CAIRO: The dramatic, diplomatic tension that flared between Turkey and Israel last week once again brought Turkey to the forefront as the voice of the Muslim world and exposed the arrogance of the current Israeli administration.
Early last week, Danny Ayalon, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, summoned Ahmet Oguz Celikkol, the Turkish ambassador, to express a formal protest over the portrayal of Israel in a controversial Turkish television drama showing Israeli agents murdering children.
Ayalon, a member of Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party, had called in the Turkish diplomat, and, according to an article in the Financial Times, perched on a high chair, while the table between the two men carried an Israeli, but not the Turkish flag. The article quoted Israeli media reports as saying that Ayalon turned to the assembled journalists and said in Hebrew: “We just want it to be seen that he is seated below us and that there is only one flag here, and as you can see, we are not smiling.
Outraged at the offensive treatment, Turkey threatened to withdraw its ambassador unless Tel Aviv offered a formal apology, which Ankara swiftly received by the Wednesday night deadline, along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s public rebuke of the Foreign Ministry’s handing of the situation.
Even the Israeli media was up in arms against an attitude many believed made Israel look ridiculous, and the unnecessary provocation of Israel’s strongest Muslim ally.
The recent spat is the latest in a series of angered Turkish responses to Israeli actions in a deterioration that began with Israel’s ruthless killing of 1,400 Palestinians in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead last year just as Turkey was stepping up its mediation efforts between the Jewish state and Syria.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Erdogan’s heated confrontation with Israeli President Shimon Peres during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos last year, when Erdogan told Peres: “You kill people, and then walked off the stage, thrust the PM into the role of public hero in many Arab and Muslim countries.
Turkey’s decision to bar Israel from joining Nato military exercises held on its territory last Autumn, its unrestrained criticism of all forms of Israeli aggression during international public forums, as well as its continued humanitarian support for the blighted people of Gaza has transformed the country’s image in the Middle East from the remnant of an Ottoman past and a fanatically secular, Westernized state.
According to a survey titled “The Perception of Turkey in the Middle East conducted last July with 206 respondents in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iraq, Turkey’s active role in the Middle East (not to mention its soap operas) has helped boost its image, the change becoming most visible under the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP).
But it’s not only Turkey’s political mediating role in the Israeli-Arab conflict (where an equal number of respondents believed that Turkey and Egypt do the most to defend the rights of the Palestinians), but its economic rise that has impressed the survey’s participants. Interestingly, 61 percent of respondents believe that Turkey could be a viable model for the Arab world despite its secular political structure, while 63 percent say that it is a successful example of combining Islam and democracy.
European Union pressure to reform has been instrumental in driving the changes that have rendered Turkey a rising powerhouse. But while Turkey now enjoys enough leverage to impose its own rules on an arrogant Israeli state, Egypt has unfortunately failed to extract even the mildest apology from boycotted Israeli FM Lieberman, who not only insulted the Egyptian head of state, but threatened to attack Egypt’s strategic High Dam.
No one wants to undermine Egypt’s sovereignty by calling for direct outside pressure to abide by internationally accepted standards of good governance, the rule of law and respect for human rights, but with the failure of internal opposition to affect any change at all, perhaps a little push will go a long way.
Without the transition towards full democracy in Egypt, with all that entails in terms of transparency and legal accountability, Egypt’s national security, and possibly its sovereignty, will be further jeopardized. The Coptic shootings in Nagaa Hammadi that have already shrouded 2010 in a dark cloud, will not simply fade away; their ramifications will likely ripple beyond Egypt’s borders, triggering much over-due change that Egypt should have voluntarily instated decades ago.
Rania Al Malky is the Chief Editor of Daily News Egypt.
