Sorry to Remind You, but Golda Meir Was Right

[Solomon2]

Sorry to Remind You, but Golda Meir Was Right - Part I of IV
by Burak Bekdil

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu-Zuhri said: "All Israelis are legitimate targets." What would the Palestinian death toll have been if Mr. Netanyahu's spokesman declared all Palestinians as legitimate targets?

Underdog-nation romanticism tells us Israel should not respond when under rocket attack because it is capable of intercepting the rockets.

That there are fewer Israeli casualties does not mean Hamas does not want to kill; it just means, for the moment, Hamas cannot kill.​

Once again, half the world is fighting alongside the Hamas jihadists and their Jewish nemesis. First, some facts:

1. In June, when there were no bombs and rockets travelling between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, three Israeli teenagers, Gilad Shaar, Eyal Yifrach and Naftali Fraenkel, were kidnapped. Eighteen days later their bodies were found.

2. The kidnapping was a cause for celebrations in Gaza where crowds cheered. Palestine's experimental unity government handed out sweets in celebration. Palestinian youths brandished a new salute, raising three fingers and showing joy at the kidnapping. Hamas' political leader, Khaled Mashaal, also Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ideological next of kin, said: "We congratulate the kidnappers."

3. After the killing of the Israeli teenagers, a young Palestinian, Muhammad Abu Khdeir, disappeared, and was later found to have been brutally murdered. Israel acted quickly and arrested six radical Jews as perpetrators, three of whom confessed to their crime. Israel labelled the murderers as murderers. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Khdeir's father to offer him condolences. Strong expressions of condemnation were heard across the political spectrum, including from Rachel Fraenkel, the mother of Naftali, one of the murdered Israeli teenagers. Israelis had woken up to a new world in which Jews, too, could act as if they were terrorists. Most Israelis agreed that the murderers should get the most severe punishment for their barbaric act. The father of one of the suspects said: "I am ashamed of him."

4. Then came the usual war. Hamas, which does not hide that it stores, stockpiles and launches rockets from the midst of Palestinian civilian concentrations, and uses Gazans, often elderly women or children, as human shields, fired (as of July 14) over 500 rockets into Israel, where a majority of the population is within range of the missiles. Israeli air defenses successfully intercepted most of the enemy rockets, and the Israeli Defense Forces counter-attacked by bombing what it said were the homes of terrorists or homes where enemy weapons were hidden. Despite warnings for the evacuation of these declared targets, Hamas instead keeps on locating civilians whom its ideology believes would be martyrs when killed. More than 150 martyrs so far.

5. Meanwhile, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu-Zuhri said: "All Israelis are legitimate targets." What would the Palestinian death toll be if Mr. Netanyahu's spokesman declared all Palestinians as legitimate targets? But no, the cliché and boring underdog-nation romanticism tells us Israel should not respond when under rocket attack because it is capable of intercepting the rockets.

But would, for instance, Erdoğan, who thinks a 15-year-old boy is a terrorist and should be shot by a gas canister, tolerate over 500 rockets over Turkish skies? Would he advise restraint if any group, party or country declared that all Turks are legitimate targets? Would he ignore it if any group, party or country pledged to fight down right to the last Turk?

But he has finally exhibited some honesty and admitted that: "We are never neutral when it comes to the Palestinian cause." Thank you, Prime Minister, for confirming this columnist when he wrote in 2009 that Turks as honest brokers between Arabs and Israelis sounded much like Greeks as honest brokers between Turkish and Greek Cypriots.

All the same, Mr. Erdoğan's rhetoric was not equally honest when he said, "There were no rockets fired into Israeli territory because there were no Israeli deaths." Was Mr. Erdoğan denying Hamas, who says it happily fires scores of rockets? That there are fewer Israeli casualties does not mean Hamas does not want to kill; it just means Hamas, for the moment, cannot kill

(to be continued)

Burak Bekdīl, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Hürriyet Daily News and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum. This article was originally published in slightly different for form on July 16 in the Hürriyet Daily News.
​

 

[qamar1990]

tell somebody who gives a ****…..

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Sorry, but the article (or at least the part posted here) does not explain why "Golda Meir was right"?

What was she right about?

 

[RFS_Br]

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu-Zuhri said: "All Israelis are legitimate targets." What would the Palestinian death toll have been if Mr. Netanyahu's spokesman declared all Palestinians as legitimate targets?

This is exactly what Israel did, though.

