentalized. Erdogan’s latest outburst–in which he, as Michael Rubin pointed out, accused Israel of being behind Egypt’s military coup while citing as the only evidence a public conversation between French intellectual Bernard Henri-Levy and Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni from two years ago (when she actually was in opposition)–is the acne of a conspiratorial mind that has lost touch with reality.

Emanuele Ottolenghi..
Commentary Magazine..
20 August '13..

Since Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan invited Hamas to Istanbul in 2006, shortly after the Islamist terrorist organization won parliamentary elections in the Palestinian Authority, Israel-Turkey relations have deteriorated.

Erdogan has repeatedly exploited the Palestinian issue to score propaganda points both at home and with Arab and Muslim audiences and has sacrificed a strategic alliance over his pride, especially after the Israeli incursion into Gaza in late 2008 and the Mavi Marmara affair. Why Erdogan would take cheap shots at Israel has been repeatedly discussed here and elsewhere and needs not be rehashed.

But as his vicious rhetoric increasingly flirted with anti-Israel language, there was little opposition inside Turkey to this aspect of Erdogan’s boisterous style on the international stage. Even when he brought his personal animus to a debate with Israeli President Shimon Peres, whom he abruptly abandoned on stage in Davos, or when he sought revenge against Israel at NATO by seeking to exclude Israel from NATO-Mediterranean dialogue programs, or when he set up a kangaroo court against Israeli military personnel in Istanbul, few dared label this trend for what it was: political insanity and a self-inflicted wound.

As if one could act irrationally on one front while being reasonable on all other fronts, Turkish society continued to back Erdogan. After all, his regional policies appeared briefly to pay dividends–Turkey’s economy was booming, trade with Iran was booming, relations with Syria were thawing, and popularity across the Arab world for standing up to Israel gave Turkey the brief illusion it could regain its role of regional guide it lost at the end of the Ottoman Empire.

And from our Turkish friends - The historic march of our holy nation...

...I recall mentioning in this column twice: “On a fine February afternoon at the Cafe Nicola in Lisbon in 2011, my Lebanese friend sipped his wine, turned to me and explained the real meaning of the glittering ‘Turkish model’ for the Arab Spring: ‘[Turkey is a model] because anyone who stands against Israel is a friend of Arabs.’ Then he added: ‘But that thinking has only built temporary alliances which later easily turned into longer-term hostilities among the Arabs.’”

Burak Bekdil..
Hurriyet Daily News..
16 August '13..

In a speech in Sarajevo in October 2009, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu heralded: “As in the 16th century, when the Ottoman Balkans were rising, we will once again make the Balkans, the Caucasus and the Middle East, together with Turkey, the center of world politics in the future. That is the goal of the Turkish foreign policy, and we will achieve it.”

That mission has been partly accomplished. Most headlines on world politics refer to the former (and present) Ottoman lands: Civil war in Syria; nearly 1,000 Muslims killed by other Muslims in Iraq in a span of a month; a military coup in Egypt and hundreds of deaths; and simply blood, sweat and tears across Turkey. The Balkan and Caucasus nations should be happy not to have joined the former Ottoman lands to become the center of world politics.

In an April 2012 speech, Mr. Davutoğlu was even more specific: “On the historic march of our holy nation, the AK Party signals the birth of a global power and the mission for a new world order. This is the centenary of our exit from the Middle East... whatever we lost between 1911 and 1923, whatever lands we withdrew from, from 2011 to 2023 we shall once again meet our brothers in those lands. This is a … historic mission.”

Some of the other foreign policy goals Mr. Davutoğlu had earlier specified as part of that bounden historic mission was to “pray altogether at the al-Aqsa mosque in the Palestinian capital al-Quds (otherwise mistakenly known by the world as Jerusalem)” and to “pray together in a liberated Damascus.” It is not certain yet how soon the foreign minister will add to this portfolio “praying altogether in a liberated Cairo,” but there is every indication that “meeting our brothers” in the former Ottoman lands is becoming increasingly riskier.

Crossing the border into Syria could be a lethal adventure unless the traveler is a jihadist bound for Raqqa or Deir ez-Zor, or a Kurdish paramilitary patrolling in Ras al-Ayn or Hasaka. As for praying in Damascus, Mr. Davutoğlu could always seek permission from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Iraq and Iran could be less lethal but equally unadvised for the neo-Ottoman traveler.

A “passage to the Gaza Strip” has not been made possible even for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan – undoubtedly an embarrassment for a sultan. Meanwhile, Mr. Davutoğlu’s quest to pray at the al-Aqsa mosque in the Palestinian capital al-Quds may have to wait for a few more centuries, if not longer. Instead, Mr. Davutoğlu could always pray at a mosque of his choice in Cairo, likewise a former Ottoman land, to be followed by a gathering of Muslim Brothers in al-Adawiya square: a nice package tour in another center of world politics, the emergency rule in Cairo permitting.

The Crescent and the Star - Humor’s 21st type

Burak Bekdil..
Hurriyet Daily News..
02 August '13..

