14 Days to Go – Turkey Goes “Bananas”

By Sherwin Pomerantz

With 14 days to go to September 20th when the Palestinian Arab leadership intends to present their petition for the UN approval of statehood, things are definitely heating up in the region.

On Monday morning the early flight on Turkish Airlines from Tel Aviv to Istanbul landed there with, of course, dozens of Israelis traveling to Turkey on business. Many of these people are there regularly, either once a week or once a month. Contrary to normal procedure, those traveling on Israeli passports were herded into a holding area before arriving at passport control. All of their passports were taken by the authorities and, according to the report of one of the passengers each of the Israelis had two Turkish policemen guarding them during the 90 minutes that they were detained. The travelers were not advised as to what the problem was and at the end of the 90 minutes, their passports were returned and they entered the country. My information is that in retaliation Israel did something similar later in the day with Turkish passport holders trying to enter the country. Sounds like a game we used to play as kids but, sadly, this is real.

For my readers who have not traveled to Turkey, it is important to know that those of us who hold Israeli passports generally use them to enter Turkey even though we might also have US passports. The reason is one of pure economics. US citizens need to purchase a visa to enter the country whereas Israelis enter under Turkey’s visa waiver program. So one can imagine not only the shock of this change of procedure, but also the feelings of discomfort (and even rage) on the part of those Jews who, once again in history, were asked to surrender their passports simply because they were Jewish. I need not go further into the memories generated by such action.

Clearly the Erdogan government is on a track to use Israel as a scapegoat to divert attention from all his other problems including the frustration with Syria with whom Turkey shares a border, the continuing protests and bombings by the Kurds living in Turkey, the frustration of the Armenians in not having Turkey recognize the Armenian Genocide and the general snubbing of Turkey by the EU. Erdogan’s most recent move on Tuesday to also consider freezing bilateral trade between Turkey and Israel which represents a hefty $1.5 billion annually to the Turkish economy shows just how far he is prepared to go to make his point. If he also carries out his threat to travel to Gaza accompanied by Turkish warships, the winds of war in the region will pick up considerable speed and strength.

All of this, of course, seemingly in response to Israel’s reaction to the attempt by some Turkish ships in May 2010 to break the blockade of Gaza and the just-issued UN Palmer Report on the incident.

The Wall Street Journal in a lead editorial earlier this week was on target when it said:

"Here's a story for the man-bites-dog folder: The United Nations has conducted another inquiry into an Israeli military operation—and produced a report that mainly vindicates the Jewish state. And here, alas, is a story for the dog-bites-man folder: The Turkish government has responded to the U.N. report by withdrawing its ambassador from Tel Aviv and expelling Israel's from Ankara."

"The Palmer report—named for the inquiry's chairman, former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer—was commissioned by the U.N.'s Secretary General to investigate the May 2010 "flotilla incident," when six ships sailing from Turkey to Gaza on an alleged humanitarian mission were boarded by Israeli commandos enforcing a naval blockade of Gaza. Nine passengers were killed (and several Israeli soldiers badly beaten) in the ensuing melee, sparking a crisis in Jerusalem's already frayed relations with Ankara."

One can never predict what will happen in the Middle East as everything here defies logic.

Meanwhile, the UN activities related to our part of the world remain on track for later this month preceded by the Durban 3 conference against racism which, once again, will disintegrate into an Israel-bashing event of significant proportions. There does not seem to be any activity against this going on in the Jewish community in the US except for some petitions that are being circulated on the internet. However, there is one group planning a huge demonstration at the Isaiah Wall across from the UN (see http://www.protestdurban3.com/). A group of Christian clergy is putting this together on September 21st at noon on 47th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues in order to demonstrate their disappointment in using the UN as a platform to target Jews and Israel. While I applaud their efforts it is sad, once again, that the local Jewish community is not part of this.

Nevertheless, the pressure at the UN and in other spheres of activity must remain at a high level so that the world is made to understand that Israel is here to stay and that all of the world’s problems cannot reasonably be blamed on the existence of 7 million people in one small piece of land at the eastern end of the Mediterranean. The perverse logic that brings people to such a conclusion speaks to the ignorance of mankind in the face of truth.