Not long ago, till 1918, Turkey ruled the Middle East. This year marked the 100th year of Turkish withdrawal from Libya and Algeria to leave the rule of the lands to Italy and France respectively. And Palestine and the Trans-Jordan. Now the Turks are back.
As the USA is abandoning Iraq, Turkey has occupied a "buffer zone" in the Kurdish areas. There is a war going on there. There is another Turkish expansion theater: Hatay Province, where camps are set up for those who escaped from Syria. Syria is collapsing, that is, it is up for redistribution. Egypt is also in a bad situation, it depends on imported grain to feed its population and its main resource, tourism, is dead. Turkey, resurgent, sees its opportunity. Erdogan may see Israel as a potential rival for regional hegemony and from there his hostility.
Things are changing, as always. We shall keep building and growing. Pic. Rahat Lukum, a Turkish delight.
5 comments:
More likely Erdogan realizes he can score cheap points with nearly every faction of Muslims he wishes to hegemonize by distancing himself from Israel.
If that was the case, our bitterest enemy - say Hizbollah - would be the hegemon.
The Arab venom against Israel is a convention. Israeli Arabs were polled and 99% said they would fight to death against Israel. In fact, they are loyal citizens and there was no sabotage in any of our wars.
Now even the West Bank and Jerusalem Arabs are like that. The Golan Druze every year swear their loyalty to Syria, yet many serve in Tzahal.
"Loyalty" is not really a concept in Muslim society. People switch sides the way Westerners change shirts. Bid Laden said that Muslims prefer the strong horse. When a different horse is the strong horse, the loyalty changes. After this week, there are no more Khadafi loyalists in Libya - it will be as if he never existed and there were never any.
K
Further to J's point, if it looked as if the Arab armies were about to win, your "loyal" Muslim neighbors and even the Druze would be the first to slit your throat and cart off your flat screen TV and your daughters. We saw in Libya how Arabs treat prisoners. So Israel must remain the strong horse - as long as that is so, the Israeli Arabs will behave perfectly.
K
Turkish withdrawal from Libya and Algeria to leave the rule of the lands to Italy and France respectively. And Palestine and the Trans-Jordan. Now the Turks are back.
The Turks can have them.
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