Yesterday Laurence Zuckerman here pointed out that Turkish P.M. Erdogan was behaving politically when he pulled his theatrics at Davos. There is obviously truth to the comment; there are Turkish municipal elections in a month or so. But it raises the question: What's wrong with politics? Writes Nader Hashemi: This is why the West is opposes to democracy in the ME. Democratically-elected leaders in the Muslim world respond to the wishes of their constituents; not their foreign backers.
From Lally Weymouth's interview of Erdogan in the Washington Post:
Why do you have such a close relationship with Hamas, which is an arm of Iran and is run by Khaled Meshal, who lives in Damascus?
First of all, Hamas is not an arm of Iran. Hamas entered the elections as a political party.
If the whole world had given them the chance of becoming a political
player, maybe they would not be in a situation like this after the
elections that they won. The world has not respected the political will
of the Palestinian people. On the one hand, we defend democracy and we try our best to keep democracy in the Middle East, but on the other hand we [in the West] do not respect the outcome of . . . the ballot box.
Palestine today is an open-air prison. Hamas, as much as they tried,
could not change the situation. Just imagine, you imprison the speaker
of a country as well as some ministers of its government and members of
its parliament. And then you expect them to sit obediently?
those who try to claim that my attitude toward Israel's latest attacks
on Gaza is because I'm anti-Semitic or against the Jewish people.
And many American Jews are very upset about it.
And I'm very upset at them. Beginning with the Jews who live in my
country, they are witnesses to my attitude toward Jews. As an
individual, I have always declared that anti-Semitism is a crime against humanity. As a prime minister
I have always been against anti-Semitism and my frustration is against
the current Israeli government because they did not act fairly toward
us.
But I've seen the anti-Semitic signs around Turkey recently. . . .
These are individual attempts.
But they're very extreme. The Israeli Consulate has been picketed. It's been ugly.
There have been democratic demonstrations. . . . There are demonstrations in the United States, even in Israel.
Everything we have said is against the current Israeli government,
nothing against Jews. In my speeches I have stated very clearly that
anyone who even thinks about doing anything against the Jews in Turkey
will find me against them. Of course, I'm not going to ask Olmert to
write my speeches.
Is your relationship with Israel over?
We have a serious relationship. But the current Israeli government
should check itself. They should not exploit this issue for the
upcoming elections in Israel.
Do you expect President Barack Obama to play a more even-handed role between the Palestinians and the Israelis?
There is no justice right now. We expect justice from now on.
"This is why the West is opposes to democracy in the ME. Democratically-elected leaders in the Muslim world respond to the wishes of their constituents; not their foreign backers."
But GW Bush's professed mandate was to bring democracy TO the Middle East.
The problem with the West vis-à-vis the Middle East is that its pro-Zionism has made it completely schizophrenic: it's ostensibly trying to advance the supposedly "universal" value of democracy even as it simultaneously is trying to advanced the deeply particularistic, racialist values of Zionism. Why? Because the corrupt, Christian Zionist/liberal Judeophile two-party-regime wants all that Jewish money and pro-Statist guile so it can keep feathering its own nest, even as it wants to spout self-righteous platitudes about bringing American "values" to the world.
Not only is the Washington two-party-regime irredeemably corrupt, but it is epically idiotic as well.
The editing on the WaPo version looks a little arbitrary. He can't possibly have jumped from subject to subject as abruptly as they make it seem. On one occasion, without even inserting elipses, they just jump-cut.
I think the quote in italics below is accurate, and I also think it is not quite honest, because Erdogan knows that Hamas has always consistently insisted on a general, large-scale prisoner release in exchange for Shalit, not just the release of its own cadres:
In order to release the Israeli soldier, did you ask the Israelis to do something for Hamas?
I said to Prime Minister Olmert that if you want us to mediate in order to get the Israeli soldier freed, we can do this and we believe we can achieve something. But once the soldier is free, Israel should [release from jail] Hamas's speaker of parliament and its members of parliament.
Unfortunately, democracy in the Arab middle east means that the voters decide who lives and who dies according to their whims.
So Hamas still expects to get 1000 things for one thing?
1300 deaths for 13. Your math seems about right, Chris. Bit wonky on the civilian vs civilain ratio, though.
That is 100 to one, not 1000 to one. Your math is as bad as the rest of your thinking process.
Regardless, death of civilians was not the intent of the IDF nor of the Israeli government.
only peace solution to the world;
Move all jews to ALASKA
Since %50 percent of the jews are here in US
Since US is the only country and people in the Planet likes and support Jews
I think Israel should stop making always trouble in the middle east. I mean come on, open your eyes, please. Lebanon, Syria, Palastina and many many others… are always the moslems fault? i think when they get all together they will be really really dangerous for the whole world… we're talking about iran, saudi arabia, turkey… these are very strong middle east countries… we don't want the world war III…
They are strong only in comparison to weak Arab nations. But I sure you'll help lead a second holocaust to avoid a world war.
@chris berel: "a second holocaust to avoid a world war."
Unfortunately, those seem to be the two choices that the Zionists are hell-bent on imposing upon the world, despite the world's best efforts to bring some kind of sanity to the I-P situation via the UN — efforts that the US continues to veto at Israel's behest. Are you all suicidal, or just greedy and stupid?
Neither, Israel is a sovereign nation with the same rights as any other nation. The world has done little but kowtow to Arab oil.
well, chris, to be accurate, we don't 'kowtow' to it, but we do like to be permitted to buy it, if that pleases your satanic jewish majesty, to run our cars on, etc.
Funny that you have admitted that you believe that the Arabs willl refuse to sell you oil unless you fall on your knees and vote they way they order you.
Who knew you were just a tool?