First things first -- Turkey's stance on Gaza hardly splits it off from the West. British Prime Minister David Cameron called the raid "completely unacceptable," and he, along with the presidents of France and the United States, wants an investigation into the raid and has called on Israel to loosen its Gaza blockade.
It's true that Turkey has been strongly critical of Israel since its 2008-09 incursion into Gaza, but this doesn't mean it or its leadership is anti-Israel. In fact, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan doggedly pursued Middle East peace before the Gaza incursion, working for two years to try and stage-manage a rapprochement between Israel and Syria. This effort had to be shelved after Israeli troops entered Gaza.
Note EU-Digest: the Netanyahu government is a coalition of pretty hard line radicals just like Hamas is on the other side of spectrum . Mr. Erdogan regardless of his shortcomings has at least given this very explosive situation, which can never be solved by endless and fruitless negotiations supported by the US and the EU into a more aggressive confrontational mode and force the US and the EU to change course on this issue.
For more: Doug Sarro: Turkey and the West: Everybody Take a Valium
No comments:
Post a Comment