Israeli general says of the population of Gaza: "....I think it is also a partner [of Hamas]. I don’t exonerate them of responsibility so quickly... in many cases the terrorists are the children or relatives of the people who live there. In almost every home there is a son or other relative that is a partner in terror." He went on to celebrate the destruction he caused on civilians and their well being: "When the Palestinians return to their home they will understand the scope of the damage Hamas has inflicted on them."
Source: Israeli officer admits ordering lethal strike on own soldier during Gaza massacre

Another general justified the massacres of families: “If we kill their families, that will frighten them”, he said
Source: Israeli general: “If we kill their families, that will frighten them.”

And consistent with a policy of targeting civilians in general, Israel produced forged evidence to justify shelling, for example, hospitals: "Israel's video justifying bombing of Gaza hospital was from 2009; audio was from separate incident."
Israel's video justifying bombing of Gaza hospital was from 2009; audio was from separate incident

And may I remind you, though Israel made a hellstorm over the supposed fact that some of Hamas tunnels led to civilian areas inside Israel, all - all - the Israeli casualties resulting from raids from Hamas carried out from tunnels were military, whereas the vast majority of casualties produced by Israel in Gaza were civilian. Israel even re-defined the meaning of "human shield" in order to justify the deaths of civilians.

And there is also this: Israel attacked the houses of Hamas officials - whether they belonged to civilian or military branches did not matter - slaughtering the families and neighbors of those men, sometimes killing dozens just to take out one life. Well, the vast majority of Israeli homes house or have housed Israeli soldiers. And that Hamas operative is right - under Israel's own logic, all Israeli households are legitimate targets.

 

[Kompromat]

Solomon is back.

 

[Aepsilons]

All the same, Mr. Erdoğan's rhetoric was not equally honest when he said, "There were no rockets fired into Israeli territory because there were no Israeli deaths." Was Mr. Erdoğan denying Hamas, who says it happily fires scores of rockets? That there are fewer Israeli casualties does not mean Hamas does not want to kill; it just means Hamas, for the moment, cannot kill

Erdogan is trying to be pragmatic, understanding that its relationship with most of the Arab world is dependent that he, too, must toot an anti-Israeli horn in order to be accepted by his Arab and Muslim neighbors. But let's look at the operational reality on the ground, shall we? Turkey's current refugee plight has now realized over 3 million ethnic Yezidi, Kurd, Arabs, Assyrian peoples in refugee camps. Within these ranks include battle hardened Kurds with affiliated links to the Peshmerga and agree with PKK rhetoric of a unified and independent Kurdistan.

Suddenly Turkey is seeing the operational reality that if it doesn't control the seething discontent amongst Kurdish refugees in the East, their swelling numbers could join the ranks of the PKK and thus cause further economic, political unrest / instability. The very same thing that Israel is suffering in regards to security threats it experiences with extremist Hamas in Gaza as well as in the West Bank.

Erdogan is forced to walk in this pragmatic tightrope.

 

[Solomon2]

Erdogan is trying to be pragmatic, understanding that its relationship with most of the Arab world is dependent that he, too, must toot an anti-Israeli horn in order to be accepted by his Arab and Muslim neighbors.

Moral depravity, squared and cubed.

Erdogan is forced to walk in this pragmatic tightrope.

He could just change his mind. But he's far too proud for that, isn't he? Better that the Jews suffer undeserved hatred and lots and lots of Muslims die throughout the Middle East.

 

[Aepsilons]

Moral depravity, squared and cubed.

He could just change his mind. But he's far too proud for that, isn't he? Better that the Jews suffer undeserved hatred and lots and lots of Muslims die throughout the Middle East.

I don't understand why he can't just cooperate with Israel.Turkey and Israel are the only two stable democracies in the Middle East as we speak. Not to mention both have unprecedented military might. They're both natural allies.

 

[The SC]

Moral depravity, squared and cubed.

He could just change his mind. But he's far too proud for that, isn't he? Better that the Jews suffer undeserved hatred and lots and lots of Muslims die throughout the Middle East.

What did the lebanese declare to justify the destruction of beirut, twice or three times, and south lebanon, with tens of thousands of civilian casualities?
In that case too they targeted the Usraeli military, and not the civilians.That is the difference. But I'm not sure if it will be like this forever...

 

[Fukuoka]

MOSSAD fake, like their videos of palestinians firing from the hospital

 

[Falcon29]

**** off Ziotrash.

 

[Solomon2]

Sorry to Remind You, but Golda Meir Was Right - Part II of IV
by Burak Bekdil

A front-page headline was particularly revealing: They (Israel) bombed a mosque in Gaza! Including the exclamation mark!

A quick internet search, if you typed "mosque bombing Shiite-Sunni," would give you 782,000 results on July 16.

