Calling a spade a spade

I have so far successfully resisted the temptation to weigh in on the current conflict. And I will continue to hold my tongue for the simple reason that I have nothing helpful to say beyond the following which I shared a few days ago in a more intimate online setting:

I want to ask that people refrain from contemplating and/or assigning blame. It is unhelpful. I cringe when I hear people say they are 'pro-Israel' or 'pro-Palestinian'. This isn't the world cup or some zero-sum game where you root for a side. Wanting anyone to win implies that you also want the other side to lose.

In a just, peaceful solution (as my country has so far achieved - tenuous as it may be - with two of our neighbors), both sides should win and nobody should lose. And by 'win', I mean both sides should enjoy the benefits of peaceful coexistence. That can't happen so long as anyone (here or around the world) actively works and prays for anyone's victory or defeat.

If you can view current events through that mindset, it quickly becomes clear who wants peace and who can't exist without war.

I encourage everyone to follow the news and think critically about what you see. There are state actors involved in the current conflict as well as non-state terror organizations (as defined by the US, EU and UN) that do not represent any state and, in fact, would cease to be relevant the moment a just and lasting peace would be achieved. Don't forget that essential fact for a moment as you scan the news!

That said, I can't remain silent in the face of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's most recent hateful, anti-Israel rhetoric.

Today he managed to ignore the fact that Israel heeded a 9:00 AM cease fire while Hamas continued to fire more than 50 unanswered missiles into Israel civilian population centers.

Instead, when after four hours of unabated bombardment Israel resumed military operations to protect its citizens, Erdogan accused Israel of "perpetrating a 'massacre' of Palestinians" and of "committing 'state terrorism'".

But the bit that shattered the last of my resolve to stay silent was his statement this afternoon in which he compared Israel to Adolf Hitler (according to Turkish daily, 'Hurriyet'). [source]

Okay, here's the deal, Recep. As a Turk, you should know a thing or two about Genocide... and about shame.

Specifically, you should be able to differentiate between legitimate self defense and the stated intention to wipe out an entire people. After all, your country murdered a million and a half innocent Armenians in 1915 and created the model on which Hitler built his own grand vision for genocide.

In fact, in his 22 August 1939 speech prior to Germany's invasion of Poland, Hitler famously said:

"Our strength consists in our speed and in our brutality. Genghis Khan led millions of women and children to slaughter – with premeditation and a happy heart. History sees in him solely the founder of a state. It’s a matter of indifference to me what a weak western European civilization will say about me. I have issued the command – and I’ll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad – that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formation in readiness – for the present only in the East – with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space (Lebensraum) which we need. Who, after all, speaks to-day of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

For reasons that have thus far evaded me, the world continues to tip-toe carefully around using the 'G' word in reference to Turkey's massacre of its Armenian minority.

So let's call a spade a spade: Turkey committed Genocide. And they need to face up to their criminal past and national shame. Only then, like Germany, can Turkey accept responsibility and educate its citizens against ever contemplating such evil again.

Accusing Israel of perpetrating genocide is monstrous, and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan is indeed a monster; a throwback to a time when dictators and despots could bend the world to their will with deceptive words as much as unspeakable deeds.

As an afterthought, I would add that I am deeply ashamed of the civilized portion of the world that sits by and raises no objection to such monsters and their vile pronouncements... and even allows them the veneer and cover of membership in legitimate organizations like NATO.