Maybe Israel should start sponsoring some Armenian genocide programs in Europe and America. When the Turks complain, they could say "Well, we're just criticizing Turk war criminals."
The Ottoman Turks had a couple of big zechusim. After the Jews were finally expelled from Spain, the Turksih Sultans opened their borders and welcomed any Jews who could reach their land.
When the Sultan heard that Ferdinand of Spain had issued the edict of expulsion kicking out the Spanish Jews, the Turkish Sultan is reputed to have said "The King of Spain must have gone mad, he has just made me into a very rich man" meaning that the Sultan knew it was the Jews and their blessings and ingenuity that brought wealth and prosperity to their host nations. So they let as many Jews who could make it into areas controlled by Turkey.
The next big zechus was that under Suleiman the Magnificent the Turks liberated Eretz Yisroel from any remaining Crusader and Arab rule. From the time the Turks conquered Jerusalem in 1517 and staretd rebuilding it (thge Kosel was buried under manure dumped their by the Arabs until the Turks ordered that it be cleaned up) and for four hundred years the Turks ruled until they were defeated and expelled by the British in 1917.
The Turks in spite of some wars against them, basically started to open up Eretz Yisroel to Jewish settlement. They were tough on everyone, let Jews come in, but they were hated by the Arabs.
Religious and secular Jews came to Eretz Yisroel relatively freely if they could survive the voyage and the harsh local conditions. Tzefas became a center of Torah under the Turks with famous mekubalim and halachists. The talmidei HaGRA and of the BESHT then came followed by the secular chalutzim. Turkish law is still part of Israeli secular law and it is studied as it was in past times by Jews who wanted to become lawyers in Israel.
The saga of the Shabtai Tzvi false Messiah in the 1600s took place in areas of Turkish control. In the end it was the Turkish sultan who put an end once and for all to Shabtai Tzvi's short but lethal disruption of Jewish life by taking him prisoner, callling his bluff (he basically told him that "I hear you claim to be the 'king' but that cannot be because I am the sultan," to which Shabtai Tzvi could not respond) and forced him to accept Islam or be put to death. Shabtai Tzvi chose Islam over death. And that was that. Perhaps that is another zechus they have, that they finally stomped out the false messianism of the Sabbateans.
During 1914 the Turks made the fateful decision of joining the Axis during World War I that meant they would be the enemies of their former allies the French and the British who set about destroying and carving up the Turkish Empire once it surrendered.
After that, the Turks were overtaken my Kemal Ataturk, some say he was a secret follower of the Sabbateans known as the Donmeh, and he forced Turkey to become the first modern secular state that was also Islamic. Quite a feat. He even changed their Turkish script from Arabic letters to Roman western lettering, another great feat.
Turkey stayed out of World War II. Just as well for them. Once the state of Israel was established they became friends of Israel, sharing similar allies in the USA and Great Britain and the West against the Soviet and Communist and rising Arab Nationalism threat.
Now times have changed. Islamic Jihadism and Islomafascism is on the rise. The Turkish moderates and secularists and remnants of the Donmeh are losing their grip. The Arab regimes have lots of MONEY from PETROLEUM, Turkey does not have that. They fear that they will be swamped by Islamic fanaticism. They fear regimes like Syria with its Iranian allies. The Turks are Sunnis, while the Iranians and Syrians are mostly Shiites.
So now they THINK they see opening and vulnerabilities in Israel. So the pro-Islamic fashion to express their solidarity with the Al Quida types of the world starts with antisemitic programs and words and acts to "prove" their bona fides with the Islamofascist fanatics.
But this will only hurt Turkey because Israel is a much stronger and secure country something many do not grasp. Israel can live without Turkey. Israeli tourists will find other beaches to swim at. But Turkey will lose a strategic and military ally in Israel when the Arabs will descend on Turkey and take the revenge upon the Turks (Turks are not Arabs) as the Arabs still want to do in revenge for centuries of the hated cruel Turkish rule over them.
Wave Turkey goodbye as they shoot themselves in the foot (through their own lifeline and heart) to become well, just a dead turkey
Maybe Israel should start sponsoring some Armenian genocide programs in Europe and America. When the Turks complain, they could say "Well, we're just criticizing Turk war criminals."
