What the hell do I call this one?

I've drunk a few beers and I am talking to myself already

I wish that the words I wrote looked as beautiful as the words I see in my head all of the time but I am resigned to the fact that they never will.

I am trying to be a writer at a point in time at which my medium is dying a death, the world got too damn fast, who the hell reads anything other than their Facebook page any more?

I have been writing a book about my time in the Israeli army for about 7 years now which surely must be some kind of record?

For 7 years I have been trying to understand why nothing has ever been as good, and I use that word with every possible meaning it could ever have, as wandering around Nablus with 5 friends trying to kill the man who is trying to kill you.

I don't want you to read my book, I want you to love it in the same way that people loved reading Dickens, I want people to wait for my words in the same way that they waited across the Atlantic for the newest instalment of his words, I want people to sit on knife edge when it comes to my words otherwise what's the point?

I write these words certain that only my mother will respond but hoping someone else will yet knowing no one else will yet hoping someone else will yet knowing no one else will yet hoping someone else will yet hoping someone else will

70 years since the Founding of the Pal Mach

The term Pal Mach in Israel has become synonymous with excellence, Zionism, patriotism and courage. The reputation is much deserved. These guys were soldiers before the Jews had an army and were an elite force when even the most professional armies in the world were still coming to terms with the concept.

The Pal Mach provided Israel with an entire generation of warriors to protect us from harm all of the way up to the 1970's and 80's. In many ways they owe their foundation to Order Wingate the British general who recognised the potential of the fighting spirit of these 'new' type of Jews. Those who had succeeded in breaking free from the shackles of the shtetl.

To credit Wingate with the formation of the Pal Mach is overstepping. It was the willingness to sacrifice for the belief in Jewish freedom in the darkest of times that made them a uniquely Israeli force, one that provided a platform from which the IDF could grow and become a force truly capable and deserving of its name.

I thank all those who served and bled to bring this country into being.

They built the place that I spent years dreaming about and am proud to be a citizen of. Enjoy your days knowing that you will always be remembered.

Dealing Drugs in Tel Aviv

My latest post on the Jerusalem Post blog, dealing drugs in Tel Aviv is even easier than it sounds!

http://blogs.jpost.com/content/dealing-drugs-tel-aviv

A Palestine Born

I have never felt more divorced from my government than I do right now.

With hundreds of thousands demonstrating on the streets as well as relations with both Turkey and Egypt on the point of collapse my Prime Minister has taken the opportunity to skip out of the country and "look Prime Ministerial" in front of the world.

The ancient Chinese general, Sun Tzu, author of The Art of War, famously said "If you can't win don't fight" and here we are battling against something which the nations of the world are going to vote in favour of regardless of our actions.

The smart move here would have been to welcome the formation of the state of Palestine that is going to come about in the same way as our own. Ultimately a state of Palestine is something that the majority of Israelis want to see and has been an integral part of any peace negotiations. From a practical perspective a Palestinian state as voted for by the UN will change nothing on the ground, by opposing this so strongly we will look weak when we fail to prevent it and unjust for trying to.

As I write this I am watching Mahmoud Abbas make his speech to the UN General Assembly, he will be followed by Bibi. The strength of my Prime Minister is his public speaking and he will no doubt look good when he makes his speech which will likely contain many nice sounding, though entirely vague statements about the future.

The truth is we are in a corner, the momentum now sits entirely with the Palestinians and we have no real idea or political will to move forward.

This government simply doesn't represent me, isn't listening to me and doesn't care about me, if that's the case for me, a loyal citizen of Israel, what chance did the Palestinians ever have to get anywhere?

Jerusalem Post

Hey all, I have started blogging at the Jerusalem Post as well as here at Marc's Words.

Check out my newest post here.

Cheers

Marc

War with Egypt?

We were splashing around in the artificially heated waters off the coast of Givat Olga right near the power station at Holon chatting about the possibility of war with Egypt or Turkey or both of them together.

One guy said no and dismissed the idea with a flick of his hand, I agreed. There's nothing in it for Egypt, there is nothing that they can get from Israel if they win, no concession that they want that we have. In 1973 the Egyptians wanted the Sinai back, now they have it so...war would serve no objective.

I like that train of thought, it's nice and it's logical, unfortunately war is rarely nice and logical, though it can be. When Bismarck decided to unify the German states he launched utterly logical, calculated wars against the other States in Germany and the other powers in the region. This was to allow him to facilitate his CLEAR objective of becoming the master of central Europe and to forge a new country. Wars in the Middle East have seldom been this clean.

