An extremely lucid, and frightening, article from the Ottawa Citizen, about where the biggest threat to world peace is now.
It is not who or where you think.
"The greatest threat to the world's peace, at this moment, comes from a man named Recip Tayyip Erdogan. He is the prime minister of Turkey, at the head of the Justice and Development Party ("AK," from the Turkish). A former mayor of Istanbul, he was arrested and jailed when he publicly recited Islamist verses ("the mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets are our bayonets," etc.), in defiance of the old secularist, Ataturk constitution, which made it an offence to incite religious and racial fanaticism."
Read it and weep, kids.
I only hope it holds off until someone who actually supports Israel is Commander-In-Chief of the US military forces.
PALESTINE AND THE PALESTINIANS: MYTHS AND REALITIES
ReplyDeleteMYTH: The Palestinians are the descendants of the Biblical Philistines.
REALITY: The Philistines were a non-Arab people from the Aegean region who settled on what is now the south coast of Israel and the Gaza strip from around the 12th century B.C.E. The name “Palestine” comes from the Greek word Palaistina, a derivative of the Hebrew word Pleshet (invaders; penetrators). Defeated and absorbed by the Jews and other ethnic groups, the Philistines disappeared as a distinct people by the beginning of the Common Era. There is no archeological, historical, or linguistic evidence connecting the ancient Philistines to the modern Palestinians.
MYTH: The Palestinians had a country of their own in the past that was lost or stolen from them.
ReplyDeleteREALITY: Since the destruction of the second kingdom of Judea (the southern half of the so-called “occupied territories”) in the second century, the land the Roman conquerors re-named Syria Palaestina (to obscure Jewish association with the land of Israel) has been governed by one foreign power after another. The name Syria Palaestina disappeared and “Palestine” – the Gentile name for the land of Israel – ceased to exist as a separate entity after it temporarily became part of the Arab-Muslim empire in 638. For nearly 13 centuries from 638 to 1917 (when the British took charge following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire), no separate administrative or socio-cultural entity called “Palestine” existed: the Ottoman Turks who ruled the Middle East from 1516 to 1917 regarded the geographical region of Palestine as part of Southern Syria. For most of human history, Palestine has only existed as a Western Christian term to describe the Jewish Holy Land and its Hebrew and Christian inhabitants. From the beginning of recorded history until nearly the present, neither foreigners nor local residents recognized a unique people – other than the Jews – called “Palestinians” living in a place called Palestine.
MYTH: The Palestinians are an ancient people, as old as or older than the Jews.
ReplyDeleteREALITY: Prior to partition in 1947, the occupants of Palestine never regarded themselves as having a separate identity. In 1937, mid-way through the British Mandate, a local Arab leader told the Peel Commission that “There is no such Country [as Palestine]. Palestine is a term the Zionists invented! Our country for centuries was part of Syria.” Throughout human history, whenever the word Palestine was used it referred to a place in the Middle East whose most distinctive feature was its continuous Jewish occupation. According to nearly all traditional definitions, Palestine is the land of the Jews: the country of the Hebrews; the Holy Land; the Promised Land; the location of Zion. During the British Mandate (1922-1948), it was the Jewish people who were called Palestinians. It was the Israeli capture of the West Bank from Jordan in the Six-Day War in 1967 – not some ancient sense of nationalism – that gave birth to an organized demand for an autonomous Palestinian state. And it was not until 1988 that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) declared its aim of creating a Palestinian Arab state.
I stole all this from another source...so it is not me who wrote it.
ReplyDeleteBut I believe it, every word.
Fay, I believe every word too.
ReplyDeleteDWT, the article made my blood run cold. I sincerely hope the author is overreacting, but I'm not holding my breath.
The thought of another world war scares me to death. The thought of Israel being attacked from all sides while the US stands by watching scares me even more.
I know. I'm crazy.
ReplyDeleteBut there is a part of my mind that says lets square up. face to face. Let's settle it, winner take all. This death by a thousand cut's is becoming BS. The longer we wait the less chance we have of being the winner. And right now, we would win. A lot of questions, sure, as example who would we have a world war with? And would there be anyone on our side besides ourselves and our friend Israel.
