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Gaza: Deal Breaker In Israel-Turkey Detente?

At U-M, Jews Still
Face Intimidation

A

s Israel and Turkey, two
Talks seeking restored diplo-
key U.S. allies, seek to
matic ties between Ankara and
normalize long-splin-
Jerusalem began in December
tered diplomatic ties after years of
as international stakes height-
stout defense and economic ties,
ened for both countries. In early
there’s no denying the elephant in
February, the Conference of
the discussion room.
Presidents of Major American
The elephant is in the form of
Jewish Organizations sat down
the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian
Robert Sklar with Erdogan, increasing his
coastal enclave ruled by the Sunni Contributing
stature.
terrorist organization Hamas —
Stronger bonds not only
Editor
sworn by its charter to Israel’s
would help reverse Turkey’s veto
destruction.
of Israel rejoining NATO mili-
Turkey, a Muslim state, recognized
tary exercises, but also, according to JTA,
Israel, a Jewish state, shortly after Zionist
help coax Ankara into buying the natural
statehood in 1948. The two relatively
gas that Netanyahu is pushing Israel to
secular, pro-Western democracies stayed
extract from its vast offshore gas fields.
friendly through the 1990s, especially
From Erdogan’s vantage point, such
when it came to military training and
a natural gas deal could cut Turkish
weaponry deals. When a 1999 earthquake dependence on Russia. Relations between
struck Turkey, Israel was there to help.
those two countries suffered when Turkey
Relations soured
downed a Russian fighter jet along
in 2002 with the rise
Turkey’s border with Syria last November.
to power of Turkish
President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan. His
Islamic AKP party
curried favor with the
Palestinians, a tactic
that effectively side-
President
lined Turkey’s interests
Erdogan
with Israel.
Turkey with-
drew high-level diplomats from Israel,
expelled Israel’s ambassador and halted
military agreements with its once close
POLITICAL HURDLES
ally following the May 2010 deaths of
It’s apparently no deal as long as Turkey
pro-Palestinians aboard the Gaza-bound
insists that Israel call off its naval block-
Mavi Marmara ship. The ship was part
ade of Gaza. Israel is justified not only in
of a Turkish-flagged aid flotilla that set
out to disrupt a lawful maritime blockade branding such a call reprehensible, but
also in demanding that Turkey expel all
of Gaza. Nine Turks were killed when
Israeli naval commandos boarded the ship Hamas leadership.
Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister
and fended off club- and metal-wielding
Moshe Yaalon has accused Turkey of
members of the Turkish Humanitarian
buying oil from the Islamic State of Iraq
Relief Foundation. Belying its name, that
and Syria (ISIS), a terrorist player in both
group was Al Qaeda-linked. Israeli com-
Syrian and Iraqi civil unrest. He said
mandos claimed they resorted to more
lethal arms — namely, their holstered pis- Ankara “enables jihadists to move back-
tols — instead of sticking with their paint- ward and forward between Europe and
Syria and Iraq and to be part of the ISIS
ball guns only when their lives became
terror infrastructure in Europe.”
endangered.
That’s hardly an endorsement of Turkey.
TURNING POINTS
Israel no doubt is walking a regional
In March 2013, at U.S. President Barack
tightrope as it eyes restored ties with
Obama’s behest, Israeli Prime Minister
Turkey. Jerusalem already has re-engaged
Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to
with Egypt, Greece and Cyprus, all rivals
Erdogan for “operational errors” in the
of Turkey, according to JTA.
Mavi Marmara episode. Netanyahu con-
Whatever hopes might arise from
sented to more humanitarian goods enter- Turkey and Israel reconciling, don’t count
ing Gaza and to compensation for the
on Erdogan abandoning blasting Israel in
families of the Turks killed in the sea raid. international forums. He’s likely to keep
But Erdogan wasn’t satisfied.
up the anti-Zionist drumbeat should Gaza
He demanded Israel also end its naval
become yet another battlefront as a result
blockade of Gaza, allowing a free flow of
of Hamas provocation.
Turkish aid to the Hamas-led territory
As world leaders go, he’s as fickle as
without security checks.
they come.

When a 1999
earthquake struck
Turkey, Israel was
there to help.

