All those failed efforts mean Turkey should attain justice by itself. And this is where we hear slogans, such as “Soldiers to Gaza”.

The assault and massacre committed by Israeli Defense Forces is sufficiently grave, but Turkey has continued talking about it perhaps even more than the Palestinians since Monday.

The issue has been transformed into a new nationalist uproar rather that an example of Islamic solidarity for the Palestinian issue or Gaza, with the harsh rhetoric of government officials fueling public opinion.

On one hand, Turkey is demanding justice on international platforms, on the other, it is making calculations on how to punish Israel itself. The course of events is about to turn serious because, obviously, Turkey’s demands for international justice will not be enough to calm the rage at home.

 

In fact, at the United Nations Security Council session convened at Turkey’s demand, the United States avoided criticizing Israel and termed the humanitarian relief efforts as “improper, irresponsible and definitely ineffective.” To the opposite of what Turkey demands, the Security Council condemned all parties responsible in the deaths rather than Israel alone.

 

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the Turkish foreign minister that it was a difficult issue for the U.S., so all parties should react mindfully and carefully.

 

Turkey interpreted the attack against a nongovernmental organization as an attack against the Turkish state and therefore referred to Article 5 of NATO Treaty and asked for the support of NATO allies but returned empty handed.

 

In a phone conversation with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, U.S. President Barack Obama stressed the importance of finding more effective ways of humanitarian relief efforts to Gaza and not to jeopardize Israel’s security. The U.S. also pointed out that Israel was the right party to launch an investigation over the attack killing immediately following the decision by the U.N. Human Rights Council, where an independent investigation was asked for.

 

All those failed efforts mean Turkey should attain justice by itself. And this is where we hear slogans, such as “Soldiers to Gaza,” and where the government has become stuck today.

 

An Israel that acts under fear

 

In the aftermath of the incursion into Lebanon in 2006, the first-ever battle that Israel had lost since 1948, the fear of security and despair has captured Israel. The country I refer to is armed from head to toe, thus extremely dangerous and behaves like a cornered cat, convinced that the “best defense is attack.”

 

We should evaluate the inconsiderate attack and the massacre committed on Monday morning by Israeli marines on civilians onboard the Mavi Marmara, one of the ships in the flotilla heading for Gaza, within this frame. It was really not difficult to foresee the fate of the ships even before they sailed away.

 

The chairman of the Foundation for Humanitarian Aid, or İHH, which organized the operation, Bülent Yıldırım, was certain to make Israel to step back before the ships departed. Is it possible to ignore that a cornered cat can't step back? Humanitarian aid effort and the raid against the ship were irresponsible mutual challenges in a very tense environment in which Israel is frightened to death by Iran's atomic bomb.

 

Turkey is jeopardizing its own initiative

 

The attack and massacres that followed is a trap for the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, who was quick to take them as an affront to Turkish state although the operation was supposed to be nongovernmental!

As a result, the nuclear agreement brokered by Brazil and Turkey with Iran might turn null-and-void and get drowned in the Mediterranean because Turkey is no longer seen as an impartial broker. Similarly all its brokerage efforts involving Israel have come to an end. Finally, through the outcome of the existing military agreements, we’ll see the real dimensions of how much Turkish-Israeli relations will be harmed.

 

Obviously, the Mavi Marmara disaster will disturb the efforts of the U.S. to tame down Israel and Prime Minister Erdoğan has been transformed into a hopeless case in the eye of the Israeli lobby as we go through another hot summer.

 

Security of Israel and the freedom of Palestine

 

Recently I asked a knowledgeable foreign correspondent in Israel about the prevailing mood. Here is her assessment. The Jewish population drops while the Arab populations increase inside as well as in the surrounding countries. In addition, the Jewish population is dropping not just because of demographic tendencies but because of emigration. In the last two decades, Eastern Europe has become another alternative for Jews to migrate and become citizens in addition to the citizenships of Western European and North American countries.

 

These states, Hungary in particular, are granting citizenship to the children of their former Jewish citizens. As a result, currently 10 percent of 7 million Israelis live abroad. Twenty percent of the remaining 6.3 million are not Jews but the “1948 Arabs.” The remaining 5 million Jews are from Arabic countries, Iran and Russia who have no experience of democracy. In other words we have an Israel which is more and more “middleeasternizing.”

 

As for social tendencies, the correspondent underlines two very dangerous courses of events: the “hunt of self-hating Jews” and the spread of ultra-Orthodox religious behavior in the public sphere. Noam Chomsky, an American Jewish academic and a pro-Palestinian human rights advocate, was not allowed to Israel for the first time recently. This nationalist conservative storm in the country is the result of fear and concern.

 

Apparently, Israelis are looking for a solution in moving abroad or in turning radical. The correspondent also mentioned how much Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Erdoğan are hated there.

After 62 years, the state of Israel gives the impression that it will have difficulties to hold. Regardless of what will happen, this widespread assessment explains the fear of a nation which survived the Shoah but its capability to do anything crazy to survive.

 

A West who feels guilty, on the other hand, will never let the Israelis down. Therefore, the emergency is to first calm down, then to make others calm down by inviting all parties to dialogue, Hamas, Iran and Israel.

So long, of course, that the aim is not an all-out war.