I'm just throwing a pie in the sky here, don't take me seriously. As my aunt used to say, shit in one hand and wish in the other...
Oh, Fay. Sorry I forgot to add that I believe every word of it too. And thanks for posting it.
ReplyDelete"And would there be anyone on our side besides ourselves and our friend Israel."
ReplyDeleteAhem...what is we, chopped liver???
Shit, you got me. Fair and square.
ReplyDeleteWhen push comes to shove, Canada will be on the side of freedom, of that I have no doubt, of course.
Excellent article DWT, but I think it is a little alarmist. Erdogan has already walked back his threat to send warships to escort future flotillas and not everyone in Egypt was so happy with his call for a secular Egypt - which is a pretty big Chutzpah of him considering he is the one "de-secularizing" Turkey and Islamifying it. (apologies for the made-up words).
ReplyDeleteI get the feeling Erdogan would like to be known as the man who COULD start the next world war but out of his great magnanimity he won't.
The Arab world has bigger things on its mind than getting involved in Turkey's ego trip, and I think that as long as cool heads prevail in Israel as well, he will be contained.
Let's hope, anyway.
By the way, Fay, those were excellent myths and facts. Can you give us a link to where you stole, ahem... borrowed them from? ;;)
ReplyDeleteAnnie, I certainly hope it IS alarmist, and given that you, among us here, have the most reason to be alarmed, I will take your opinion as the best response.
ReplyDeleteArabs hate the Turks, the Palestinian family I once knew detested the Turks. But the Turks and the Pals have something in common, the want to belong and then rejected by the heart of Islam.
ReplyDeleteAtaturk would be furious if he saw what is happening now.
Hi annie, check your you know what!
ReplyDeleteForgive my language, but what a mother*u****. I'm sorry, but that is the first thought that came to mind.
ReplyDeleteHe's a complete tool Luther. Don't apologise for your language.
ReplyDeleteI measure western leaders by their stance on Israel. If they do the right thing by her, they tend to do right by their own country. Think Reagan, Thatcher, Harper.
Then think Blair, Trudeau, Carter, they hated Israel as much as they hated their own countries.
And in case anyone doubts that Trudeau hated Canada, he counted Castro as one of his best friends. And Casto was a PALLBEARER at Trudeau's funeral.
Wise advice Fay, about leaders supporting Israel. And I so wonder why that is. Is it just to curry favor with those who hate Israel? I mean, really, does Obama hate Israel? Why would he? Is it all just Jew hatred? Why would that be anyway? Why in this day and age would anyone hate Israel? Please, appreciate the subtext of my questions, I'm aware of the common reasons. Is it different than quasi racist bigotry? Or, is it racist at heart? Are we still arguing from 2,000 years ago?
ReplyDeleteI'm just fucking lost at anyone who sees any islamistst shithole as preferable to Israel. I can't comprehend that. It doesn't compute.
I appreciate the subtext Luther.
ReplyDeleteI believe it is jealousy. Pure and simple.
Always has been always will.
You may be right.
ReplyDeleteThen think Blair, Trudeau, Carter, they hated Israel as much as they hated their own countries.
ReplyDeleteAin't that the truth.
Some random but related thoughts:
I once heard that a Jewish American asked Thomas Sowell what it would take for the world to like Jews (and, by connection, Israel). His answer was : "Lose."
The left in the west has been condition to accept that no one is a loser because he is a loser; he is a loser because someone has oppressed the loser and taken his share. In reality, this gives elitists the chance to control the lives of everyone else. Why they want to, I don't know -- other than the their mis-informed opinions of their own self worth.
Just look at the U.S. today. The Congressional Black Caucus has said that if things were as bad for black Americans under Bill Clinton as they are now, they would have marched on the White House. They don't because the JEM is black. In other words, even they have lower expectations of themselves then they do of others. And these people are considered leaders?