ReplyDeleteTurkey's goose is long cooked.
ReplyDeleteThe Ottoman Turks had a couple of big zechusim. After the Jews were finally expelled from Spain, the Turksih Sultans opened their borders and welcomed any Jews who could reach their land.
When the Sultan heard that Ferdinand of Spain had issued the edict of expulsion kicking out the Spanish Jews, the Turkish Sultan is reputed to have said "The King of Spain must have gone mad, he has just made me into a very rich man" meaning that the Sultan knew it was the Jews and their blessings and ingenuity that brought wealth and prosperity to their host nations. So they let as many Jews who could make it into areas controlled by Turkey.
The next big zechus was that under Suleiman the Magnificent the Turks liberated Eretz Yisroel from any remaining Crusader and Arab rule. From the time the Turks conquered Jerusalem in 1517 and staretd rebuilding it (thge Kosel was buried under manure dumped their by the Arabs until the Turks ordered that it be cleaned up) and for four hundred years the Turks ruled until they were defeated and expelled by the British in 1917.
The Turks in spite of some wars against them, basically started to open up Eretz Yisroel to Jewish settlement. They were tough on everyone, let Jews come in, but they were hated by the Arabs.
Religious and secular Jews came to Eretz Yisroel relatively freely if they could survive the voyage and the harsh local conditions. Tzefas became a center of Torah under the Turks with famous mekubalim and halachists. The talmidei HaGRA and of the BESHT then came followed by the secular chalutzim. Turkish law is still part of Israeli secular law and it is studied as it was in past times by Jews who wanted to become lawyers in Israel.
The saga of the Shabtai Tzvi false Messiah in the 1600s took place in areas of Turkish control. In the end it was the Turkish sultan who put an end once and for all to Shabtai Tzvi's short but lethal disruption of Jewish life by taking him prisoner, callling his bluff (he basically told him that "I hear you claim to be the 'king' but that cannot be because I am the sultan," to which Shabtai Tzvi could not respond) and forced him to accept Islam or be put to death. Shabtai Tzvi chose Islam over death. And that was that. Perhaps that is another zechus they have, that they finally stomped out the false messianism of the Sabbateans.
During 1914 the Turks made the fateful decision of joining the Axis during World War I that meant they would be the enemies of their former allies the French and the British who set about destroying and carving up the Turkish Empire once it surrendered.
ReplyDeleteAfter that, the Turks were overtaken my Kemal Ataturk, some say he was a secret follower of the Sabbateans known as the Donmeh, and he forced Turkey to become the first modern secular state that was also Islamic. Quite a feat. He even changed their Turkish script from Arabic letters to Roman western lettering, another great feat.
Turkey stayed out of World War II. Just as well for them. Once the state of Israel was established they became friends of Israel, sharing similar allies in the USA and Great Britain and the West against the Soviet and Communist and rising Arab Nationalism threat.
Now times have changed. Islamic Jihadism and Islomafascism is on the rise. The Turkish moderates and secularists and remnants of the Donmeh are losing their grip. The Arab regimes have lots of MONEY from PETROLEUM, Turkey does not have that. They fear that they will be swamped by Islamic fanaticism. They fear regimes like Syria with its Iranian allies. The Turks are Sunnis, while the Iranians and Syrians are mostly Shiites.
So now they THINK they see opening and vulnerabilities in Israel. So the pro-Islamic fashion to express their solidarity with the Al Quida types of the world starts with antisemitic programs and words and acts to "prove" their bona fides with the Islamofascist fanatics.
But this will only hurt Turkey because Israel is a much stronger and secure country something many do not grasp. Israel can live without Turkey. Israeli tourists will find other beaches to swim at. But Turkey will lose a strategic and military ally in Israel when the Arabs will descend on Turkey and take the revenge upon the Turks (Turks are not Arabs) as the Arabs still want to do in revenge for centuries of the hated cruel Turkish rule over them.
Wave Turkey goodbye as they shoot themselves in the foot (through their own lifeline and heart) to become well, just a dead turkey