In 1967 Nasser didn't actually go to war with Israel so much as make a series of decisions that lead to war with Israel.

One by won he broke certain cassus belli such as closing the Straits of Tiran and ordering UN peacekeepers out of the Sinai leading to Israel to consider that a state of war existed with Egypt. Nasser made speeches where he would declare that he was going to destroy the state of Israel but the military forces that he had sent into the Sinai desert were in defensive positions and woefully unprepared, certainly when compared with the ID. In fact the IDF plans to defeat the Egyptians were so well made that Israeli forces had even crossed into the Sinai on reconnaissance missions to chart the best routes through the desert. 

The lesson was once again made CLEAR. With a CLEAR plan a CLEAR victory will be achieved.

There is another lesson here though.

With every one of Nasser's small steps that lead the region closer to war he received overwhelming support from the Egyptian street, the Arab street, the UN who refused to intervene and the international community who did nothing to avert conflict.

These days remind me of the events of recent weeks, what contemporary Egyptian politician in these crazy post Mubarak days wouldn't want the streets to be wildly proclaiming their love for him? 

It would be so simple for an Egyptian leader to say "The Sinai is ours, why shouldn't we send as many tanks as we like into it?" I can imagine the amount of support around the world that would be given for this stance. People would judge Israel as overly aggressive for voicing their concerns at the entry of war machines into the desert frontier, ignoring the fact that the people living would be living on the edge of a knife

Erdogan is experiencing the same euphoria in the Middle East at the moment for challenging Israel in the Arab League, on the international stage, on the domestic front and everywhere else. People instantly forget that rhetoric is just that, in terms of war making ability and pure power nothing has changed, save that Turkey will now have to do without Israeli arms, including spare parts for all of the Israeli systems that currently sit within their tanks, missiles, UAV's and aircraft. 

From one step to another to another, this is the messy method by which we reach war in the Middle East, wars that are about refusing to lose face and boosting domestic power by attacking Israel rather than obtaining something tangible, even meaningful. When the words and bluster against Israel begin in earnest bullets aren't far behind.

In 1967 we mounted an incredible defence of our country and our interest, but of course the cast of characters was slightly different back then...

1967:

2011:

September 11th Remembered

Moments after the Twin Towers fell amateur photographer Robby Berman ran into the area with his camera and captured images that utterly define the intensity and devastation of the most earth shattering event to have hit the world since Hiroshima went up in radiated smoke. The speakers included the photographer himself, Bibi Netanyahu and the US ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro.

Having been warned about the security measures that would be in effect I turned up early and was one of the first in the room. While I was waiting I caught snatches of conversation from the people around me. A British woman sat on my right, as soon as the people sitting around me realised she was a journalist they were all over her. An effort to educate the young woman began, Israel this and Israel that, "Have you ever been to Hebron? You can really feel the tension in the air". A comparison of the best hotels in the city ensued, "I was offered a complimentary glass of champagne at the American Colony Hotel" she said.

"Have you read the book Freakanomics?" were words uttered to my left, "Oh my GAWD, such a book!" I heard in what Hollywood has educated me to believe is a Brooklyn accent.

The wait continued and the room filled to standing room only. The conversation with the journalist continued unabated, "I went to Kings College" " Oh really I spent a semester at University College London" still no sign of the Prime Minister or the ambassador. I spent most of the time on my feet waiting for him listening to the cacophony of accents around me.

At one point I turned around to see an older (though not elderly) woman standing behind me. I told her that I wanted to take some photos of the VIP's as they walked in but then I would gladly give her my seat. She looked horrified. "I most certainly would not like your seat" she said albeit politely in her American accent, I have just come from the library where I have been sitting for 4 hours and I certainly don't need to sit down and by the way I have read studies that say sitting is very bad for you."

Oi vay I had clearly managed to find myself a live one, I mentioned something about sitting being too comfortable to be bad for you (as a joke) but it didn't stop her so in the end I just gave her my back. I was worried that I had offended her but when she didn't stop talking about the "sitting studies" after my back was turned I thought maybe she was just very committed to the cause of standing.

