Posted on 09/05/2011 5:06:59 PM PDT by SJackson
Turkey harassed Israeli businessmen in Istanbul in order to gain popularity in the Muslim world generally and Arab world specifically.
Monday morning, Turkey took its anti-Israel campaign to a new level. Beyond downgrading diplomatic relations with Israel; beyond suspending military agreements; beyond threatening naval war; beyond threatening to foment an irredentist insurrection of Israeli Arabs; the Turks decided to terrorize Israeli tourists landing in Istanbul airport.
Forty Israeli passengers, mainly businessmen who had landed in Istanbul on a Turkish Airlines flight from Tel Aviv, were separated from the rest of the flight passengers. Their passports were confiscated.
They were placed in interrogation rooms and stripped down to their underwear. Their carry-on bags were checked. And then they were lined up against a wall, forbidden to sit down or use the washroom.
Passengers who contacted the Foreign Ministry said they felt frightened and intimidated.
The ordeal went on for 90 minutes, until Turkish authorities returned their Israeli passports and permitted them to pick up their suitcases and exit the airport.
What were the Turks trying to accomplish by terrifying the Israeli tourists? They didnt need to threaten trade ties. Their Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu already took care of that over the weekend.
The victimized Israelis said the Turkish airport authorities wouldnt even answer their questions.
Any time we asked them a question, the tourists said, the Turks ignored us.
It was as if they werent even there.
And thats the thing of it. The Turks didnt harass the Israeli tourists in order to send a message to Israel. They have nothing more to say to us. We are non-entities to them. Were only good for attacking.
No, Israel wasnt the target audience the Turks were playing to on Monday. Their target audience was the Islamic world generally and the Arab world specifically. Turkeys influence in these arenas skyrocketed in January 2009 after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused President Shimon Peres and Israel of mass murder as the leaders shared a stage at the Davos Conference.
Similarly Erdogans domestic and pan-Islamic support levels increased steeply in the aftermath of the Turkish-supported pro-Hamas flotilla to Gaza in 2010. After nine Turkish government-supported IHH terrorists were killed aboard the Mavi Marmara when they tried to murder IDF naval commandos who had lawfully boarded the ship, the Arabs hailed Erdogan as a hero for bravely attacking Israel.
Given how well scapegoating Israel has served him, Erdogan clearly believes it is a no-risk strategy for raising his star from Cairo to Algiers.
Leftist Israeli commentators refuse to accept what is happening. Writing in Haaretz on Sunday, Shlomo Avineri recommended that Israel compensate the nine IHH members whom IDF commandos killed in self-defense on the Mavi Marmara. Avineri argued that by refusing to do so, Israel was playing into the hands of hardliners. True, it wont be easy, but we need to grit our teeth and do the right thing, he wrote.
Others have argued that Israel may be able to rebuild its strategic relations with Turkey by selling Ankara more drones with which to kill Iraqi and Turkish Kurds. The Turkish military claimed it killed 100 Kurdish fighters in its attacks last month in Iraq and along the Turkish-Iraqi border. Israeli UAVs reportedly played a key role in the bombing. But Turkey needs more. If we sell them more, the argument goes, maybe they will see how useful we are and stop attacking us.
Aside from being morally reprehensible, these arguments fail to recognize the basic reality that Turkey has no interest whatsoever in rebuilding its ties with Israel. The once-important strategic alliance is over and gone, and Israel cannot do anything about it. All Turkey sees us as today is a scapegoat.
It has been argued by commentators on the Right that Turkeys abandonment of Israel is part and parcel of its abandonment of the US. But this is a mischaracterization of Turkeys policy toward the US.
Since 2003, Turkey has undertaken a series of actions that have harmed US strategic interests. The first, of course, was Erdogans decision on the eve of the Iraq War to deny the US military the right to invade northern Iraq from Turkey.
The latest action was arguably Turkeys joint air exercises with the Chinese Air Force last September.
Chinese jets en route to Turkey refueled in Iran. The exercise was a clear signal that NATO member Turkey intends to exploit its alliance with the US to build ties with the USs chief geostrategic competitor.
Yet at the same time that Turkey has harmed the US, it has also taken steps to assist it. Most recently, last week, Erdogan belatedly agreed to station the high-powered US X-Band radar on its territory as part of a missile defense system to protect NATO allies against the threat of Iranian long-range missiles.
Turkeys mixed policies toward the US reveal that unlike its position on Israel, Turkey believes that it has an interest in maintaining its alliance with the US. Its hostile behavior is more a function of perceived US weakness than anything else. That is, Turkey is willing to risk angering the US by undercutting it because it does not fear US retribution.
Turkeys aggressive behavior might end if the US made Turkey pay a price for it.
To its credit, the Netanyahu government has not accepted the advice of the Left and has refused to apologize to Turkey or pay compensation to the families of those killed aboard the Marmara. Moreover, the government has wisely used Turkeys behavior as a means of building strong bilateral ties with other victims of Turkish aggression. Over the past two years, Israel has strongly upgraded is strategic ties with Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Romania. Israel should add to these accomplishments by strengthening its ties to Armenia and to the Kurds of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.
With newspapers running groundless stories about prospects for reconstituting relations with Turkey, we need to recognize that what we are experiencing now is the beginning, not the end, of Turkeys slide into the enemy camp. Erdogan is openly taking steps to transform Turkey into an Islamic state along the lines of Iran. And the further he goes down his chosen path, the more harshly and aggressively he will lash out at Israel.
Given that scapegoating Israel is not a momentary lapse of reason on Turkeys part but a central aspect of a long-term regional strategy, it is clear that Israel needs to meet Turkish aggression with more than momentary courage in the face of intimidation and threats. Israel needs to build on its already successful policy of forming a ring of alliances around Turkey and develop a long-term military and diplomatic strategy for containing and weakening it.
The Kurds could probably use some advice and assistance on how to deal with the Turks. Turkey clearly needs tome other headaches to occupy their time.
If youd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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It does appear there are storm clouds on the horizon and war between Israel and the Arabs is becoming a higher probability.
I think Turkey has a right to do this. It’s their country under almost all pretexts. Now I’m sorry for the innocent passengers caught up in this, but it’s simply not that outrageous, and why? Simply because I want the U.S and other Western countries to be able to do this to large collections of Arabs, Muslims who seek entry into our country.
I guess the Turks no longer consider themselves European.
It’s funny, at one point Turkey was a safe haven for Jews fleeing the Inquisition.
Turkey’s slow slide into arab third world country status.
Turkey does not want an apology from Israel. The Islamists have taken over and the secular military has been pushed aside. Turkey is sliding downward as are other Muslim countries. Turkey should not get any foreign aide from the US or be added to Nato.
I’m sure the Kurds would appreciate the opportunity to buy some armed Israeli UAVs.
Turkey wants to dick around... so they should be obliged.
It’d be an awful shame if some of their naval ships accidental sank while in port. (SEALs with a limpet mine, swimming underwater, and affixing it to the keel of Turkish naval vessel makes for sunk ship)
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