TPM Reader JB on the role of the Turkish government …
The Gaza flotilla incident should be considered in the context of internal Turkish politics, in which the fears and resentments between the Islamist civilian government and the military and secular elite that had long held power appear to be much stronger than casual observers of the country are apt to think.
The Turkish military long regarded Arabs, and particularly Islamists, with suspicion. It cultivated a relationship with Israel, in part, for this reason. The current civilian government is much more worried about its fellow Turks, and has (it must be said, fairly shrewdly) put them on the wrong foot with the Turkish public by facilitating this attempt to force the Israeli blockage of Gaza with Turkish ships manned by Turkish nationals.
Commentary in the media about “Turkish reaction” to the violence misses this point. The story isn’t the Turkish government’s reaction to what happened, but its role in making this episode possible. I don’t think it’s a role motivated primarily by antipathy toward Israel as such; it’s a product instead of Turkish Islamists desire to put the burden of good relations with the unpopular Israeli government on the back of its domestic opposition.
Having said that, from the Israeli perspective this episode is a serious misfortune, and it’s also very inconvenient for the Obama administration. Every move the Israeli government made, from intercepting the flotilla many miles into international waters to sending spokesmen on television with tales of al Qaeda terrorists and passengers attacking Israeli special forces with iron bars, has just made this situation worse and worse. The Netanyahu government just wasn’t ready for a tactic like this. If its officials didn’t spend so much of their time trying to keep the settler lobby happy, maybe they wouldn’t have been blindsided as badly as they were here.
