The Gaza Blockade
A collection of press cuttings
June 3, 2010
Edited by Andy Ross
Turkey Versus Israel
David Ignatius, The Washington Post
By attacking the relief flotilla, Israel picked a fight with Turkey. Once
Israel's most important regional ally, Turkey now seeks to challenge
Israel's hegemony as the local superpower. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan is a Muslim populist with a charismatic message: We won't let Israel
push us around. Where Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is often a
buffoon, Erdogan is a genuinely tough rival.
The Turkish challenge
was voiced Tuesday by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who likened the
Israeli attack to "pirates off the coast of Somalia." He warned at a
breakfast meeting with reporters: "Now it is time to decide: Are we in a
civilized world, or do some continue to have the law of the jungle? If it is
the second, we know what to do."
The Blockade
We can argue that Israel's blockade of Gaza is legitimate. But a blockade is
an act of war. Israel's actions on the Mavi Marmara reflect a total
disconnect between military means and political ends. The failure appears to
have been the result of gross incompetence and strategic malfeasance.
Israel Versus Gaza
The Obama administration considers Israel's blockade of Gaza to be untenable
and plans to press for another approach to ensure Israel's security while
allowing more supplies into Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
says that if there were no blockade in place it would mean "an Iranian port
in Gaza."
A senior American official said: "Gaza has become the
symbol in the Arab world of the Israeli treatment of Palestinians, and we
have to change that."
Time To Disengage
The "flotilla affair" offers a good opportunity to complete the
disengagement from the Gaza Strip and leave Hamastan to its own devices.
AR I agree with Benn: Israel
should disengage completely from Gaza and seal the borders. Then it can
treat the first rocket barrage as a pretext for all-out war against
Hamastan. But first try to pacify Turkey — a war that dragged in Turkey as
well as Iran would be unwinnable for Israel.
Turkish Press Coverage
Robert Mackey, The New York Times
Today’s Zaman, an English-language newspaper in Turkey, reported in detail on the raid:
Gaza returnees share horror stories from Israel
Ali Buhamd, deported from Israel along with 18 other activists, was on the
Mavi Marmara, a passenger ship in the flotilla that was attacked by Israeli
naval forces in international waters on Monday. There are at least nine dead
because of the attack according to Israeli officials, but witnesses, such as
Humanitarian Aid Foundation (IHH) President Bülent Yıldırım, say more people
were killed and their bodies dumped into the sea.
Buhamd said: "I saw
a soldier shooting a wounded Turk in the head. There was another Turk asking
for help, but he bled to death."
Kevin Ovenden of Britain, who
arrived in Istanbul on Thursday, said a man who had pointed a camera at the
soldiers was shot directly through the forehead with live ammunition, with
the exit wound blowing away the back of his skull.
More press cuttings
June 4, 2010
Edited by Andy Ross
Turkey's new role as hero of the Arab world
Turkey is capitalizing on the new adoration of its Arab neighbors. No longer
Trojan Horse of the West but Champion of the Palestinians, a cause where
Arab leaders have failed — that is the new role opening for Turkey.
President Gül declared that Turkey would not forgive Israel for the attacks.
"Turkey-Israel relations will not be as they were," he said. As he spoke,
protesters in Arab cities waved the Turkish flag.
Posters of Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's Prime Minister, are everywhere in the
demonstrations. Erdogan, who called Israel "a festering boil in the Middle
East" and the attacks "a bloody massacre," is emerging as the hero of the
week in the Arab street.
Turkey's role in the Gaza flotilla affair
By Con Coughlin, The Telegraph
Turkey has lost no time in leading the international chorus of condemnation
for Israel's cack-handed response to the Gaza flotilla. Turkish Foreign
Minister Ahmet Davutoglu even claims that the military interception of the
flotilla has become Turkey's 9/11.
The Turks appear to have
overlooked the evidence that many of those on board the Mavi Marmara were
hell-bent on an armed confrontation. How else do you explain the presence of
gas masks, bullet-proof vests, knives and axes on the vessel? The team of
Israeli commandos that rappelled from a helicopter on to the ship's upper
deck were met by a lynch mob, some of whom had openly professed a desire to
achieve martyrdom prior to the voyage.
Turkey's bold attempt to forge
an important diplomatic alliance with Israel now lies in tatters. For more
than a decade, Turkey has delicately balanced the needs of its Muslim
population against the strategic interests of collaborating with Israel on
regional security issues. As a founder member of the NATO alliance, modern
Turkey saw its destiny as lying with the West rather than the repressive and
increasingly Islamist regimes in its former Ottoman dominions.
