---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Romi Elnagar <bluesapphire48@yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, Sep 10, 2011 at 6:56 AM
Subject: [bangla-vision] As ties with Turkey collapse, Israeli politicians, media and intelligence push for more conflict
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-- From: Romi Elnagar <bluesapphire48@yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, Sep 10, 2011 at 6:56 AM
Subject: [bangla-vision] As ties with Turkey collapse, Israeli politicians, media and intelligence push for more conflict
To:
As ties with Turkey collapse, Israeli politicians, media and intelligence push for more conflict
By Max Blumenthal - Thu, 2011-09-08 02:35
The "Periphery Doctrine" has been a cornerstone of Israel's strategic approach to the Middle East since the state's foundation. Devised by David Ben Gurion and Eliahu Sassoon, an Israeli Middle East expert who became Israel's first diplomatic representative in Turkey, the doctrine was based on maintaining alliances with non-Arab states and ethnic minorities in the region as a counterweight to pan-Arabism. Though three countries -- Iran, Ethiopia, and Turkey -- became key regional allies of Israel, Ben Gurion was keenly aware that the relationships were temporary, and could not substitute for peace with Israel's Arab neighbors (something Ben Gurion ironically tried to manufacture through his "activist" foreign policy of unilateral military strikes and disproportionate force). From Turkey's perspective, the relationship with Israel was never a proper strategic alliance, but rather a means of establishing leverage against nationalistic Arab governments.
This week's events delivered the death knell to the terminally ill Periphery Doctrine. Following the Palmer/Uribe report's factually flawed claims about the legality of Israel's siege on the Gaza Strip and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's refusal to apologize for Israel's execution-style massacre of 9 activists on the deck of the Mavi Marmara -- "We need not apologize!" the Prime Minister boomed three times during a recent press conference -- the Turkish government significantly downgraded its relations with Israel. Turkey not only expelled Israel's ambassador from Ankara, it suspended all military relations between the two states. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suggested further sanctions will follow, exposing Netanyahu's bravado as empty and self-destructive.
Though Netanyahu claimed today in a speech that "we sincerely want improved relations" with Turkey, he reiterated his refusal to apologize. The optics of the speech, which featured Netanyahu addressing a crowd of naval officers and hailing the bravery of the commandos who stormed the Mavi Marmara, were calculated to project an image of defiance. Meanwhile, elements in the Israeli political arena, security establishment and media are cultivating public opinion for an open conflict with Turkey, and with no apparent shortage of enthusiasm.
An article that appeared today in the Hebrew edition of Yedioth Aharanot, the leading Israeli daily, was headlined, "Turkish army against the IDF: Who is greater?" The article went on to compare Israel and Turkey's military strengths against one another, concluding that Israel's air power gave it the advantage in an armed conflict that appears completely implausible. There did not appear to have been any point in publishing the article beyond entertaining popular revenge fantasies against Turkey.
Danny Danon, the chairman of the Knesset Immigration and Absorption committee and a member of Netanyahu's Likud Party, declared yesterday, "we have to be prepared for a further deterioration in relations that can be negative for Turkish Jews. We must open up a support line to them to enhance their [emigration to Israel]." But there is no sign that the deterioration between Turkish and Israeli relations impacted Turkish-Jewish life in any way. In my recent interviews with Turkish Jews, my subjects told me that Israel's violent actions had caused them some social complications, but they had no interest in moving to the Jewish state, or leaving Turkey at all. If anything, Danon's comments reflected his barely concealed wish for the collapse of Jewish life in yet another majority Muslim country -- a tragic phenomenon that Israel has historically propelled and benefited from.
Finally, the Israeli security establishment has begun planting stories in the media about Turkey's links to terrorism inside Israel. The Jerusalem Post reported today an unsubstantiated claim by the Shin Bet (Israel's General Security Service) that Hamas operates terror cells inside Turkey. The author of the article, Yaakov Katz, a Jerusalem Post military affairs correspondent, is known as the Gunga Din of Israeli generals and intelligence chiefs, and I have no doubt that he is auditioning to become the head of the IDF Spokesman's Unit someday. Katz wrote that one of the Turkey-based Hamas cells was involved in planning a suicide attack in Jerusalem that was thwarted. By this logic, Turkey is sponsoring terror groups that seek to kill Israelis. "How can you trust a government that consorts with Iran and Hamas?" Israel's Stragic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon said of Turkey at a recent conference in Tel Aviv.
Meanwhile, back in the reality-based universe, Turkey continues to infuriate Iran and please the West with its actions. While Erdogan lashed out at Israel, he simultaneously authorized placing a NATO radar station on Turkish soil that will serve as the anchor of a missile defense system aimed at countering Iran's military prowess.
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Palash Biswas
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http://nandigramunited-banga.blogspot.com/
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