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tweakabelle -> RE: Palestine recognised by South American nations. (12/13/2010 2:36:02 PM)
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quote:
U.S. and Israeli diplomats agreed that the increasingly strained relationship between Turkey and Israel derives mostly from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s hatred of the Jewish state, according to embassy cables posted by WikiLeaks.org.
Israeli Ambassador to Turkey Gabby Levy described Erdogan as a “fundamentalist” who “hates us religiously” in a 2009 meeting with U.S. Ambassador James F. Jeffrey in Ankara, according to a cable sent from the U.S. embassy on Oct. 27 that year and released by WikiLeaks.
“Our discussions with contacts both inside and outside of the Turkish government on Turkey’s deteriorating relations with Israel tend to confirm Levy’s thesis that Erdogan simply hates Israel,” the U.S. embassy said.
Erdogan has been critical of Israel since its military operation in Gaza that began in December 2008, which the Turkish premier called “a crime against humanity.” Ties reached a low after Israeli commandos killed nine Turks in a raid on an aid ship headed for the Gaza Strip in May.
Levy said he was urged by Turkish officials to put up with Erdogan’s criticisms of Israel since they were “for domestic political consumption,” and received a message from Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu telling him that “things will get better,” according to the cable.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-26/turkey-s-erdogan-proposes-borderless-middle-east-sabah-says.html
Courtesy of Wikileaks, here's a perfect example of how legitimate criticism of Israel gets rationalised away as "hatred of Israel" (read: anti-Semitism). Here, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan's critical attitude towards Israel is analysed by US diplomats, with some 'help' from the Israeli Ambassador.
Despite noting the Turkish PM's trenchant criticism of the 2008 invasion of Gaza as a "crime against humanity", this factor is discounted/not considered as a potential cause of antagonism towards Israel. Among other relevant factors the US diplomats chose to ignore/refused to consider are:
*Israel's long and brutal occupation of Palestine;
*Numerous atrocities and war crimes committed by Israeli forces over the years;
*Turkish hostility to Israeli policies is shared by every other nation in the region;
*Israel's relentless expansion and its goal of securing the West Bank in toto before settling for peace;
*The overwhelming support of the Turkish people for their PM's position on Israel (democracy, what democracy?);
*For the rest of the world, outside of the US and Israel itself, opposition to Israeli policies is standard and quasi-universal and no explication is needed by any informed observer;
and many many more potential grounds for legitimate opposition to Israeli policy.
Instead, the US diplomats chose to accept unquestioningly the suggestion of the oh-so-objective and oh-so-disinterested Israeli Ambassador that Erdogan's position is down to hate. No evidence to support this claim is cited. This farcical interpretation is then sent back to the US for domestic consumption.
Mind-boggling stupidity.
If one of my students entered a piece of analysis as superficial and shoddy as this, they would certainly get an F for fail! But an excellent example of how the hate card gets played despite there being far more compelling coherent explanations available. And why, outside of Israel and a well-meaning but gullible US, this over-used canard has long ceased to have any credibility or currency. And how the sincerity of US citizens is cynically manipulated by pro-Israeli interests.
Which is truly a shame, as there are some anti-Semitic elements in some criticisms of Israel by a minority of its critics and this needs to be addressed as such. By continuously playing the hate card, Israeli apologists (just like the little boy who cried wolf) have only succeeded in devaluing it to the point of meaninglessness.
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