It has been fascinating to watch the slow-motion train wreck that is the current Israeli regime, responding as it does to the deeper pathology of the settler society that has grown up around the conquests of 1967. This weekend the Turkish government, after some poorly-concealed ‘secret’ meetings between lower level Turkish and Israeli officials, surprised those watching by announcing that without a formal apology over the assault on the aid flotilla, Turkey would sever diplomatic relations. Quite a reversal for an alliance of decades between the zionist state and its most loyal Muslim neighbor. Coincidentally—or perhaps not—today’s New York Times has a lengthy review of the unusually healthy Turkish economy and its deepening ties with Arab and Muslim neighbors like Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Iran, its healthy state finances, lack of anxiety over an eventual invitation to join the European Union and drop in the relative weight of its commercial links with the U.S.
Much has been made of the ‘Islamic-lite’ government in Turkey of Prime Minister Recip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party as if religion had clouded the Turks’ judgment. But if it’s religious fanaticism we’re talking about, the question is better addressed to the Israelis, who have managed to alienate, perhaps permanently, their largest and best-armed neighbor by pandering to the constant messianic zealotry of its Torah-thumping settlers.
Turkey is now being described as the next China as an up-and-coming Asian economic powerhouse. The contrast with feeble, tottering Europe is hilarious given the EU’s decades of racially tinged snubbing of Turkish membership. The Turks apparently are feeling confident and independent enough to resist pressures from the U.S. to kiss and make up, despite the substantial trade benefits they risk from a prolonged spat.
A smarter Israel with a more prudent, forward-looking strategy would look for a way to pull back from the brink and smooth things over with Turkey, which after all lost nine of its citizens when the Israeli commandos went nuts in international waters. One sees how decades of pumping up settler fury, self-righteous martyrdom and religion-inspired irrendentism over the seized lands has led the Israeli government into a cul-de-sac where any hint of common sense or moderation will generate a spittle-flecked, screaming backlash from the same Israeli ultras who called Ariel Sharon (of all people) a Nazi for pulling up settler stakes from Gaza.
Meanwhile, Obama and Biden (and the toadying Democratic liberals in thrall to the Israeli lobby) echo Netan-yahoo’s talking points and stand by helplessly while the Israelis thumb their noses at the U.S. after carefully pocketing the $2 billion a year our tax dollars provide them. Obama wants Turkey to take our side in the dust-up over Iranian nuclear ambitions but does nothing to rein in the loonies in charge in Tel Aviv. He may find that a country that registered 11 percent growth in the first quarter of this year doesn’t have to read from the script provided by the White House.
[Update] Obama’s smiley meeting with the Yahoo yesterday was a grand pageant of meaninglessness designed to provide useful photo ops for both parties at no cost. Bushels of platitudes were issued to mutual satisfaction especially given that no one expects the b.s. to lead to anything.
There is no need to update the conventional wisdom, as expressed by that reliable fount of same, Thomas L. Friedman in the NY Times, who wrote of his worries about Turkey on June 16 in his unmistakable high-school-essay-like prose: ‘Turkey’s balancing role has been one of the most important, quiet, stabilizers in world politics. You only notice it when it is gone. Being in Istanbul convinces me that we could be on our way to losing it if all these vacuums get filled in the wrong ways’.
Juan Cole opines that the likelihood of a real break between Israel and Turkey is remote given their commercial relationship, at least for now. But he notes wryly: ‘From the point of view of the Likud Party and Yisrael Beitenu, being Israeli means never having to say you are sorry’.
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