Those
aspirations have been thwarted. The Turkish government increasingly finds
itself on a collision course with the West. The frustrations of millions of
frustrated secular Muslims may lead them down the path of Islamist
radicalization.
AR Israel has massively increased the risk of triggering a historic tragedy for humanity. Like the Spartans at Thermopylae, the Israelis could go down fighting vast armies of enemies — Arabs, Turks and Persians — against whom they have no chance, however valiantly they fight, however hideously they rack up the body count. In the aftermath, the rest of the world would be faced with a regional cauldron of boiling and self-righteous zealots eager to globalize their victory.
Yet more press cuttings
June 5, 2010
Edited by Andy Ross
Turkish prosecutors go after Israeli politicians
The Istanbul Bakırköy Prosecutor's Office has started a probe into Israel's attack. Among the prosecutors' evidence are the autopsy reports of the eight Turkish citizens and one U.S.-Turkish dual citizen who were killed in the attack. If the prosecutor's office can compile enough evidence against Israel at the end of its probe, it will charge Israeli officials with various crimes, including murder, injury, taking hostages, attacking Turkish citizens on the open seas and piracy. The main suspects in the investigation thus far are Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and Chief of General Staff Gabi Ashkenazi.
Navy Boards Rachel Corrie
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu described the boarding of the Rachel
Corrie containing activists and aid for Gaza as a quiet operation. Netanyahu
distinguished between the boat of Irish and Malaysian activists and the
Turkish-sponsored Mavi Marmara: "The different outcome we saw today
underscores the difference between peace activists who we disagree with but
respect their right to express their different opinion and flotilla
participants who were violent extremist supporters of terrorists."
AR Netanyahu's praising the peace activists may cause him to reflect on Israeli conduct: if Israel's manners were more peaceful we'd have a more harmonious world. The "tough neighborhood" is tough in part because no-one dare relax among all those hotheads. But someone must be first.
Yet more press cuttings
June 6, 2010
Edited by Andy Ross
Israel: We will not apologize
An official in the Israeli Foreign Ministry says the Turkish demand for an
official apology was mainly an excuse to allow Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan to cut diplomatic ties with Israel.
Israeli Minister
Dan Meridor canceled his participation in this week's Conference on
Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, sponsored by Erdogan
and held in Istanbul. Meridor canceled due to security concerns.
Report: Erdogan considering visiting Gaza
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is weighing the possibility of
traveling to the Gaza Strip in order to "break the Israeli blockade," the
Lebanese newspaper al-Mustaqbal reported on Saturday, according to Army
Radio.
Erdogan is under intense political pressure to cancel security
agreements with Israel. But the Turkish military establishment strongly
opposes the idea of cutting security ties with Israel.
Flotilla activists: Go back to Auschwitz
The Middle East Media Research Institute has released video statements made by Bulent Yildirim, head of the IHH Turkish Islamist organization that organized last week's blockade runners. Addressing his listeners as the "people of paradise," Yildirim said: "Raise your fists to the skies and repeat after me: What can the enemy do to me? I carry paradise in my heart. ... If they kill me — that is martyrdom for the sake of Allah. Allahu akbar."
"We had no choice"
When Staff Sergeant "S" abseiled down from an air force Black Hawk
helicopter onto the Mavi Marmara, he did not expect to be landing in what he
called "a battlefield" and facing off against a group of murderous
mercenaries.
The last naval commando to rappel down onto the ship
from the helicopter, S said he was immediately attacked by what the IDF
called a "mob of mercenaries."
Looking to his side, he saw three of
his commanders lying wounded. As the next in the chain of command, S
immediately took charge. He pushed the wounded soldiers against a wall and
created a perimeter of soldiers around them. He then pulled out his Glock
pistol.
The attackers had already seized two pistols from the
commandos and fired repeatedly at them. S and his colleagues opened fire.
S killed six men. His colleagues killed another three.
"When I hit
the deck, I was immediately attacked by people with bats, metal pipes and
axes. These were without a doubt terrorists. I could see the murderous rage
in their eyes and that they were coming to kill us."
S is being
considered for a medal of valor.
Turkey not flexing its muscles but pressing for universal values
Questions over the limits of Turkey's soft power have been recently raised
regarding its leverage over its NATO ally the United States in its efforts
to internationalize the issue of the Israeli raid. Ankara has stated that
Israel would have to bear the consequences of violating international law.
