Tit For Tat Continues Between Turkey and Israel

Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan continues courting Islamists and anti-Israel supporters throughout the Middle East with his statements calling on the UN to impose sanctions against Israel for its role in the Mavi Marmara flotilla incident and its general position towards the Palestinians.

Speaking to Time magazine, Erdogan criticized the UN for leveling sanctions on Iran and Sudan, while avoiding implementing trade measures against Israel - a move, Erdogan said, could have helped solved the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Erdogan was not optimistic about the Quartet efforts, saying that if it was truly interested in improving Israeli-Palestinian relations, it would pushed for imposing sanctions on Israel.

"Until today, the UN Security Council has issued more than 89 resolutions on prospective sanctions related to Israel, but they've never been executed. When it's Iran in question, you impose sanctions. What happens with Israel then?" he asked.

The Turkish prime minister made "a call out to humanity", saying that the Palestinians cannot be left to struggle any longer and countries that do not recognize their demands for statehood "will never be able to settle their accounts with history."

It's rather cynical and hypocritical of Turkey to claim that sanctions should be imposed against Israel for Israel's self-defense as a sovereign nation when Turkey engages in the same kind of actions against the Kurds. Moreover, Turkey has repeatedly invaded Northern Iraq to attack Kurdish groups that it believes are supporting the PKK. Its repeated human rights violations are legion and yet the UN takes no action against Turkey.

If there was a call out to humanity, sanctions would have been dropped on Turkey and Syria years ago for their despicable treatment of Kurds who are the forgotten people of the Middle East - and whose land claims span across Turkey, Syria, and Iraq.

Fact is that Iran and Syria's sanctions are well deserved - openly firing on crowds of peaceful protesters for months on end in Syria for instance. The violent crackdown by the Iranian regime against all opposition shows a level of violence that is simply not present in Israel. Israel's actions have been to defend itself against incessant terror attacks and the persistent threat of attacks.

But for the Palestinians failing to accept a true 2-state solution, Israel would not have needed the kinds of security measures that led to the flotilla incident. They would not have needed to enforce a blockade to prevent shipments of weapons and terrorists into Gaza. Hamas refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist and condones such attacks on Israel, but that's somehow's Israel's fault in Erdogan's distorted worldview.