In Istanbul, where a majority of Turkey’s 17,000 Jews live, unknown people recently started hanging posters in a posh district. The posters call on Muslims “not to be fooled by the missionary activities of Jew-servant Jehovah’s Witnesses.” They say: “These people are trying to destroy the religion of Islam.” Signed: Sons of Ottomans.
Erdogan’s ideological hostility to the Jewish state and his ideological love affair with Hamas have not disappeared.
Erdogan thinks that Israel’s military action in response to Hamas’s rockets indiscriminately targeting Israeli citizens is no different than the murder of six million Jews by a lunatic. “There is no point in comparing and asking who is more barbaric,” Erdogan concluded. In other words, Erdogan thinks that Hitler and the Israel Defense Forces are “equally barbaric.”
Yes, blessed are the peacemakers. Nevertheless, the Turkish-Israeli “peace” may not be easy to sustain.
Modern Turkey has never been so disconnected from its Western allies. Its Islamist president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, recently accused the West of helping the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). His evidence? Because, he said, ISIS is fighting with Western weapons — overlooking, of course, that they were probably captured or stolen.
This dislike and hostility is not unrequited. On November 24, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly for a motion calling to suspend Turkey’s membership talks with the European Union (EU), citing “disproportionate, repressive measures” taken by Erdogan’s government. The motion, although non-binding, passed 479 to 37 in favor. In retaliation, Erdogan threatened that “if the EU goes further,” Turkey will open its border gates and let refugees stream toward Europe.
The Turks, too, are distancing themselves from the idea of EU membership. According to a survey by the pollsters ANDY-AR, 75.3% of Turks believe that their country is drifting away from accession, while only 19.9% believe it is not. Forty-four percent think freezing membership talks would be a positive development.
Confirming the growing anti-Western mood, Erdogan’s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, wrote in a newspaper column: “With its internal problems, micro-nationalisms and the Brexit process, Europe is narrowing down its strategic outlook and losing its relevance.”
Against this backdrop, Turkey is normalizing its relations with Israel — in theory, at least. Ankara and Jerusalem agreed to appoint ambassadors to each other’s country after an absence of more than six years. Two prominent career diplomats, Kemal Okem and Eitan Na’eh, will struggle to improve ties in Tel Aviv and Ankara, respectively. They will have a hard job. The diplomats may be willing, but with Erdogan’s persistent Islamist ideological pursuits, they would seem to have only a slim chance of succeeding.
Turkey’s dwindling Jewish community is uneasy over increasing signs of anti-Semitism in an increasingly Islamized country. In Istanbul, where a majority of Turkey’s 17,000 Jews live, unknown people recently started hanging posters in a posh district. The posters call on Muslims “not to be fooled by the missionary activities of Jew-servant Jehovah’s Witnesses.” They say: “These people are trying to destroy the religion of Islam.” Signed: Sons of Ottomans.
Feeling unsafe, more than 2,500 Turkish Jews have recently applied for Spanish citizenship, and hundreds applied for Portuguese citizenship. Only last year, 250 Turkish Jews emigrated to Israel. That being the case, Islamist Turks are warning their fellow Muslims against missionary activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses who are, according to them, “servants of Jews.”
