I’m waiting. Still waiting.
It’s been a day since Hakan Fidan, the Turkish foreign minister, went full Hitler, saying Israel is a “burden that humanity can no longer bear” and a “problem” for the world. Problems need solutions, of course. A final solution, perhaps?
As of writing, there’s been not a word of criticism, not a whisper of disagreement from our esteemed foreign secretary, from our even more esteemed prime minister, or from any of our esteemed allies in either the EU or NATO who are always so ready to leap into ministerial statement-mode when Israel does anything with which they disagree.
But when it comes to Turkey referring to the Jewish state as a burden that humanity can no longer bear then there is not a word from any of them. And believe me, I’m not going to hold my breath.
Fidan’s words came in a TV interview following Israel’s recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide: “Israel is not just Turkey’s problem, nor is it just the issue of our president”, he said. “But everyone knows it, feels it, whispers it in hidden corners, and occasionally speaks openly. These are humanity’s common problems. This is what we must call it.
“These people have become a burden that humanity can no longer bear, with their policies and their mindset. The human conscience cannot bear this…No matter which framework you use, there is no parameter under which these people can be sustained. I may be the only country raising my voice, but this is a problem for all of you.”
The timing of this is doubly interesting because on Tuesday Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered a speech that was almost comical in its distortion of history. Turkey’s history, he said, “is free from genocide, massacres, oppression, and colonialism”. Ah yes. He must have been referring to the Ottomans’ famous tactic of love bombing their way to empire, through joke telling and lashings of baklava.
I’m sure the Armenians, the Kurds, the Assyrians and everyone absorbed by the Ottomans were all deeply grateful and were in no sense conquered when they were butchered in battle. It was all done in good spirits.
But even Erdoğan didn’t go full Hitler with what Israel’s foreign minister Gidon Sa’ar described as “textbook incitement to genocide” from Fidan.
As Sa’ar went on, “Dehumanising the Jewish people as an ‘unbearable burden’ is the classic, horrific language of history’s worst eliminationist regimes. The civilised world and Turkey’s NATO allies must unequivocally condemn this explicit call for the erasure of Israel.” That “must” is doing a lot of work there, because the civilised world and Turkey’s NATO allies have managed neither equivocally, let alone unequivocally, to condemn Fidan’s words.
By a stroke of good timing, those NATO allies will all be glad-handed by the Turkish foreign minister next week as Turkey is hosting the latest NATO summit. Doubtless the only reason they’ve said nothing about his words so far has been because they’re waiting to deliver their rebuke to him in person. And if you believe that, I am afraid you are beyond help.
There have, rightly, been any number of formal government and inter-governmental criticisms made of the words of Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir – indeed simply of their presence in Israel’s governing coalition. As there should be. They shame Israel. But the hypocrisy and double standards are blatant. Under Erdoğan, Turkey has chosen its Islamist path. Its foreign minister now effectively calls for the elimination of the Jewish state and there is not a word of criticism.
But it has been obvious since Labour took office that Israel is no longer viewed as a close ally but rather as a tool for buttressing Labour’s support from Muslim voters. The idea that this of all governments would condemn a Turkish foreign minister for his attitude to Israel is what is technically known as away with the fairies.
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