Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey has lashed out at Israel’s Shimon Peres on a panel at Davos. During his tirade, Erdogan cited the supposedly authoritative views of Gilad Atzmon, a UK-based jazz saxophonist and political loudmouth, whose foul antisemitic writings I’ve noted on this blog many times. And to think that Turkey was jealously guarding its role as a possible mediator of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Goodbye to all that.
The very smart Nicholas Kristof blogs about it here, but clearly doesn’t know who Atzmon is. He missed Erdogan’s reference, and thereby missed the real import of this incident — the growing normalization of antisemitism in discourse around Israel-Palestine.
The standard line on the radical left is, “How dare Jewish organizations talk about antisemitism! They’re trying to silence criticism of Israel!” This view is well-represented by the commenters on Kristof’s blog, who attack Kristof for calling Erdogan “childish” (he’s that and worse), who praise Erdogan’s putative bravery, and jump all over the moderator David Ignatius for “disrespecting” a head of state. (I see, so now journalists are supposed to be deferential to heads of state.)
Incidentally, Erdogan heads the government of a republic that continues to deny the Armenian genocide, that has brutally suppressed its Kurdish population both legislatively and with bullets and bombs, that has recently initiated aerial bombardment of rebel positions in Iraqi Kurdistan, that has occupied northern Cyprus for over 30 years, and so on. Glass houses, Mr. Erdogan. You had little standing to attack Israel even before you opened your mouth.
[Update: Initial news reports are also missing the Atzmon reference, thus missing the real story altogether.]
[Update: My good friend, the experienced Turkey-watcher Yigal Schleifer, has posted on this matter as well.]
Comments are closed.