The balance of good and evil in the world was favorably altered a bit last week, as the scales’ darker pan was lightened by the demise of Hezbollah’s top military commander, Fuad Shukr, in Beirut, and Hamas’ political bureau leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran.
And it was revealed that a previous rise of that pan had been the result of the elimination, earlier last month, of Muhammad Deif, the “Osama Bin Laden of Gaza,” whose well-deserved fate was finally confirmed.
Unfortunately, savage hatred abhors a vacuum, and other jihadis are bound to seek to fill those murderers’ places in the hope of joining them one day in Islamic paradise. (What a surprise is in store for them.)
And plenty of other miscreants still inhabit the earth, some lurking in tunnels and mosques and school and hospital basements, while others are enjoying their meals in nicer digs.
Like a $615 million, 1,100 room “White Palace” on the outskirts of Ankara, where Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (pronounced erdewan), makes his home. He became president in 2015, after serving as the country’s prime minister for more than a decade.
The prime ministerial position was abolished and its powers assumed by the president.
Mr. Erdoğan’s villainy has not always been readily evident. He visited Israel in May 2005, a trip that was lauded as remarkable for the leader of a Muslim-majority (if constitutionally secular) country. He even went to Yad Vashem. The gesture was reciprocated by then-President of Israel Shimon Peres, who addressed the Turkish parliament during a visit in 2007, the first time an Israeli leader had addressed the legislature of a predominantly Muslim nation.
Over ensuing years, relations between Mr. Erdoğan and Israel (and the West) have warmed and cooled—at times, boiling over and freezing solid.
At the 2009 World Economic Forum conference panel in Davos, Mr. Erdoğan addressed then-Israeli President Shimon Peres and angrily shouted at him, “When it comes to killing, you know it too well. I remember how you killed the children on beaches…” (The reference was to young Hamas fighters planning attacks on Israel.)
When, the next year, ten Turks were killed by Israeli forces in a raid on a pro-Palestinian activist ship that tried to breach Israel’s blockade on the then Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, the Turkish leader expelled Israel’s ambassador. That move was reversed in 2016 but repeated two years later when Palestinians taking part in violent protests at the Gaza border were killed. When, in 2018, Mr. Erdoğan hosted Hamas leaders, Israel expelled Turkey’s envoy.
A thaw took place in 2022, when Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited Turkey.
And less than a year ago, at the UN General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Erdoğan met and agreed to visit each others’ countries soon.
That plan did not come about. Mr. Erdoğan has backed Hamas, hosted the late Mr. Haniyeh and, last week, compared Mr. Netanyahu to Hitler.
Not to mention, he threatened to attack Israel himself.
“We should be very strong, so that Israel cannot do this stuff to Palestine,” he declared.
“Just like we entered Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we can do similar to them,” he said, referring to Turkish support for Azerbaijan in its conflict with Armenia last year, and his country’s military intervention in Libya.
“There is no reason not to do it,” he continued. “We must be strong to take these steps.”
Observers disagree about Mr. Erdoğan. Some see him as a pragmatist who, in his uglier guise, is just playing to his nation’s Islamists (and run-of-the-mill Israel-haters); others consider him a jihadist in conscientious clothing.
I’m a believer in the proposition that leaders can be best understood by their character.
Last week, President Erdoğan, in a public ceremony, handed keys out to Turkish citizens whose homes had been rebuilt as part of an urban renewal project. As part of the pageantry, some little boys ran across the stage to kiss the Turkish leader’s hand and receive a gift of money. One of the kids, who looked about five years old, hesitated and then tried to shake, rather than kiss, the president’s proffered hand. Mr. Erdoğan, stone-faced, smacked the boy, who then reconsidered and offered his kiss.
Time will tell who Recep Tayyip Erdoğan really is. But sometimes, small things reveal bigger ones.
To read more, subscribe to Ami
Recent Comments