After a long while the ambassador showed up and was escorted straight through to the photo exhibition to the chagrin of some of the people around me. I was surprised at how impressive the ambassador's Ivrit is, he gave a long spiel showing it off and then Bibi spoke also. there was some commotion at the beginning of his speech on the other side of the room, it was almost enough to interrupt the proceedings before a big bodyguard turned up and seemed to take care of it. I assumed that someone had fainted in the heat.

Both Bibi and the ambassador said nice words about the US Israeli relationship as one would expect. Bib went further and made linkage with Iran and their never ending quest to acquire a nuclear weapon which always annoys me. Bibi is talking to a small audience on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 about Iran, why? It seems to hi-light his inability to do anything about this problem, talking to us about Iran isn't stopping them from getting nukes. I will hand it to the guy, he is a good speaker on television, up close he is almost hypnotic, certainly he is talented and charismatic.

The photographer, Robby Berman had been introducing the speakers and spoke last about about his experiences and thanking everyone for coming as well as about the fact that 100 Israelis a year die needlessly due to the fact that not enough people carry donor cards (something I didn't know) and 7,000 people in the United States die needlessly for the same reason. He said that it was because of his experiences over 9/11 that he changed careers and now works for the Halachic Organ Donor Society.

Once the speeches were over I went to see the pictures, which I found to be the real hi-light of the day. As someone who is only just beginning to enjoy amateur photography it was both inspiring and heart wrenching to see these photos, taken by an amateur who found himself at the centre of the whirlwind and had the presence of mind to capture the event for people to see first hand. I took photos of some of his photos though they don't do them justice and if Robby reads this; When are the prints coming out in book form?

Oh and on my way out I walked past a room with a few paramedics walking in and out as I moved past the doorway I took a peek inside and saw the woman who refused my seat finally sitting down with people attending to her...

Find the rest of my pics here

Where Were You 10 Years Ago?

On this day 10 years ago I was studying on a Hebrew language course for new Olim called Ulpan Etzion. I had my eyes set on the target of becoming a Paratrooper in the IDF.

When the first plane hit the Twin Towers I was in bed sleeping off a heavy night.

My grandpa woke me up with a phone call to tell me a plane had flown into one of the buildings, I imagined some kind of light, single engine plane somehow accidentally crashing into this monument to the importance of New York in the world.

I arrived downstairs in time to see the second aircraft hit in real time, does it make sense to say that I felt as though I was witnessing the assassination of the archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarejevo in 1914? With one event the whole world had changed and there would be ramifications for all of us.

Where were you 10 years ago?

As I write this the Israeli embassy staff in Egypt are on their way back to Israel after the embassy was stormed by demonstrators while Egyptian security forces look on.

The Turks and Egyptians are to hold joint naval exercises in the Eastern Med

The IHH have sent a list of the names of the Israeli commandos involved in the Mavi Mamara to Turkish prosecutors.

Erdogan says Turkish Navy will escort ships to Gaza looking to break the blockade

Meanwhile the Israeli government is doing nothing, to me they have all of the appearances of being in shock. All Netanyahu and Barak can do is stutter statements that say nothing:

"The Prime Minister and the government have discussed what to do in the event of a escalation, however a decision will be made only in the event that it is necessary," the statement said. "Israel acted and is acting responsibly and hopes that Turkey will do the same,"

All this while the Turks outmanoeuvre us on both the diplomatic and military playing field.

The Jaffa Institute

I was invited to a Facebook event for “young leaders” to get together in order to “join a discussion about poverty in Israel and how to end it today”. Ending poverty? That sounded like a pretty deep conversation for a Thursday night, but then I read on and saw something that made me change my mind; “Light appetizers and drink specials throughout the evening. Free Admittance.” Before you could say “unsolvable problem” I had sent off my RSVP.

I entered the bar to find around seven people awkwardly making small talk in a dark room, I moved straight to the barman and bought myself a drink then made my move towards an inviting plate of Sushi. With a plate in one hand and my beer in the other I wandered around looking for someone who could fill me in on precisely how it was that were going to end poverty. I found Michelle, the soft spoken organiser of the event and an Associate at the Jaffa Institute. Before I could jump in and ask her just how it was she expected us to end poverty, this 24 year old California native began telling me in no uncertain terms just what poverty is.

“The deprived of South Tel Aviv and Jaffa don’t have enough money for food, they can’t afford to buy anything for themselves and are often on the verge of being evicted from their homes”, she told me. “We help kids who come home from school to suffer abuse at the hands of the very people who are supposed to love them the most. Sometimes social services come to us to place young girls who have been emotionally, sexually and physically abused and need really special care.”