*

8 March 10 • 2016

We, the undersigned, individually addressed
the University of Michigan Board of
Regents on Feb. 18 regarding ethics charges
brought by the anti-Israel group Students
Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE)
against Jewish student and Central Student
Government Representative Jesse Arm for
peacefully verbally challenging their anti-
Israel demonstration.
The frivolous ethics charges by SAFE
brought about a hearing before the Central
Student Government. At the hearing, Arm
was unanimously cleared of any ethical
wrongdoing and, thus, was not expelled
from his student government position.
The fact that Arm had to defend him-
self against SAFE’s charges for peacefully
expressing his pro-Israel opinions was, in
fact, intimidation. At the Feb. 18 regents’
meeting, we pointed out the atmosphere of
intimidation and fear that Jewish students
and others deal with at the university. But
we were dismayed by the condescending,
off-the-mark response of Regent Laurence
Deitch.
Deitch said, in part, “I will tell you,
we watched the events of Jesse Arm very
carefully, and I think the president of the
[student] government Cooper Charlton is
here, and I thought they handled the whole
incident maturely and thoughtfully, and it
was an excellent process.
“I really have trouble resonating to the
notion of intimidation. I dare say that
the members of the Israel Defense Forces
wouldn’t think of ever being intimidated
and neither do American Jews think in
terms of being intimidated,” Deitch said.
He went on to a quote from the late U.S.
Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis pro-
moting free speech from all sides. But given
that SAFE was the one trying to prevent free
speech, the quote was irrelevant.
Rina Steinberg, a brave U-M freshman,
said in her “Excluded on My ‘All-Inclusive’
Campus” article (Times of Israel, Dec. 31,
2015), “Our campus is not inclusive of all
students, and it is not respectful of all opin-
ions. … As a Jew, I am threatened … I am
ashamed of the injustice that has occurred
within a campus community that prides
itself on accepting all voices.
“Israel is held to a double-standard on
my campus, and that is a fact. On a campus
that routinely holds diversity summits,
intergroup dialogues and speak outs, pro-
Israel opinions should always be included,
accepted and welcomed with the rest, but
for some twisted reason they are not.”
In spring 2014, SAFE sponsored an anti-
Israel BDS resolution that contributed to a
hostile campus environment for students.
SAFE supporters harassed and threatened
those they did not like, issued violent
threats and hurled anti-Semitic slurs. One
student wrote that the campus environ-
ment became “frightening” to the point that
some students were afraid to attend classes

because they felt physically threatened.
(www.thetower.org/article/staring-down-
the-devil-at-the-university-of-michigan.)
The film Crossing the Line 2 documents
the threats of physical violence felt by
Jewish and non-Jewish students alike dur-
ing the spring 2014 BDS situation.
The U-M administration was silent in
2014, and it is silent now and thus frivolous
charges to chill speech are OK. The regents
are either out of touch or don’t care to speak
out on the campus reality.

Eugene Greenstein, Ph.D.
Irving Ginsberg, Ph.D.
Edward Kohl
Zionist Organization of America-Michigan Region
West Bloomfield

Examine Sanders’
Record On Israel

I’m writing in response to the Teen Guest
Column “Bernie And Me” (Feb. 25, page 6).
Ever since I was a child, I was exposed to
Jewish culture and history, but this should
not come as a surprise to anyone, seeing
that I was raised in a Conservative house-
hold and received education from Hillel Day
School, graduating in 2012.
During my time in Israel, we had to
travel through checkpoints and have armed
guards travel with us to ensure our safety.
Since October 2015, there have been more
than 160 assaults and attempted assaults by
Palestinians against Israelis, an average of
almost one per day.
It is unfortunate that we live in a world
where hatred and anti-Semitism are still
alive, and, in fact, are spreading.
It is unfortunate that we live in a country
where it seems that our own leaders do
not do enough to support the only “pro-
American, free-enterprise democracy in the
entire Middle East.” The words in quotation
marks are from the seemingly only 2016
presidential candidate who truly believes in
Israel (and is not just saying it to get votes)
— Marco Rubio.
Sen. Rubio has been a supporter of Israel
his entire political career and has never
once turned his back on Israelis.
While many Jews across the nation point
to Bernie Sanders as the solution because of
the fact he is Jewish, many do not know that
his views are not exactly pro-Israel.
Sen. Sanders has said that he is “not
a great fan” of Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and that Israel “over-
reacted and caused more civilian damage
than necessary” during the 2014 Gaza
war. Bernie also refused to attend P.M.
Netanyahu’s speech to a joint session of
Congress in 2015.
Then, how big of an Israel supporter is
he?
I urge Jews across the nation to vote for
the candidate who has stood with Israel
through thick and thin, namely Sen. Marco
Rubio.

Yale Lash, age 17
Farmington Hills

