generalspeaking

Beleaguered and Byzantine

When friendly relations turn sour, they often stay that way.  One of the principals in the relationship may harbour a grudge that nothing can bridge.  Something will have occurred to alter the balance of the friendship, something quite profound, where one friend views the other in the tainted light of a new distaste which has percolated to the surface as a result of a new lens through which they are viewed.

In the long-established and now fraught relationship between the State of Israel and that of Turkey, the new lens happens to be the extremely dark green of Islamism.  A virulently rabid strain of Islam fundamental to the righteous and the unforgiving.  Those living in the Middle East have a love of histrionics in their heritage, an adoration of bellicose ranting, and delivering of threats to ensure that whoever becomes their target is aware of their grudge.

And so it is that black becomes white; an aggressor becomes the victim and the transgressed becomes the oppressor.  As Turkey turned its back on the secular governance of Kamal Ataturk and moderate Islam, a growing combativeness ensued among those elected to public office and they saw fit to spurn old allegiances and forge new ones.  Turkey's Islamist Freedom and Justice Party began to link with Iran and Syria, while deploring Israel's military reaction to Hamas' violent cross-border provocations.

The decision to unilaterally depart Gaza, leaving it to the Palestinians was the first initiative to see how well Gazans could govern themselves without resorting to violence against their neighbours.  The experiment resulted in constant rocket bombardments, and intra-Gazan criminal activities.  And the accelerated growth of violent Palestinian terror groups launching unending attacks against Israel.

Hamas decided to take Gaza for its own, dividing the territories by battling and defeating Fatah in Gaza, leaving the Palestinian Authority and Fatah to govern the West Bank, and Gaza to be administered by Hamas.  Aside from killing any Fatah members still incautious enough to remain in Gaza, any Palestinians suspected of aiding Israel were summarily executed. 

The ongoing violence with the capture of Gaza by Hamas and in view of its stated goal of demolishing the State of Israel, caused Israel to take the defensive action of imposing a blockade to ensure no further arms and offensive materials reached Hamas.  With Turkey's new alliances and its dismissal of its historic alliance with Israel, a ship went out from Turkey with extremists aboard intent on breaking the blockade to rescue Palestinian Gazans from the militarily imposed solitude.

When Israeli naval commandos attempted to board the Mavi Marmora, they were set upon by thugs using steel rods and knives, beating them and throwing them from the upper deck to the lower deck where others continued to beat them.  To save themselves, the Israelis ended up shooting seven of the Turkish 'activists' dead.  And Turkey went into outrage mode, fully estranging itself from Israel.

Now it has mounted a show trial, placing four former Israeli military commanders on trial in absentia for ordering the raid on the 'aid' ship attempting to break the Gaza blockade.  Videos taken at the time of the raid show unequivocally that the Israeli commandos were attacked first and mercilessly beaten, but Turkey and the world's blockade-busting sympathizers cannot recognize truth when they see it.

The May 2010 raid and the death of the nine Turkish 'activists' will not go forgotten.  Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan insists Israel must apologize, must pay compensation to the families of the dead, as well as end the blockade of Gaza before it will be forgiven the transgression of human rights against the country.  It will not, of course, allow Israel to point out that Turkey should have halted the ship's progress on its own.

This, in view of the fact that both Turkey and Israel have now been impacted by the civil war in Syria, and Turkey has severed its formerly warm relations with Syria, charging it with crimes against its people.  Impacting also on its formerly close relations with Iran, a country that has been threatening Israel's extinction and which has been aiding Syria in its brutal battle against its own population. 

Despite their fractured relationship and Israel's wan attempts to offer regret for the episode that led to the final dissolution of the two countries' friendship, Turkey remains unassuageable.  Despite which trade between the two countries has continued to flourish, reaching a record $4.4-billion in the last year.

This is, after all, the Middle East.  Go figure. 

Money does talk, where antagonists will not.

Labels: Gaza, Hamas, Islamism, Israel, Political Realities, Traditions, Turkey

posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, November 07, 2012