Sunday, June 06, 2010
If I were inclined to support conspiracy theories...
I would say that this whole "flotilla" thing was something rigged up by Turkey's leaders to provoke a break from Israel. Turkish PM Erdogan seems to be striving to assert a leadership role in the Muslim world, a role that Turkey would appear to be a natural for, with maybe on thing standing in the way, that being Turkey's very strong, very solid ties to Israel.
So, what does Erdogan do? He can't just up and make a statement about how Turkey no longer thinks Israel is a real country. He's the prime minister of Turkey, not dean of the White House Press Corps. What he needs is a Maine, as in "Remember the..." Remember the Mavi Mamara doesn't roll off the tongue the same way, but maybe it sounds better in Turkish, and Erdogan now has the reason to cut ties that hadn't been all that popular in Turkey anyway.
Of course, the fact that it's a set-up doesn't help much if Israel allows itself to get set up. That being said, they basically had two options - stop the ships, or let the blockade fall, because simply letting the ships through this time would justify everyone else, and as the point has been made, it's not like these folks were particularly good impressions of "peaceful activists."
That being said, there's a "quit while you're ahead" mentality, that Israel's enemies might not be getting. Right now, you can, if you want, pretend that the blockade runners were peaceful activists simply moved by the plight of Gazans to try and bring humaitarian aid victimized by the big bad Israelis. But when the Iranian navy starts offering to help, then everybody might just figure out what's really going on here.
OK, almost everybody.
So, what does Erdogan do? He can't just up and make a statement about how Turkey no longer thinks Israel is a real country. He's the prime minister of Turkey, not dean of the White House Press Corps. What he needs is a Maine, as in "Remember the..." Remember the Mavi Mamara doesn't roll off the tongue the same way, but maybe it sounds better in Turkish, and Erdogan now has the reason to cut ties that hadn't been all that popular in Turkey anyway.
Of course, the fact that it's a set-up doesn't help much if Israel allows itself to get set up. That being said, they basically had two options - stop the ships, or let the blockade fall, because simply letting the ships through this time would justify everyone else, and as the point has been made, it's not like these folks were particularly good impressions of "peaceful activists."
That being said, there's a "quit while you're ahead" mentality, that Israel's enemies might not be getting. Right now, you can, if you want, pretend that the blockade runners were peaceful activists simply moved by the plight of Gazans to try and bring humaitarian aid victimized by the big bad Israelis. But when the Iranian navy starts offering to help, then everybody might just figure out what's really going on here.
OK, almost everybody.
