Friday, November 21, 2014
Caroline Glick: Responding to the slaughter
What we are seeing in Jerusalem today is not simply Palestinian terrorism. It is Islamic jihad. No one likes to admit it. The television reporters insist that this is the worst possible scenario because there is no way to placate it.Must Read Of The Day: Blaming Israel for Palestinian Violence Is Racist
There is no way to reason with it.
So what else is new? The horrible truth is that all of the anti-Jewish slaughters perpetrated by our Arab neighbors have been motivated to greater or lesser degrees by Islamic Jew-hatred. The only difference between the past hundred years and now is that today our appeasement-oriented elite is finding it harder to pretend away the obvious fact that we cannot placate our enemies.
No “provocation” by Jews drove two Jerusalem Arabs to pick up meat cleavers and a rifle and slaughter rabbis in worship like sheep and then mutilate their bodies.
No “frustration” with a “lack of progress” in the “peace process,” can motivate people to run over Jewish babies or attempt to assassinate a Jewish civil rights activist.
The reason that these terrorists have decided to kill Jews is that they take offense at the fact that in Israel, Jews are free. They take offense because all their lives they have been taught that Jews should live at their mercy, or die by their sword.
I’ve been saying it for years. Never as articulately as this from Alan Johnson of The Telegraph:PMW: PA daily incited against "rabbis" prior to synagogue attack
Part of the explanation lies in the profound influence that the anti-Zionist ideology (a system of demonising ideas and representations about Israel and the Jews) now exercises in our culture. At the heart of the ideology is a deeply buried, often unconscious, assumption about the dichotomous natures of Israelis and Palestinians that warps our understanding of the conflict. Here it is:Palestinians (and Arabs in general) do not have agency and choice, and so cannot be held accountable and responsible. Israelis do and can; always, and exclusively.
Palestinians are understood as a driven people, dominated by circumstance and emotion, lacking choice, below the age of responsibility, never to be held accountable. Israelis are the opposite; masters of all circumstances, rational and calculating, the root cause of everything, responsible for everything.
It is, palpably, an Orientalist view of the Palestinians as the Other, except this time they are affirmed as noble savages. It’s a bit racist, to be honest. For example, the Liberal Democrat David Ward MP tweeted that the Palestinian synagogue terrorists had been “driven to madness” – which not only removes agency from them but also sanity.
This groupthink is the reason that parts of the media are reluctant to challenge the Palestinian national movement when it is guilty of rejectionism, terrorism, authoritarianism, corruption and the promotion of a vile culture of incitement, demonization and antisemitism. After all, those things are just not the “the Israel story“, are they? As Matt Seaton, comment editor at the New York Times, tweeted recently, his opinion pages will only cover Palestinian racism when “they have [a] sovereign state to discriminate with.”
A week before the brutal murders of four rabbis during prayer and a policeman in a Jerusalem synagogue, the official Palestinian Authority daily published an op-ed that demonized Israel and Jews. It specifically singled out "the rabbis of the secret societies" as the ones giving the instructions to Israel to "set the foundations for an eternal hegemony":Mahmoud Abbas Condemns Jerusalem Synagogue Attack; Palestinian Politicians: Rabbis Are Not Civilians
"The danger posed by Israel remains the greatest and most significant of all, and the first [threat] we must come out against. For the Zionist settler ideology does not seek temporary influence or gains, and does not strive to exploit and exhaust resources, but rather sets the foundations for an eternal hegemony based on the instructions of the 'rabbis' of the secret societies. And all this is in order to take revenge on history and their minority and false persecution complex."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 12, 2014]
Continuing Jew-hatred Must Extract A Heavy Price.
The slaughter of four rabbis with axes, knives and guns whilst praying in a synagogue along with the serious wounding of six other Jews caught in this horrific blood bath – and the murder of a Druze police officer who went to their rescue – is the end result of endemic Jew-hatred:Israel Foils Hamas Plot to Assassinate Liberman
1. Begun in the 1920 Jerusalem riots.
2. Embodied in the 1964 PLO Covenant.
3. Reinforced in the 1987 Hamas Charter
Arab Jew-hatred has continued unabated for the last 90 years since the Jewish people’s right to self- determination was unanimously endorsed by the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the UN Charter.