Michelle has been working at the Jaffa Institute for a year now and has learnt precisely what the problem is and has striven, alongside the other staff working there, to be part of the solution. “We help around 4,000 people in Bat Yam and South Tel Aviv who are living below the poverty line” she says, “social services refer children to us for after school activities and in cases where they are being really badly treated they are removed from their homes and we place them in one of our care centres, such as the Neve Ofer House.”

The Jaffa Institute is 35% government funded and the rest comes from individual donations. With so many people born into poverty and all of the associated welfare issues that go alongside it, they clearly need every penny. For them a conversation about ending poverty isn’t a conversation at all but a call for action. They know already exactly how to end poverty and they are ending it one person at a time.

We are in a state of flux here in Israel at the moment with Tel Aviv serving as the epicentre of the social justice earthquake that is shaking the country to the core. It is interesting to me that while the television cameras feast on the spectacle of tens of thousands of people marching there is very little time spent looking at those who have been quietly and effectively giving of themselves day after day in order to provide those who have nothing with some of the social justice that so many Israelis are calling for. Perhaps now is a good time to change that, the Jaffa Institute is always looking to make new friends and a good place to start is their website which you can find right here.

The Turks

Apologise

So now the Turks are threatening to send warships into the Eastern Med!

Looks like Winter is going to be hotter in many ways than summer. I wrote here a couple of days ago that it doesn't matter what Israel does they aren't interested in a strategic partnership with us any more and regardless of whether or not we apologise things are over.

In the wake of the measures that the Turks have been using against Israel to express their outrage I no longer thing that this is relevant. Regardless of whether you feel we were right or wrong, regardless of whether those 9 Turks deserved what they got or not it's time to look at our deteriorating position.

Quite frankly we fell into a trap the moment we boarded the boat over a year ago. We were set up to dance to someone else's tune and we are still dancing to it. Now if we apologise Erdogan is going to look like a big man, if we don't Erdogan is going to be using those 9 deaths as a stick to beat us with and every move he makes against us is going to make him look more popular at home.

The Jerusalem Post reports that;

"Turkey has been seeking an official apology from Israel for the Mavi Marmara deaths as well as compensation for the victims’ families and an end to the blockade. Last month, Jerusalem decided not to apologize, a move Liel said reflected the majority view in the cabinet that Erdogan isn’t serious about restoring the former friendship between the two countries."


Of course the cabinet have missed the point, it doesn't matter if he is interested in restoring relations it matters the extent to which they continue to deteriorate. Apologise now and we can stop this thing from getting further out of hand. We only had 2 allies in the world. One was Turkey and the other one is the USA who is doing everything in it's power to increase alliances with Ankara in order to prevent them from going further over to the Islamist regimes to their East.

In order to help ourselves we need to end this diplomatic spat with Turkey now, as in right NOW!

It's no good trying to posture, we need them more than they need us and they know it.

UPDATE


The Jerusalem Post is reporting Erdogan as saying that

"Turkish warships will escort any Turkish aid vessels to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said in remarks broadcast on Al Jazeera television on Thursday. Erdogan also said that Turkey had taken steps to stop Israel from unilaterally exploiting natural resources from the eastern Mediterranean, according to Al Jazeera's Arabic translation of excerpts of the interview, which was conducted in Turkish."


If this is true suddenly the chance of a shooting war for dominance of the Eastern Mediterranean is a real possibility. Neither country is going to back down now.

Either of the above claims would have been enough to bring forward the possibility of confrontation but both of them together will make the Israeli government feel backed into a corner, so much so that I wonder whether Erdogan realises the extent to which Israel will go to protect her economic assets as well as her pride.

Now that he has said these things there is no turning back. It is a green light to anti Zionist groups around the world to send the next flotilla merely in order to provoke another response. though it does make it much more likely that the countries from which the flotilla plans to sail will prevent these ships from sailing so as not to allow the issue to be forced. With regards Israel's mining of natural resources one can only hope that he takes no specific military action and confines himself to mere words.

These look like dangerous times.

Million Man March in Tel Aviv

Click on the pic for more photos

Well I just got home and I need to write about this now while it's still fresh.

I started on Jabotinsky and walked with a crowd numbering thousands to Kikar H'Medina and made it damn close to the stage before getting too crushed to move any further forward.

