Erdogan's Anti-Americanism

Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is an Islamist who, like all Islamists, hates Israel and the U.S. as well.  Moderate secularist Turks are alarmed at the direction he is taking their country, and they should be.  It appears that he was supportive of the latest manufactured flotilla crises over the Gaza territory by his very quick public condemnation of the Israeli government's handling of the affair.  He has been cozying up to Iran's leadership for some time now and clearly has a different role in mind for Turkey than their traditional one of allying with the West via NATO membership, and moving in the direction of the the European Union.  It may very well be that he has seen the Western model failing under a sea of debt and feckless current Western leaders and has decided to go with the Islamists whom he sees as on the rise.  Who knows?  It is clear from this  article he is no friend of the U.S. and as a consequence we should plan our strategy accordingly.  It's also pretty clear the Obama admin has no idea how to respond to this new reality, which does not bode well for stability in the region or world.  Here, for example, is an article by Charles Krauthammer on the crises in Gaza with a concise history of how Israel got where it is in terms of its self defense.  The bottom line is as long as there are terrorists (Hamas and Hizbollah) in control of the population in the Gaza strip, there will never be peace in the area. For a simple reason.  Those two terrorist organizations are committed to the destruction of the state of Israel.  They have never been willing to assert that Israel has a right to exist, never!  Obama and his State Department and advisors can dance around this fact all they want but they can't change it.  Islamist states and organizations (Iran, Hamas and Hizbollah) presumably including the present government of Turkey, do not acknowledge the right of Israel to exist as a state.  When Obama says, as he did last night on Larry King's program that "Turkey has a constructive role to play in solving the problem", he tells the world he does not understand what's at play in the Gaza affair.  Either he doesn't know the history as outlined in Krauthammer's article, or he willfully rejects that history and sides with those who want the destruction of Israel.  Take your choice.  IMHO, Obama is, like most Muslims, anti-semitic.  It's not clear whether he's a Muslim or simply a Muslim fellow traveller.  He's surely no fried of Israel's, and they now know that for certain.

ADDED:  Mark Steyn's latest column at the OCR is most timely in reference to the subject of this post.  A must read, as Steyn is always relevant and right, IMHO.

ADDED:  Claudia Rossett writes for Forbes Magazine on foreign affairs and is knowledgeable about the ME.  She wrote for years for the WSJ.  Her articled here and here shed more light on what's been happening in Turkey since the election of Recep Tayip Erdogan in 2002.  None of it is good for the cause of peace in the area.

ADDED: And here's Ralph Peters' analysis of what's happening in Turkey. Peters is a retired intel colonel whose speciality is ME foreign affairs.  He clearly believes the Obama administration has been had by the Islamists now in control of the Turkey's government in Ankara.  Peters also points out the diminishment of the influence of the military by the Erdogan government since his election in 2002.  This is significant because the military has always played the role of guarantor of a secular, democratic state in Turkey's affairs.  Erdogan is changing that role which effetctively solidifies the autocratic rule of the AKP party.

ADDED:  Victor Davis Hanson, every conservatives favorite historian and an insightful commenter of current  affairs, provides a bit more texture here to the Turkey/ME looming disaster.