Turkey’s Erdogan kills Syrian Kurds and excoriates Israel’s treatment of Palestinians

By Bruce S. Ticker

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — Who says that Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has something against a homeland for a displaced people?

Not for the Kurds, of course, but he must want a homeland for…you’ll never guess…the Palestinians.

Erdogan’s passion for the Palestinians is just so overpowering. Witness: “The Palestinian territory under Israeli occupation has become one of the most striking places of injustices,” he has said, as quoted in The Los Angeles Jewish Journal. “The Palestinians are subjected to pressures, violence and intimidation policies no less grave than the oppression done to the Jews during WWII.”

Can the Palestinians ever find a stronger champion than Erdogan? How he lashes out against their oppressor: “We do not approve of silence on the state terror that Israel blatantly carries out in Palestine.”

If we can believe Erdogan – and why shouldn’t we? – Israel’s abuse of the Palestinians compares to the worst of other cruel nations…like, say, Turkey. Oh, that is the country ruled by Erdogan, who ordered the invasion of northern Syria on Yom Kippur to drive out the Kurds.

Think of what Erdogan can do for the Palestinians. He of all people should be capable of lifting up the Palestinians so they never need worry again.

The Palestinians have a problem and Erdogan is in an ideal position to offer the solution. Consider that the Palestinian leadership has yet to accept Israel’s obstructive plan to give the Palestinians an independent state comprising Gaza, 93 percent of the West Bank and even part of Jerusalem – after nearly two decades. Israel insists on refusing to offer the Palestinians all of Israel. How unreasonable.

Just to be clear, it is confusing as to what the Palestinian leadership and their people want.

What they will not get, at this rate, is an independent state. Credit Erdogan for expedient timing. His invasion of Syria has finally made Erdogan a household name. While he would deny the Kurds a homeland, he still seems to crave a homeland for the Palestinians.

So what he can do is annex Gaza and perhaps the West Bank, and trumpet his generosity in governing one or both territories.

What happened to the concept of a two-state solution? I have long been leery of granting the Palestinians their own state. I do not see how it helps them. Both land masses are separated from one another and, even if combined politically, are painfully small. Both the West Bank and Gaza are scrunched between greater powers on which the Palestinians must depend for a stable economy.

Plus, can their leadership be trusted to provide adequate services and treat all Palestinians with equality? You readers can volunteer your answers.

It would be ideal if Gaza can combine with Egypt and a negotiated portion of the West Bank with Jordan. Each territory is geographically attached to a greater power that can provide it with military protection and economic growth. Their customs and religious practices are rooted in the same culture. Perhaps they can be semi-autonomous provinces.

That would probably fail because none of the Egyptian or Jordanian leaders have been willing to do that in the recent past, and the current Egyptian government is at odds with Hamas, which rules Gaza.

It stands to reason that Erdogan must be willing to provide a homeland for the Palestinians, especially for the people of Gaza. As far back as 2010, Turkey and Israel broke off diplomatic relations when Israeli commandos stormed a ship from Turkey in international waters and killed nine passengers, according to The New York Times.

The ship was part of a flotilla sent by a Turkish charity to attempt to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza. It begs the question as to how the flotilla left Turkey in the first place without Erdogan’s assent. Relations were later restored, the Times reported.

And nearly 1½ years ago, Erdogan blasted Israel for the deaths of at least 60 people – the very number of Kurdish civilians killed last week – when Gazans protested at its eastern border with Israel.

“What Israel is doing is genocide,” Erdogan exclaimed during an event in Ankara in May 2018. “If Israel’s bullying is met with more silence, the world will rapidly be dragged into a chaos where thuggery prevails.”

Like the current “thuggery” in northern Syria?

So what better choice can there be? It is like a love match. It may be a long-distance relationship, but a 700-mile sea route through the Mediterranean Sea connects Gaza with southern Turkey that bypasses Israel, Lebanon and Syria. The people of Gaza could turn to a country with the heft to boost its economy and protect it in case of a war.

Of course, governing a homeland for a displaced people like the Palestinians is a proposition that takes hard work, responsibility and justice. Kind of different than destroying a homeland and massacring as many of its people as possible, like the Kurds.

Does Erdogan have it in him to do the job? Sure he does. Someone out there doesn’t think so?

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Bruce Ticker is a freelance writer based in Philadelphia.