U.S. Should Let Israel's Enemies Negotiate a Ceasefire
By Jed Babbin
WashingtonExaminer.com
Thursday is the 24th day of
Israel's “Operation Protective Edge” that aims
to nullify the military threat posed by
Gaza Strip terrorists of
Hamas.
The longer the conflict goes on, and the more
apparent that the Israelis are winning, the more we
see anti-Israel protests and riots in
Europe, and the more threats against Israel come
from its enemies such as
Turkish Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan.
In May 2010, the Turkish government supported a
flotilla of six ships that tried to break the
Israeli sea blockade of the Gaza Strip. The Turkish
“humanitarian organization” Insani Yardim Vakfi,
known as “IHH” tried — amid a media frenzy — to sail
six ships past the Israeli blockade. They refused to
sail to an Israeli port for inspection of their
cargos before docking in Gaza. When commandos from
Israel’s Squadron 13 (their equivalent of the U.S.
Navy SEALs) boarded one of the ships, the Mavi
Marmara, they were met with armed resistance by IHH
fighters. Nine people were killed.
A U.N. investigation, led by former
New Zealand Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer,
determined that the Israeli blockade was legal under
international law.
His report said, “The naval blockade was imposed
as a legitimate security measure in order to prevent
weapons from entering Gaza by sea and its
implementation complied with the requirements of
international law.”
IHH is planning to try it again. According to
reports in the Israeli media, IHH claims that a
new blockade-busting convoy will soon sail from
Turkey, this time under the protection of the
Turkish navy.
Erdogan is radical Islamist who has ended his
nation’s secularism since becoming prime minister in
2003. Like others of that ideology, he frequently
condemns the Israeli “occupation” of the West Bank,
while conveniently overlooking his own nation’s
illegal occupation of northern
Cyprus 40 years ago this month that drove out
its
Greek population and continues today.
His policy toward Israel was made clear when he told
CNN last week that “you can see that what Israel
does to Palestine, to Gaza right now, has surpassed
what Hitler did to them.” Erdogan condemns Israeli
action in Gaza, clearly siding with the Hamas
terrorists.
Turkey, which was a cornerstone member of
NATO in the
Cold War, has been led by Erdogan into the
Islamist camp. His anti-Israel policies support the
Hamas terrorists, not its former ally, Israel.
IHH, which pretends to be a charitable organization,
has been
designated a terrorist organization by Israel,
the Netherlands and Germany (but not by the US). The
kind of “aid” its new flotilla would be carrying to
the Hamas government is, to say the least, highly
suspect.
IHH is tied to several terrorist groups including
al Qaeda. In January 2014 the Turkish newspaper
Hurriyet reported that six IHH offices were
raided and 28 people arrested on suspicion of ties
to al Qaeda. Most importantly, the report said that
two antiterrorist police unit chiefs were fired
within hours of the raid. Given the fact that he has
been an outspoken supporter of IHH and the blockade
busters, Erdogan
probably played a role in those firings.
Despite Erdogan’s fulminations and his support for
IHH, it’s highly unlikely that the Turkish navy
would try to help their ships run the blockade
because that would constitute a clear act of war
against Israel. Erdogan isn’t ready to face open war
with Israel.
Erdogan should not be misled by Secretary of State
John Kerry’s ineptitude. By inviting Erdogan and
Qatar’s governments to negotiate peace in the
Israeli-Palestinian war – and excluding the Israelis
and the Egyptians – Kerry only demonstrated his lack
of understanding of the situation and his bias
against Israel. Kerry has a hugely inflated concept
of American influence and Israel’s concern for
international opinion.
Any peace agreement that doesn’t demilitarize the
Gaza Strip and prevent rearmament in a verifiable
manner should be rejected by Israel. America
shouldn’t even be party to such a sham.
Jed Babbin served as a deputy undersecretary of
defense in the George H.W. Bush administration and
is a senior fellow of the London Center for Policy
Research. He is the author of
"The BDS War Against Israel," with Herbert
London.