RUTHFULLY YOURS

Leave it to Secretary of State John Kerry to exploit his state visit to Turkey for some pro-terror swiftboating.

As reported on the conservative Israel National News web site:

Speaking at Istanbul, Turkey, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made a jarring comparison between the victims of the Boston Marathon terror bombs and terror activists from the IHH group who were killed when they attacked IDF forces aboard the Mavi Marmara in 2010.

Kerry told his hosts in Turkey that he understands the pain of the families whose loved ones were killed aboard the Marmara – and added that he can understand their pain well, having just dealt with the families whose loved ones were slain in Boston.

As with so much of what comes out of Kerry’s mouth, his groveling metaphor before the Turks raises questions about just what he thinks and was trying to say.  Is he saying that the Chechen bombers of the Boston marathon were as morally high-minded and ethically justified in using force as were the Israeli troops who boarded the Turkish terrorist ship in the Hamas Flotilla trying to break the blockade of Gaza’s Hamastan?

For those who do not recall the incident, Turkey sent a ship loaded with Islamofascist terrorists from the so-called IHH movement to challenge Israel’s naval blockade of the Hamas enclave in Gaza.  The Turkish terrorists were joined by Western Hamas-philes and even a handful of Israeli radical leftists and Arabs.  Israel maintains a naval blockade of Gaza because the Hamas rulers of Gaza have converted it into a launching base to fire thousands of rockets into Israeli civilian zones.  Israel is not interested in the terrorists smuggling in more war materiel than they already do and is unwilling to sanction import business-as-usual while the Gaza barbarians engage in war.  When Israel sent unarmed troops to board that ship, the “passengers” attempted to murder them.  Eventually the Israeli military victims were joined by armed comrades, who dispatched some of the attackers to meet their 72 virgins.  These terrorists shot by Israelis are the people whose “pain” Kerry insisted that he understands and feels.  Kerry does not feel the pain of any Israeli maimed by the Turkish jihadis who assaulted them on the ship.

The Israeli government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just decided on a path of national self-abasement and, in the name of “Realpolitik,” issued a toady “apology” to the Turks, at Obama’s insistence.  Israel even offered to make reparation payments to the families of the Turkish terrorists who got themselves killed while attempting to murder Israeli troops on the Hamas Flotilla ship.   As with all such displays of Israeli cowardice and attempts at appeasement, this got Israel nothing.  The Turks have simply exploited the Israeli “goodwill gesture” as cover for further demonization and aggression.

Naftali Bennett, Israel’s minister of economy and trade, commented:

Since the apology was made public, it appears Erdoğan is doing everything he can to make Israel regret it, while conducting a personal and vitriolic campaign at the expense of Israel-Turkey relations. Let there be no doubt — no nation is doing Israel a favor by renewing ties with it. It should also be clear to Erdoğan that if Israel encounters in the future any terrorism directed against us, our response will be no less severe.

Of course, I suppose there are other ways to interpret Kerry’s bon mot expounded in Turkey.  Was he trying to compare the pressure cooker bombs left on the street in Boston by the Chechen terrorists to the silly paint guns that Israeli troops held as their only weapons when they boarded the Hamas Flotilla ship to order it to halt?   Was he trying to accuse the people running in and cheering on the Boston Marathon as being genocidal fascist terrorists like the IHH members and Hamas?  Maybe Kerry was trying to say that, since Israel was entirely justified in using force against the IHH barbarians, the runners in the Boston Marathon must also be barbarians against whom the use of force is appropriate?

Kerry seems to have a surprisingly selective sense of pain and sympathy for victims of violence.   While he was clowning for the Turks, he never once expressed any pain for the refugees from Famagusta whose property in Cyprus was simply stolen by Turkey and from which they are barred from entering even today.  How come Kerry did not demand that Turkey allow a flotilla to enter the port of Famagusta manned by those who support the Cypriot refugees driven from their homes there?  How come Kerry can’t seem to feel their pain?

And speaking of feeling the pain of others, how come Kerry did not utilize his visit of state to Turkey to add a few words about the pain of the families of the Armenians and Greeks massacred by the Turks during World War I, or the much more recent aggressions and oppressive policies by Turkey against the Kurds?

Kerry is a master of the understatement.  When Turkish leaders proclaimed that Zionism is a crime against humanity, Kerry responded that such talk is “objectionable.”  That is about as inspiring and morally clear as denouncing the Chechens who left the bombs lying about in Boston as being responsible for harming the environment.

Curiously, Kerry honored a Turkish citizen, Mustafa Akarsu, who was killed by an Islamist terrorist while on guard duty at the US Embassy in Turkey.  Honoring Akarsu was of course entirely proper.  But for reasons that are not clear,  Kerry did not expand on his moral metaphors and compare the suicide bomber who murdered Akarsu to the victims of al-Qaeda killed in the 9-11 attacks on the US or to the soldiers in Valley Forge.   Kerry also honored two other Turkish guards who were injured in that same attack, while failing to demand that the families of these guards apologize to the terrorists and offer to pay them reparations.

And since Kerry is so fond of demanding that “Palestinians” be granted “self-determination,” how come he never takes the opportunity for explaining why “Palestinians” deserve to get a 23rd Arab state, in addition to the 22 Arabs states already in existence, while Chechens have no right to “self-determination”?   While in Israel recently, Kerry said that circumstances only allow for a further two-year opportunity to create a “Palestinian” state as a “solution,” and after that it will no longer be a possibility.   Israelis breathed a sigh of relief.  The deduction from his words was: Hoorah, if we just hang tough for another two years, the whole idiotic idea of pursuing peace by granting “Palestinians” their own state will be removed from the table!

A few years back Kerry addressed the national conference of the Anti-Defamation League.  He joked there about how he had acquired his “perspective” on the Middle East.  He had once looped-the-loop inside an Israeli air force trainer. “I want you to know,” Kerry told the ADL, “that to see it all upside down was the perfect way to see the Middle East and Israel.”

Even better than from a swift boat.  We think Kerry’s comment needs no further elaboration.

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