Elementary literature will usually tell you that there are 20 different types of humor. The 21st is called the Crescent and the Star.

Slightly more than a year ago, a bee-eater caused alarm in a Turkish village when it was found dead in a field with a metal ring around its leg stamped “Israel.” Villagers called the police after intelligently deciding that its nostrils were unusually large and may have carried a microchip fitted by Israeli intelligence for spying (See “The world’s silliest spy network, this column, May 23, 2012). Mossad seems to have added a new species to its better known spies – rats, vultures and bee-eaters – it sends to Muslim countries.

Recently, Turkish authorities detained (detained!) a kestrel on suspicion that it was spying for Israel.

This spy, too, was quite self-revealing as the metal ring on its leg carried the words “Tel Avivunia Israel.” The local governor, who must also be an expert counter-espionage agent, decided to send the bird to a university hospital to check for the surveillance equipment hidden in its body.

The kestrel escaped police interrogation as no spying gadgets were found inside its body. The spy’s name on the hospital’s X-ray sheet read: Israeli spy. The lucky agent was released after it successfully masqueraded as an NGO official doing academic work in the Turkish skies, although it may have been blacklisted by Turkish immigration officers. I suspect Mossad’s next move could be to send Turkey pink elephants and blue dragons with stamps on their bodies that read “Israeli spy.”

But Turkey does not face the threat of foreign spies only. According to one estimate, there are about 38 million terrorists in Turkey who must be put in jail for life. According to the Justice and Development Party’s deputy chairman, Mehmet Ali Şahin (former “justice” minister and parliamentary speaker), millions of protestors who have been demonstrating against the government since May 31 should be given life sentences under Article 312 of the Turkish Penal Code (which states that “anyone trying to destroy the Turkish government or to prevent it from partially or fully performing its duties shall be punished by aggravated life imprisonment”).

Why Things are Going Wrong - Turkey, Israel, and Syria by Barry Rubin

Barry Rubin..
Rubin Reports..
31 May '13..





I was interviewed by Radikal, possibly the best Turkish newspaper today.

What is your assessment of the current state of relations between Turkey and Israel?

Relations will remain bad because Prime Minister Erdogan wants it to be that way. No matter what Israel does—as we have just seen—he will find excuses to do so.

Are relations as tense as they seem or both parties play the tough guy before the cameras whereas they enjoy better relations behind the scenes?

Relations are as tense as they seem because Israel DID compromise before the cameras and Erdogan—for domestic reasons—is still playing tough guy both in public and behind the scenes.

Have you followed Prime Minister Erdogan’s recent visit to the US? Does it seem to you that Erdogan has been convinced by President Obama and will adopt a more multilateralist and moderate stance on Syria?

I’m not sure what this question means. If Obama becomes more multilateralist that means he will go to the UN and Russia will veto any action. So being more multilateralist means nothing will happen and that’s not what Erdogan wants.

As for “moderate” what does that mean? Does Erdogan want to give less aid and support to the rebels? I don’t think so.

While Turkish officials were having talks with their American counterparts, the CIA Chief John Brennan has visited Israel. Is there any connection between these two visits? Could we say that Turkey, Israel and the US have already or may in the near future start coordinating their efforts towards Syria?

They have already been coordinating their efforts but because of Israeli interests in not taking either side in the civil war that doesn’t mean a huge amount. The coordination has been mainly over sharing assessments and Israeli attacks to ensure that the Syrian regime’s advanced weapons do not get sent to Hizballah in Lebanon.

What is the current Israeli policy on Syria?

Neutrality. Defending itself against the transfer to Lebanon of advanced arms by the Syrian government. Israel will 100 percent definitely not get involved in the war on either side.

A worldview warped, dangerous, and dishonorable or perhaps just not real bright

The armed Turkish invaders Kerry has developed such sympathy for were on a ship funded by a terrorist organization with ties to Hamas and other jihadist groups seeking to challenge Israel’s navy in order to help Hamas. If they were victims at all, it was of their own violent ideology.

Seth Mandel..
Commentary/Contentions..
21 April '13..

Those who doubted the wisdom of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s apology to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in March had their first “I told you so” moment the very next day. Speaking to Turkish reporters, Erdogan appeared to immediately backtrack on his end of the rapprochement, which included dropping the case against the Israel Defense Forces for defending themselves from the Turkish-supported flotilla activists seeking to violently crash the naval blockade of the terrorist group Hamas.

A successful normalization of relations between Israel and Turkey would be beneficial to regional stability, so Netanyahu presumably offered the apology fully aware of the risks of dealing with Erdogan and believing they were outweighed by the rewards. But one of the reasons some opposed the apology at all was because they understandably feared it would legitimize the status of victimhood claimed by the violent invaders and endorse a frightful moral relativism which already undermines Israel’s attempts to defend itself.

But the moral relativism between the IDF and the armed naval invaders, while unfortunate, is fully eclipsed by the offensive and indefensible moral relativism Secretary of State John Kerry offered this weekend in trying to soothe Erdogan’s ego. According to the Associated Press: