Dear Mr. Babahan,
Reading your article, dated Jan. 4, 2011 and titled “Israel’s disease,” compelled me to respond. Although encountering daily criticism on Israeli policies in the Turkish press, the majority of the time I let it go, sometimes because of the legitimate criticism raised and sometimes because I find no use in tackling harsh and biased anti-Israeli comments that serve nothing but to attract attention in the lowest manner possible. Whereas, I find some of the remarks you mentioned legitimate criticism (yet debatable), I’d like to focus my comment on the following:
1. By titling the article “Israel’s disease,” I strongly object to any criticism of countries by framing their names with the word “disease,” [such as, for example] with regard to Turkey, Syria or Iran.
2. Even though Israel is defined as the nation state of the Jewish people, all minorities enjoy full equality in the face of law. Unfortunately, as with every minority, daily life is not always free from discrimination. However, in saying that, the highest living standards of Muslims in the Middle East are in Israel. Only in Israel can Muslim women pursue their academic and career aspirations, drive a car on their own, vote and get elected to parliament.
3. Your objections to the term “promised land” clearly emphasizes the need to recognize the Jewish people’s right for a nation state on the lands their forefathers inhabited. The Jewish people are no different from any other nation aspiring to settle their ancestral lands. Yet although we presume our right to a nation state in the land of Israel, we recognize the right of the Palestinians for a nation state living in peace and security neighboring the Jewish State. By recognizing this right, the Israeli government has evacuated its citizens and military, frozen the building of new settlements and addressed its obligations worldwide. What was the Palestinian response to these initiatives? They refused to return to the negotiating table and raised new demands. So shall someone call this the Palestinian disease?
4. While defining American policies in Afghanistan as derived from pro-Israeli tendencies, you clearly ignore the 9/11 tragedy inflicted on the US by the terrorist regime in Afghanistan. The US defines its policies according to its values and interests. The first modern democracy knows how to achieve its goals without relying on the only democracy in the Middle East.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a specific conflict between two nations. Israel has solved such conflicts in the past, both with Egypt and Jordan. The assumption that once the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is solved world peace will reign misleads and creates two major problems: Firstly, it wrongly intensifies the Palestinian problem, pulling radical elements into this arena that use this conflict for their own purposes.
Secondly, it blinds our capabilities to identify real threats and deal with them. Democracies’ problems with radical elements have to do more with the challenge liberal societies impose on them than the question where the future border in the Israeli-Palestinian settlement will be. The Iranian revolution, the ascendance of Taliban, Al Qaeda and Islamic Jihad have nothing to do with the Palestinian problem. These radical extremist elements seek to destabilize moderate peace-loving regimes. Countries -- whether Christian, Muslim or Jewish dominated -- should operate hand in hand against those seeking to stone women and hang homosexuals.
I respect criticism. I appreciate it and learn from it when it is fair. The above mentioned points are to shed light on comments I felt needed to be responded to. I hope this letter will open a dialogue in which we can exchange ideas and perceptions on current matters.
Tal Gat
Deputy Consul General of Israel
Istanbul