Why did we not hear one single Turkish voice protest the death of 300,000 Muslims in Darfur?

Hamas's Charter is must-read fun.​

Jihadists keep on saying that "they love death more than we love life." Good for them.

Then there are the proxy jihadists. In 2012, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps commander, Mohammad Ali Jafari, said that, "Iran provided the Palestinian organizations the technology to produce Fajr-5 and other missiles, and they can now produce these missiles themselves in large quantities." Apparently, Iran will fight Israel down to the last Palestinian. And so will Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan the Sunni mullah. It's one of the rare qualities Sunni and Shiite Islamists feature: They have an obsession about fighting Israel at times when their Sunni and Shiite militants are not busy killing each other.

A recent front-page headline in Turkey's flagship newspaper, Hürriyet, was particularly revealing: They (Israel) bombed a mosque in Gaza! Including the exclamation mark! Yes, the exclamation mark, at times when sectarian mosque bombing is so routine that it cannot find even a few column inches of space in Muslim newspapers. A quick internet search, if you typed the words "mosque bombing Shiite-Sunni," would give you 782,000 results on July 16.

But again, the "they-(Israel)-bombed-a-mosque" shock on Muslim faces is not too unfamiliar. From my column on June 3, 2010, "Why is Palestine 'a second Cyprus' for Turks?":

"But why do the Turks have the 'Palestine fetish' even though most of them can't point the Palestinian territories out on a map? Why did they not raise a finger when, for instance, the mullahs killed dissident Iranian Muslims? Why did the Turks not raise a finger when non-Muslim occupying forces killed a million Iraqi Muslims? Why did we not hear one single Turkish voice protesting the deaths of 300,000 Muslims in Darfur?

"Subconsciously (and sadly) the Muslim-Turkish thinking tolerates it if Muslims kill Muslims; does not tolerate it but does not turn the world upside down when Christians kill Muslims; pragmatically ignores it when too-powerful Christians kill Muslims; but is programmed to turn the world upside down when Jews kill Muslims."

What else, other than that hatred, could bring two otherwise unmatchable people into precisely the same line of thinking? One is an Egyptian cleric with the typical bigotry of an Egyptian cleric; and the other is a Turkish-Kurdish female singer who burst onto the pop song scene along with a life full of scandals, including drug abuse and a conviction.

Muhammad al-Zoghbi, the Egyptian cleric, said in a May 3 television interview that, "not a single Jew will remain on the face of this earth." The TV program's theme was, "The war on the Jews, their annihilation or the eradication of their country." But here comes into the picture the charter of the organization Mr. Erdoğan does not hide his deep admiration for: Hamas.

Hamas's charter is must-read fun. My favorite section prophesizes that: "The Day of Judgment will not come until Muslims fight the Jews, when the (last) Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say, 'O Muslims, O Abdullah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.'"

Mr. al-Zoghbi's interviewer must be an intellectual man, as he asked the cleric if the section about speaking trees and stones was an allegorical expression, to which Mr. al-Zoghbi replied: "Whoever says this is an allegory (that trees and stones will speak) is wrong. The trees will actually talk. And the walls as well."

But Yıldız Tilbe, the Turkish-Kurdish pop star, is apparently less patient than waiting for the moment when the trees and stones will guide Muslims to the last standing Jew so that they can kill him. Hers is a nostalgic, probably too-difficult-to-fulfil wish, unless Arabs, Turks or her Kurdish kin invent the time machine.

On her Twitter account last week, she wrote: "May God bless Hitler. He did far less (than he should have)." And that: "It will be Muslims again who will bring the end of Jews." To which the honorable mayor of Ankara, Melih Gökçek replied: "I applaud you."

(to be continued)

Burak Bekdīl, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Hürriyet Daily News and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum. This article was originally published in slightly different for form on July 18 in the Hürriyet Daily News.
​

 

[Chak Bamu]

Ziotrash articles reappearing like worms out of woodwork.

Where was OP when bombs were raining upon Gaza?

Israel remains the only state that has had two Prime Ministers who were declared terrorists. Who cares what terrorist sympathizers write?

 

[Solomon2]

Sorry to Remind You, but Golda Meir Was Right - Part III of IV
by Burak Bekdil
August 29, 2014 at 5:00 am

So in the EU-candidate Turkey, a pianist should be punished for his re-tweets, but a pop-singer should be congratulated for her first-class racist hate-speech. This is contagious.

No reporter present at Mr. Ihsanoglu's campaign launch speech thought about asking him if his commitment to the "Palestinian cause" included any affirmation of the Hamas Charter, in particular a section that says, "…The stones and trees will say, 'O Muslims, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.'"