Ankara rejects the interpretation of the issue as a power game. Said
a senior Turkish diplomat: "Turkey has not embarked on this road to flex its
muscles. What we say is a manifestation of what kind of a world we want to
see."
AR Now I see the merits
of both sides. The Israelis are doing what they think is right independently
of the risk of massive escalation. The Turks are trying to help the people
of Gaza independently of the Hamas issue. But Israel is right to resist
Hamas. And Turkey is right to press for a more humanitarian resolution.
My proposal: Israel should relax its embargo and intensify efforts to
accommodate the moral concerns of Turkish moderates. Turkish moderates
should resist calls for more Islamization.
Another press cutting
June 7, 2010
Edited by Andy Ross
Israel and Turkey
The state of Israel may now regret its past collaboration with some of the
worst elements in modern Turkey. If this era of unseemly collaboration is
over, then so much the better. A group of Turkish and Arab activists seek to
donate materials described as humanitarian aid to Hamas. But is it really
humanitarian to make contributions to a ruling party that has a totalitarian
and racist ideology?
Hamas' charter and many of its official
proclamations announce that it endorses the so-called Protocols of the
Elders of Zion. What if the international community were to tell the Hamas
leadership we will consider lifting the sanctions if you will renounce the
Protocols?
Another press cutting
June 9, 2010
Edited by Andy Ross
Thorny Turkey
Turkey's prime
minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is a hero to the Arab world. His new foreign
policy is openly challenging the way the United States manages Iran’s
nuclear program and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Turkey is
finding its footing in its own backyard, a troubled region that has been in
turmoil for years, in part as a result of American policy. Turkey was also
frustrated in its desire to join the European Union.
"The Americans,
no matter what they say, cannot get used to a new world where regional
powers want to have a say in regional and global politics," said Soli Ozel,
a professor of international relations at Bilgi University in Istanbul.
"This is our neighborhood, and we don't want trouble. The Americans create
havoc, and we are left holding the bag."
Turkey is now a vibrant,
competitive democracy with an economy that would rank as the sixth largest
in Europe. Unlike Jordan and Egypt, which rely heavily on American aid, it
is financially independent of the United States.
Ahmet Davutoglu,
Turkey's foreign minister, says economics is at the heart of the new policy.
His governing party is made up of merchants and traders, who are more
devoted to their business interests than to advancing Islamic solidarity.
"Economic interdependence is the best way to achieve peace," he said.
"In the 1990s we had severe tension all around us, and Turkey paid a huge
bill because of that. Now we want to establish a peaceful order around us."
But Erdogan's confrontation with Israel, which he accused of "state
terrorism" in the flotilla raid, raises alarms for Americans. Many see his
fiery statements as a sign that he is aligning himself with Islamic rivals
of the West.
"The Jewish community in Turkey is not at all alarmed,"
said Ishak Alaton, a prominent Jewish businessman in Istanbul. The tough
talk, he said, is Erdogan's attempt to score points ahead of an election.
Shafeeq Ghabra, a political science professor at Kuwait University,
argued that Turkey had stepped into a vacuum left by a failed peace process,
and that it was trying to "save the Palestinians from becoming desperate
again and save Israel from itself."
Turkish and American officials
play down their differences, saying they share the goal of peace in the
Middle East.
Another press cutting
June 19, 2010
Edited by Andy Ross
Turkey 1, Iran 0
Elliot Hen-Tov and Bernard Haykel
The New York Times
Iran stands to lose much influence as Turkey assumes a new role as the
modern and democratic nation willing to take on Israel and oppose America.
Washington stands to gain if a newly muscular Turkey can adopt a leadership
role in the Sunni Arab world.
Prime Minister Erdogan has positioned
Turkey as an interlocutor between the Islamic/Arab world and Israel and the
West. Erdogan is not only a devout Sunni but also the democratically elected
leader of a dynamic and modern Muslim country with membership in the G-20
and NATO.
AR This is good analysis. Did
someone in Israel see this outcome in advance?
Another press cutting
June 25, 2010
Edited by Andy Ross
Turkey and Iran
Turkey has emerged as a regional power and the guarantor of Arab interests against Israel and Iran. Either Ankara wants to restore Arab pride by handing over a Hamas scrubbed of Iranian influence or the Turks simply want to use the Palestinian cause to enhance their own regional credentials. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states see that Turkey is Sunni and Iran is Shia. Ankara will mediate between the Arabs and the West.
