Look, I’m not going too get to far into my views on Israel and Palestine — they’re complicated, and quite frankly I can see both sides of the argument. I believe that the right thing to do would be for all of them to live together in one secular multicultural state and let democracy decides who leads the country. I know this isn’t likely to ever happen, but that would be my utopian hope.

In regards to the recent Israeli attack on the Gaza-bound flotilla, it does behoove the anti-Israeli forces of the world to remember that Turkey’s hands are just as stained as Israel’s in regards to human rights. Think of the Kurds, disenfranchised and constantly under the yoke of the Turkish military, denied their own homeland, or occupied Cyprus. Ask any Greek Cypriot about their thoughts on Turkish democracy, and you’re bound to get a view quite dissimilar from the the views of the flotilla’s supporters.

So my point is, although I don’t approve of Israel’s treatment of Gaza, I also don’t approve of Turkey, either. Both countries are ethnic-religious states that claim to be secular, but are driven by religious and ethnic forces. Both states are primarily supportive of democracy for particular ethnic groups, and in the case of Israel, the Israeli’s have a much better record on Arab rights than Turkey has on their minorities.

A group in Israel is organizing an alternative flotilla in the name of bringing supplies to the Kurds in an effort to shed light Turkey’s own human rights abuses. As Andrew Sullivan has said, this would be a smarter path for Israel to take. It doesn’t necessarily negate Israel’s own issues with the Palestinians, but it does prove that Turkey is no moral authority in the world, either. And the flotilla was a cynical PR stunt driven by the Middle Eastern ethnic conflict and not genuine philanthropy.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post