Erdoğan's “one minute” criticism was one such “brave” uprising against the world's silent approval of the Israeli atrocities in Gaza. The United Nations confirmed that certain UN facilities were hit intentionally during the Gaza operation. Israelis themselves confirmed the news that the army used phosphorus bombs during the operation. These amounted to war crimes, but nobody dared to say so.This time the prime minister reminded the world of Israel's nuclear arsenal. His call fell on deaf ears, “thanks” to the last-minute help the Iranians gave to Israel by revealing the existence of a second Iranian enrichment facility. The UN talks concentrated, inescapably and understandably, on the Iranian nuclear ambitions.
Prime Minister Erdoğan was right in saying that whereas Iran may have the intention to produce nuclear weapons, Israel already has several hundred operational nuclear missiles and the technology to produce more.
To be precise, Israel has never made a public declaration on the existence of an Israeli nuclear arsenal. This is not because Israel is afraid of being pushed to the edge by the US and other architects of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel reportedly adopted a nuclear ambiguity policy because doing so makes the nuclear weapons even more deterrent. By not forcing Israel to go public about its nuclear program, the UN is in fact contributing to this nuclear ambiguity policy.
There is an obvious double standard on this issue. Thinking that Iran cannot shoulder the responsibility of having nuclear weapons is prejudice, whereas thinking that the keys of the Israeli nuclear missiles will never pass into the hands of irresponsible rulers is naiveté. Israel already has the most irresponsible foreign minister of the democratic world.
But the fact that there is a double standard on the issue does not give Iran, or any other regional power, the legitimate right to produce nuclear missiles. On the contrary, the observation that even a democracy such as Israel may have irresponsible rulers increases the urgency of resisting Iran's nuclear ambitions.
What is the reason for this double standard? Why are world leaders so reluctant to open Israel's nuclear arsenal up to discussion, whereas Iran's ambiguous ambitions are occupying the floor in the UN?
The answer lies in Israel's successful public diplomacy tactics.
Israel has the backing of the strongest lobbying groups in the US and the European capitals. It has the advantage of using the American film industry in order to create a favorable image of itself and an abhorrent image of Iran and other “opposites” of Israel. It has the advantage of the “Holocaust shame” of the Western world. It has the pretext of being able to claim “existential threat.”
Apart from the Holocaust, none of these advantages were natural-born advantages of being Jewish and the sole home of the Jewish people in the world. Even the “Holocaust shame” of the Christian West is a product of years of propaganda. European countries have the blood of several other nations on their hands, including the Poles, the Gypsies, the Algerians, the Ethiopians, the Libyans, the Bosnians and the Turks. This is not to belittle the Holocaust or to compare any other crime to it; but the fact that there is no shame in the Western mind with regard to the other lesser crimes is telling.
Prime Minister Erdoğan is right in asking the reason for the double standard we mentioned. But he has to do more, and as a prime minister of an emerging power, he should take lessons from Israeli public diplomacy tactics.
Ankara rumors say that the government has already finished preparation of a bill that will establish a public diplomacy agency and that the bill will be one of the first ones to come before Parliament as soon as Parliament starts its working year. A public diplomacy agency has to work in close contact with journalists. I am sure that with a working public diplomacy agency, the voice of the prime minister will no longer fall on deaf ears.