That's it, that's the whole thing.

Yeah there were a few speakers and to be honest they were incredibly boring, the student leader Itzik Shmuli has a lisp that made his speech worthy of any National Lampoons spoof, just to make it more poignant he spoke at great length and at great intensity making every attempt to pronounce an S sound all the more cringeworthy, mind you the crowd clearly consisted of nicer people than me as they lapped it up. "We are the new Israelis" is a phrase that I remember cringeworthingly (I know that's not a real word but hey it's my blog so don't make an issue out of it).

So this kid with the lithp finishes and the band the "Yehudim" play a song that ends with the improvised words "Social Justice" tagged on to the end.

By the time the song ended people were already leaving, I was one of them and the streets were flooded with people on their way home after all of 30 minutes of a demonstration and one pop song. Is anyone really surprised that everyone left as soon as they arrived?  The problem with these demonstrations is that no one really has a clue what they are all about. Everyone knows what they want but there aren't any concrete demands. This isn't like the demonstrations in the UK years ago that were against the Criminal Justice Bill, they failed and the people in them actually knew what they were doing on the streets. I go to this thing and I have a general idea that it would be nice to be able to afford to buy my own home and own a car, I have no idea what the guy next to me wants.

Ha'aretz have quoted the organiser of the protests, Daphne Leef, as saying;

"Israeli society has reached its red line. This summer we have woken up and refused to continue walking with our eyes closed toward the abyss. We are choosing to see," 

and speaking of

"new hope born out of feelings of despair, the result of almost unbridgeable [social] gaps."


what on earth does this mean? OK I get it, everyone is pissed off, but there is no call to action on the part of the government. they need to be told in no uncertain terms what to do, otherwise all of this is meaningless.

So it's pretty clear that loads of people are really unhappy, so unhappy that they are prepared to go on not just one march but several and some of them are even unhappy enough to go live in tents on Rothschild street. But quite frankly, so what? A demonstration that says nothing more than "We want social justice" is saying nothing at all. I want the government to do something to limit the powers of the 19 families who own pretty much everything in Israel and seem to be exacting from me a shekel every time I leave the house. But does anyone else want that? I don't know, I don't have a clue what people want except cheaper housing.

the guy who warmed up the crowd started talking about the three apartments Bibi owns and said we all want just to have one, but I don't want just one, I want loads, doesn't everyone? Are 400,000 people taking to the streets because Bibi has what we all want?

This was the last big demo I think, the concesus coming from the people I have spoken to is that they are all done with demo's and having been in London when the whole thing started I gotta confess I am utterly confused as to what it is that's going on here.

Extra:

So now it's 20:40 in Israel and the tent villages that have been erected are mostly all taken down, the only ones remaining are the people who have nowhere else to go.

Is this like a declaration of victory now? What happened to "We shall not be moved?" Everyone is patting themselves on the back for what has, in all honesty been an incredible summer of discontent but isn't it a bit premature to stop everything before the government even announces a programme of changes?

There are more pix at Marc's Pix

Trouble between Turkey and Israel

It's going to be possible to over analyse this and quite frankly articles on this subject are a dime a dozen so I am going to keep it brief.

In a lot of ways I wish my government would just bite the bullet and formally apologise to the Turks for the death of those 9 people and we could once again have full diplomatic relations with them and everything would be how it was.

But the sad truth is that nothing is going to turn back the clock and make the strategic relationship between Israel and Turkey right again. We need the Turks a lot more than they need us. They have strategic depth, a region filled with countries who want to be allies not enemies, a sizeable population and...well they just don't need what we bring to the table, which is overpriced arms that the Americans are happy to give them anyway not to mention a bit of a headache.

The way in which their continued shelling of the Kurds in Iraq has gone completely unnoticed is a perfect example of how Turkey has a great deal more leeway to act in the national interest than we do. The Economist has a great article about their latest round, saying;

"Matters came to a head when the PKK set off a landmine in the township of Cukurca near the Iraqi border, killing nine soldiers. Declaring that his patience had run out, Mr Erdogan ordered a wave of air strikes against PKK targets in northern Iraq. The army claims that at least 100 rebels have been killed since the operation started on August 17th. The PKK says it has lost only three men. A war of words has erupted over the reported killing of seven Iraqi Kurdish civilians, two of them babies, by a stray Turkish bomb. The army has dismissed footage of their dismembered bodies as “PKK propaganda”. But Masoud Barzani, head of the Iraqi Kurds’ semi-independent enclave, insists that the claims are real and has angrily called for an immediate end to the Turkish offensive."


