Israel is engaging in gangster diplomacy
Haaretz
20 Gennaio 2010
Now we have also shown the Turks who we are, because
when it comes to the Jewish, Zionist honor of a nation that endured the
Holocaust and the Goldstone report, no one will make a movie about us -
certainly not the Turks - portraying us as war criminals. If Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan thinks he can reprimand us without
a reaction, we'll show him and all the other countries of the world.
There's no choice because they only understand force. Britain wants
to boycott Israeli goods? We'll summon the British ambassador and have
him sit on a bed of nails. The United States handles the settlements
unfairly? We'll point an unloaded gun at the American ambassador's head
and pull the trigger, just to scare him. We're not murderers. We're
just trying to frighten, which, as is well known, creates respect. Just
ask the Godfather.
But if we're going to put on a performance like this, it's
important to do it in style because it gets ridiculous when directors
sit on high, uncomfortable chairs with their feet barely touching the
ground just to achieve a superior level. Instead of arranging a
professional humiliation room and ordering a low chair facing a real
master with elevator shoes or barstools, and maintaining a supply of
ripped national flags for each country (because who knows if tomorrow
we'll have to humiliate the Swedish or Irish ambassador?), they threw
everything together at the last minute last week. Proper lighting is an
essential element of gangster diplomacy and not a job for amateurs. Our
deputy foreign minister merely gave us second-rate humiliation.
The other aspect of the affair is a matter of honor and morals. The
polished statement from the Foreign Ministry spokesman said that "the
statement by Prime Minister Erdogan comes in addition to the
anti-Turkish television program .... The State of Israel reserves its
full right to defend its citizens from missile and terrorist attacks by
Hamas and Hezbollah, and Turkey is the last one that can preach morals
to the State of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces." This indictment
featured three accusations: that Erdogan is cooperating with Turkish
television, that he is undermining Israel's security, and especially
that he is jumping to the head of the line in preaching morals instead
of taking his place behind Europe and the United States.
No one bothered to say that the Turkish television series, in which
actually the United States was attacked in the first episode, was
produced back in 2003 and made into a film in 2006. They only decided
to produce further episodes because of the project's huge commercial
success. This time there was a mix of Mafia, Mossad, kidnapping of
children and Turkish heroism. The series was distributed by Star TV,
which is owned by Erdogan's bitter rival, Aydin Dogan. So Erdogan is
innocent of the first accusation against him.
The two other accusations are much more serious. Turkey actually
supports Israel's security. It buys unmanned aircraft from Israel to
fight terrorism perpetrated by the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers' Party,
both in Turkey and Iraq. By using Israeli technology, Turkey knows
where to direct its bombing against the PKK, in which civilians are
also killed. Turkey is doing in Iraq what Israel does in Gaza. The
major question is who is more moral? The seller of the weapon who knows
whom it will be used against or the one who uses it?
If Israel had wanted to behave morally, it would have demanded, as
the United States has, that its technology not be used in a war against
civilians. Maybe it would have lost a $200 million deal, but it would
have won the right to say that Turkey is the last country that has the
right to accuse others. Does anyone really think Defense Minister Ehud
Barak will make a similar demand on the use of Israeli technology
during his visit to Turkey today?
If Israel had wanted to behave morally, it would have recognized
the Armenian genocide despite Turkish opposition, but it is afraid that
taking a moral stance on that issue would cost it dearly. If Israel had
wanted to behave morally, it would have lifted the siege on 1.5 million
civilians in Gaza long ago - not for Erdogan, but for Israel itself.
So morals are not the issue, but rather Turkey's place in line
among those preaching morals. But because this is a case of two
friendly countries, and neither is so righteous, why should Turkey be
the one to be pushed to the end of the line in the contest over
self-righteousness?
By Zvi Bar'el
Source > Haaretz