Turkey is also the country where a few years earlier, a group of school teachers (yes, school teachers!) gathered in a demonstration to commemorate Hitler.​

Part II of this mini-series ended with a colorful quote from the Turkish Kurdish pop star, Yıldız Tilbe, whose tweets wished God to "bless Hitler," and predicted that, "It will be Muslims again who will bring the end of Jews." Perhaps Ms. Tilbe thinks (or hopes) Hitler was Muslim.

No doubt, thanks to her tweets, she has the talent to rise even higher in the hall of fame. Such tweets are absolutely normal in a country where the Islamists' occasional after-Friday-prayers slogan, "Now I understand Hitler," has always won hearts and minds. It is also the country where, a few years earlier, even a union of school teachers (yes, school teachers!) gathered in a demonstration "to commemorate Hitler."

But we all know Turkey well enough to guess that the Hitler-fetish is not a reflection of any possible feeling of admiration for the 20th century's greatest psycho. Instead, it is a childish expression of the oriental thinking that adores "the enemy of my enemy."

Last year, in the EU-candidate Turkey, a world-renowned pianist, Fazil Say, was sentenced to a (suspended) 10-month sentence for re-tweeting a few lines dubiously attributed to Omar Khayyam, a 12th century Persian polymath. The judges ruled that his tweets "endangered public order and peace by insulting religious values embraced by whole or a part of the society."

In the "new Turkey," where the abnormal is the new normal, Ms. Tilbe's tweets blessing Hitler cannot have insulted the religious or ethnic values embraced by the extremely small part of the society -- because they are too small.

So, in the EU-candidate Turkey, a pianist, Mr. Say, should be punished for his re-tweets, but a pop-singer, Ms. Tilbe, should be congratulated for her first-class racist hate-speech.

Renowned Turkish pianist Fazil Say (right) was sentenced to 10-months in prison (suspended) for re-tweeting quotes attributed to the 12th century Persian polymath Omar Khayyam.​

This is contagious. When, in society and politics, an abnormal practice becomes the norm, the abnormal becomes "the new normal." Take Anti-semitism in Turkey, a craze becoming increasingly as trendy as a 'selfie,' and mixed up with opportunism. It can come from a bureaucrat who wants to win promotion; from a pop star who wants to look charming to the government to boost his or her popularity; from a corporate employee who wants a better position or salary. Or it can come from a politician who wants to address the largest possible chunk of the voter base.

For example, the opposition's presidential candidate, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, otherwise a most refined gentleman with an impressive academic and diplomatic background. When asked by reporter from a state-run news agency to clarify his earlier statement that "Turkey should be impartial over Middle Eastern disputes," he quickly sensed that this was a trick-question aimed at portraying him as an "unbiased man" in the Arab-Israeli dispute. But of course he was partial. He spoke for several minutes, listing his career achievements -- proving how deeply he felt for the "Palestinian cause" -- which included a decoration.

For understandable reasons, Mr. Ihsanoglu enjoyed reminding reporters of his "lifelong struggle devoted to the Palestinian cause." He further decorated his campaign speech by adding that it was his honor to have prayed at the al-Aqsa mosque (in Jerusalem), and that the rest, for him, was unimportant.

No reporter present at Mr. Ihsanoglu's campaign launch speech thought about asking him if his commitment to the "Palestinian cause" included an affirmation of the Hamas Charter, in particular a section that says, "The Day of Judgment will not come until Muslims fight the Jews, when the (last) Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say, 'O Muslims, O Abdullah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.'"

How fabulous that, after a foreign minister whose greatest foreign policy goal is to pray at the al-Aqsa mosque "in the Palestinian capital Jerusalem," now we have a presidential candidate who too is proud to have prayed at the same mosque.

Meanwhile, more and more Palestinians are dying as Turkish (and Arab and Persian) dignitaries remain wholeheartedly committed to the Palestinian cause -- in words. But our Palestinian brothers keep on dying happily, do they not, for us? Is that not a stairway to heaven? And all while the poor victims' masters and brothers remain so proud to be committed to the Palestinian cause.

(to be continued)

Burak Bekdīl, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Hürriyet Daily News and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum
​

 

[ozzy22]

Ziotrash articles reappearing like worms out of woodwork.

Where was OP when bombs were raining upon Gaza?

Israel remains the only state that has had two Prime Ministers who were declared terrorists. Who cares what terrorist sympathizers write?

I was thinking the exact same thing. Maybe his crappy propaganda was needed elsewhere.