Lieberman got it right
Op-ed: Israel must actively counter Islamic Turkish regime and expose its dangerous nature
Two main approaches exist today among Israeli decision-makers in respect to coping with the ceaseless Turkish provocations. The first approach is represented by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who believes we should bow our heads and ignore the ongoing harassment. We can say this is the classic Jewish Diaspora approach. On the other hand, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman believes that we should not show restraint, but rather, actively counter the anti-Israeli Turkish regime and expose its dangerous nature. I believe that the second approach is the proper one in this special case.
Turkey will be holding general elections in 2011 that would determine its future in a historical manner. Should Israel show restraint and pretend that all is well, the ruling Islamic party will only benefit from it, as it will be paying no price for its belligerence towards Israel. It will enlist the struggle against Israel for its own propaganda purposes – a well-known anti-Semitic trick – while avoiding any punishment. It will cooperate with the axis of evil – Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas – while remaining a member of NATO, which counts Iran and Syria as its enemies. Such duality must not persist.
There is no reason to fear when one is right, and we should first and foremost condemn Turkey vis-à-vis the new American Congress, in the hopes it would curb future arms deals and consider whether Turkey can even remain a member of NATO. We are dealing with an Islamic regime that decided to boost its position by slamming Israel, and a sovereign state cannot agree to this.
Israel can offer, for example, to serve as mediator between the Greek administration in Cyprus and the puppet regime set up on the island by the Turks. After all, isn’t that occupation? Turkey should go ahead and end its own occupation before concerning itself with other cases of occupation. Israel can also volunteer to mediate between the Turks and the Kurds who are being massacred by Ankara, as the Jewish state maintains ties with both parties.
In other words, there is much we can do “for the benefit of the Turks”; eye for an eye, hypocrisy for hypocrisy.
Right for self-defense
Erdogan came to power because the immense secular majority in Turkey was fed up with the corruption of secular parties, and not necessarily because it endorsed most of Erdogan’s positions. It is now important to make it clear to this majority that the Islamic regime is causing harm - to Turkey’s business sector, to its global portioning, and to its good name as a secular, pro-Western island in the heart of a murky Islamic world. Because how is Turkey different than Iran? In its secularism and closeness to the West. Without these factors, Ankara would no longer play a central role.
We should also make it clear to the secular majority that if there is one factor that deters the European Union, it is Erdogan’s brutality, and that should Turkey continue in this direction, its economy will be threatened.
Naturally, what happens in Turkey is none of Israel’s business, yet the Islamic regime (which the US characterized as highly dangerous in the WikiLeaks documents) continuously provokes and incites against Israel, and we therefore have the right for self-defense.
As opposed to Iran, where no real elections are held, democracy still exists in Turkey, although it is being increasingly minimized. The Israeli case should serve as a bar for Turkish voters in respect to how far an Islamic government can go, and the kind of prices they shall be paying for their government’s adventurism.
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