But the Turks aren't just angry, they are doing everything that they can to embed themselves with Israel's enemies, the Turkey of today simply isn't the secular country that Israel used to be pals with. A hopeful editorial in Ha'aretz by Zvi Bar'el argues that it is the policies of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon that have gotten us into this mess by refusing to apologise;

"If Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon had not insisted that Israel not apologize to Turkey, the United Nations report would have been a 105-page textbook on the strategy of the Gaza blockade and the tactics used to thwart attempted breaches of it. Another document among thousands that the UN has produced during its existence, most of which are buried in metal cabinets. It is possible that an international investigation would not have even been established and both sides would have been able to continue their relationship."

He is living in a dreamland, the Mavi Mamara was a stage managed incident from start to finish. Despite making an impressive argument Bar'el makes the assumption from the very beginning that the Turks actually want to continue the strategic relationship with Israel, which they clearly do not.

The Mavi Mamara Re-visited

In light of the ongoing diplomatic spat between Israel and Turkey I thought it worth re-posting something I wrote for Burst That Bubble at the time.

Well that was a wonderful alliance we had there once. Populace, secular Turkey who shares borders with Iran, Iraq and Syria on the one hand and technologically advanced, strategically located Israel on the other. This partnership bore rich dividends for both countries for several years. Israel gained an improved geo-strategic reality and the Turks benefited economically from Israeli tourism and business. Both benefited from Israels supplies of advanced weaponry to the secular Muslim state. There were also other benefits to this relationship that the public would only see the fruits of occasionally.


It would appear that this relationship existed with a different Turkey. The Turkey that has emerged is one that sympathizes more with the extreme countries to her South and East than to the South and the West. The words of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan since the semi-botched Israeli Naval Commando raid on the Turkish ship the Marmara have been harsh to say the least. His argument that; “It is no longer possible to cover up or ignore Israel’s lawlessness. This bloody massacre by Israel on ships that were taking humanitarian aid to Gaza deserves every kind of curse.” serves to show just how ruined the once close relationship between our two countries is.


The problem is that the pictures and film of the incident paint a portrait that would dispute the concept of this raid as a bloodbath. Looking at the death toll (nine dead activists to no dead commandos) one could be forgiven for assuming that the commandos simply stormed on board, all guns blazing and then nine people lay dead. These videos however paint a different picture:


This one also:



These videos tell the story of what the commandos encountered on that boat but the Israel/Turkey saga runs deeper than this incident. The back story here is too long to tell in one post and stems from the unprecedented success that Erdogan’s Justice and Development (AK) Party have had in Turkish politics. There are plenty of places online where this can researched but the disintegration in the strategic partnership of the two countries starts with Erdogan. The Turkish military, that has always considered itself the protector of secular politics in Turkey, was emasculated in February of this year when over 40 former heads of the Turkish military were arrested amid allegations of a coup attempt. Those arrested included the former head of the Turkish Air Force, 7 admirals and 4 generals.


In the wake of these arrests Erdogan’s statements with regards to Israel and foreign policy have shifted East towards Syria and Iran. His rhetoric has sounded more and more like that of President Ahmedinijad, who he is currently hosting. All this while Turkeys’ own skeletons remain safely in the closet.


Whether in Cyprus where the Turks have offered economic incentives to their own population to move to the northern part of the island occupied by the Turkish military (sound familiar?) during a war with Greece. Or by taking military action against their Kurdish neighbors in Iraq who were launching guerrilla style attacks against Turkish military forces by invading parts of Iraq in 2008 (again, sound familiar?). Or perhaps political persecution of indigenous Kurdish political expression. This is not something new and it is not something solely related to Turkey, all of Turkey’s new friends are constantly persecuting minorities in their own countries and arresting their own citizens without due process and all of them have the nerve to attack Israel for her treatment of the Palestinians.


This is not to say that Israel should not have to face up to her own wrongdoings it’s simply to say that people in glass houses really shouldn’t be throwing such large stones and if they do they really shouldn’t be given so much credence in their rhetoric by the rest of the world. Perhaps more importantly, the next time we end up in a war we won’t have a powerful ally in our enemies backyard making those who would wish us harm think twice before doing so.