The AP quotes every anti-Israel quote it can find from Turkey’s Prime Minister’s interview with Al Jazeera. But it left out this one:
Hamas “is not a terrorist movement.”
It gets better.
During an interview, the Turkish leader said Hamas was not a terrorist group, and its members were not terrorists, but “people defending their land.”
Oh, they’re freedom fighters. Yeah. The launching of thousands of rockets after Israel left Gaza to its own devices? Defending their land. Suicide attacks? Defending their land. Murdering Israelis at the Karni Crossing? Defending their land. So, what did the AP choose to use as a description of why Israel and Turkish relations are at an all-time low? (Note the weasel words in bold, put there to place doubt in the reader’s mind that Israel is telling the truth.)
Relations between the two soured, however, with Turkey’s government’s increasingly vociferous criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. They hit an all-time low in May, when Israeli naval commandos killed nine activists from Turkey on board a Gaza-bound ship that tried to breach Israel’s naval blockade.
Israeli commandos said they opened fire in self-defense after meeting what they called unexpected resistance when they boarded the ferry carrying aid supplies to Gaza.
Interesting that they couldn’t seem to find it important enough to quote, because that is the root of all the current problems Israel is having with the Erdogan government. It’s the Islamism, stupid. It isn’t Avigdor Lieberman.
In case you’ve forgotten, you can go here to watch Erdogan attack Shimon Peres and Israel unexpectedly at the Davos forum in 2009. The deterioration of Turkish-Israeli relations was long-planned and executed by Erdogan, for Islamism, and at Israel’s expense. The culmination of the deterioration was Turkish government support of the Gaza flotilla “activists,” whose “unexpected resistance” was in total contradiction to the supposedly peaceful message the international fools who started the flotilla said they wanted to convey. Turkey—via the IHH—sent the message they really wanted.
[…] When leaders of the charity returned home after nine Turks died in the Israeli raid, they were warmly embraced by top Turkish officials, said Huseyin Oruc, deputy director of the charity, who was aboard the flotilla.
“When we flew back to Turkey, I was afraid we would be in trouble for what happened, but the first thing we saw when the plane’s door opened in Istanbul was Bulent Arinc, the deputy prime minister, in tears,†he said in an interview. “We have good coordination with Mr. Erdogan,†he added. “But I am not sure he is happy with us now.â€
Oh, he is, Bulent. He is.
I wonder if The Big Turkey can explain how firing rockets and mortars at civilian areas timed to coincide with kids traveling to and from school exactly “defending their land” ?
Hrm. Perhaps if the Greeks were to forget about border patrols and walls protecting their border with Turkey and just start lobbing explosives at Turkish schools across the border, The Big Turkey won’t have a problem with it?
Or if the Greek Cypriots were to start indiscriminately firing on Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus?
I suppose the Spanish wouldn’t mind Israel calling them a bunch of colonialists and imperialists, organizing a boycott of Spanish goods because of their colonial occupation of Moroccan territory on the African continent?
*cough*
Hypocrites.
-ls/cm
Um, Turkey isn’t illegally settling in Greece and didn’t just murder 1000+ Palestinian civilians 2 years ago.
Mindbullet, even Hamas admitted that more than half of the “civilians” were members of Hamas. Over 750 of the deaths were enemy combatants. But your choice of the word “murder” illustrates your mindset, so I’m not predicting any kind of rational response.
mindbullet, you seem to have conveniently forgotten the Turkish invasion of Northern Cypress and how that area was ethnically cleansed of Greeks and still remains occupied by the Turks to this day. Also, of the Kurds that are brutally suppressed and killed by the Turks daily because they want independence from that regime. I guess in your mind, the term “occupation†is only reserved for Israel, and not the other countries in the Middle East, and around the world!
If there is a “next time,” educate yourself with some world history before you spout your ignorance on this site!
Perhaps Mindbullet believes that Hamas’ troops were civilians because they wore civilian clothes and not uniforms. That would be a violation of international law by Hamas. Mindbullet seems to be unaware that under international law (Fourth Geneva Conventins) the deaths of civilians being used as “human shields” for military targets is the responsibility of the power making use of them as human shields, and not the power attacking the military target where they are killed. That would be Hamas. Furthermore, I’d speculate that Mindbullet is unaware that placing military facilities in an otherwise protected site, such as a hospital, removes the protection from that site, by provisions of that same international law. Those were actions Hamas took in Gaza, so under actual international law Israel’s actions were not illegal, no matter how many civilians were killed when Hamas used them to hide its troops behind. I’d also guess that Mindbullet is unaware that Israel has an aggressive Judge Advocate General Corps in Zahal, that investigates all allegations of violations by Zahal troops and prosecutes those that prove to have evidence to back up the accusations. On the other hand Mindbullet may not care about any of that.
Of course when Israel is criticized for violating international law the accusers generally do not mean violations of actual international law, as enbodied in treaties or the traditional customs of such law. They mean some fantasy made up by academics or ill-wishers of Israel and the West, made up out of whole cloth for the most part, in order to use as a stick to beat Israel or America.