James Taranto Ignores The 800-Pound Genocidal Gorilla In The Room

The Stiletto Blog ^ | February 2, 2009 | The Stiletto

[theothercheek]

In Friday’s edition of “Best of the Web Today,” James Taranto writes this analysis of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan giving Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres a tongue-lashing during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos:

“One obvious point is that Turkey is hardly in a position to criticize Israel for responding firmly to terrorist attacks” (referring to repeated Turkish air and ground incursions into northern Iraq to go after the Kurdish Workers' Party), and “[a] less obvious point is that Erdogan might have killed whatever chance his country had of becoming a member of the European Union” (because Erdogan’s anti-Semitism was too overt for Europeans, who prefer to be more genteel in their Jew-hatred, according to Taranto).

An even less obvious point to Armenian Genocide denier Taranto is that Erdogan - the head of a country whose Ottoman forebears committed genocide - was berating Peres - the head of a country that was founded by survivors of genocide – on “know[ing] well how to kill."

And the least obvious point to Taranto, is that by falsely claiming Israel committed genocide in Gaza, Erdogan - as did Arafat before him – creates an equivalence between the cause and scale of civilian killings, rendering the term “crime against humanity” meaningless.

Taranto (whose Sephardic kinfolk somehow ended up in Turkey) considers himself a Turk and not a Jew, because he is an atheist – and yet he is also a Zionist. Given his competing loyalties, one wonders whether his head will explode with Erdogan the Turk and Peres the Israeli at each other’s throats.

Note: The Stiletto writes about politics and other stuff at The Stiletto Blog, chosen an Official Honoree in the Political Blogs category by the judges of the 12^th Annual Webby Awards (the Oscars of the online universe) along with CNN Political Ticker, Swampland (Time magazine) and The Caucus (The New York Times).

[DManA]

Taranto’s generally pretty good, and funny. Everyone’s got blind spots.

[theothercheek]

Genocide denial is not a blind spot. It’s a moral failing. Also, he is for illegal immigration, for gay marriage and for abortion. You need to read him more closely - he is no conservative.

[SunkenCiv]

"One obvious point is that Turkey is hardly in a position to criticize Israel for responding firmly to terrorist attacks" ...and "[a] less obvious point is that Erdogan might have killed whatever chance his country had of becoming a member of the European Union" (because Erdogan's anti-Semitism was too overt for Europeans, who prefer to be more genteel in their Jew-hatred, according to Taranto). An even less obvious point to Armenian Genocide denier Taranto is that Erdogan - the head of a country whose Ottoman forebears committed genocide - was berating Peres - the head of a country that was founded by survivors of genocide - on "know[ing] well how to kill." And the least obvious point to Taranto, is that by falsely claiming Israel committed genocide in Gaza, Erdogan - as did Arafat before him - creates an equivalence between the cause and scale of civilian killings, rendering the term "crime against humanity" meaningless. Taranto (whose Sephardic kinfolk somehow ended up in Turkey) considers himself a Turk and not a Jew, because he is an atheist - and yet he is also a Zionist.