The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), the IDF and the Israel Police apprehended three terrorists who planned to assassinate Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman using RPG missiles, it was cleared for publication on Thursday evening.Hamas denies knowledge of Liberman plot, but says leaders of 'occuaption' are legitimate targets
The military prosecutor filed charges in the Judea Military Court against the three, who planned to assassinate Liberman as a response to Israel’s counterterrorism Operation Protective Edge in Gaza last summer.
According to the indictment, the three were planning to buy RPG missiles and then launch them at the foreign minister's car, in hopes that the attack would stop Israel’s military operation in Gaza.
The terrorist cell was headed by Ibrahim Salim Mahmoud Zir, 37, a senior member of Hamas who resides near Bethlehem and who served several prison terms in Israel on charges of terrorism.
Hamas neither confirmed nor denied the allegations following the indictment of three Palestinians for a plan to buy a rocket-propelled grenade launcher to blow up Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman.Hundreds riot throughout West Bank after Friday prayers
"We have no information about this issue. However, we stress that leaders of the "occupation" (Israel) who are responsible for the killing of children and women and for defiling the sacred sites are legitimate targets for the resistance," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
Around 350 Palestinians demonstrated in Hebron, Israel Radio reported. Rioters were hurling rocks and Molotov cocktails at police, who were responding with non-lethal means to disperse the protesters.No Moral Equivalence for Synagogue Terror
Another hundred people were demonstrating and assaulting security forces near Nablus, where soldiers were using rubber bullets and other means to quell the mob. Three Palestinians were lightly injured there and evacuated to hospital in Nablus.
In Kalandiya, north of Jerusalem, several dozen Palestinians were rioting. One man was said lightly injured by a rubber bullet fired by security forces.
Small riots of several dozen protesters were also reported in two locations near Ramallah and another near Qalqilya.
It should be remembered that Goldstein’s insane murder spree was condemned not only by the Israeli government but was widely condemned by a consensus of Israeli society. Goldstein’s act was considered a blot on the honor of the Jewish people by all but a few mad extremists on the far right. Just as important, it resulted in the banning by the Israeli government of Kach, the group of radical followers of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane.New video shows Druze cop’s key role in halting Har Nof terror attack
By contrast, Palestinian society embraced the two synagogue murderers as heroes this week. Their act of barbarism was celebrated in the streets of Palestinian cities and endorsed by members of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah Party (though, forced by Secretary of State John Kerry, Abbas issued a condemnation) as well as their Hamas rivals. This is hardly surprising since Abbas had praised recent terror attacks on Jews by Palestinians and even said one who attempted to murder a Jewish activist was a “martyr” who went straight to heaven. Moreover, Goldstein’s murders still stand as one of the few examples of anti-Arab terrorism while attacks on Jews in the 20 years since his crime are almost too numerous to count.
The point here is not to excuse or rationalize any violence against Muslims, acts that are committed by only tiny minority and which almost all Israelis rightly condemn. It is to note that violence against Jews is considered praiseworthy by mainstream Palestinian culture. Seeking to treat such acts as if they are merely the other side of the coin from Jewish crimes isn’t merely a distortion of the facts, it is a willful attempt to obfuscate the truth about a conflict in which only one side is committed to the destruction of the other.
Footage of the fatal Tuesday Har Nof synagogue terror attack, broadcast on Israeli television Thursday, documents the death of Druze policeman Zidan Saif as well as the final moments of the shootout, when the two terrorists were killed by Israeli fire.Car of Muslim leader who showed solidarity following Jerusalem terror attack vandalized
It indicates that Saif played a key role in ending the attack, firing from outside the synagogue at the terrorists inside, before one of them runs out and shoots him at close range.
The video, aired on Channel 2 on Thursday evening, was filmed by a neighbor across the street in the West Jerusalem neighborhood. In it, Saif — a traffic cop who was among the first policeman at the scene — is seen outside the synagogue, shooting into the building at the terrorists.
The car belonging to Sheikh Samir Assi, the Imam of Acre's Al-Jazzar Mosque was vandalized late Thursday night or early Friday morning. The car's hood was doused with acid.Sister of Har Nof Terrorist Works for City of Jerusalem
The Imam took part in an interfaith meeting this Wednesday outside the Jerusalem synagogue where five people were murdered in a terror attack this week.
Police said that it was checking all potential motives, but that it did not know of a specific threat against the Imam.
The Mayor of Acre Shimon Lankri condemned the vandalism saying that the citizens of his city, both Jews and Arabs, "proved that they know how to respect each other and to coexist."
The sister of one of the terrorists who took part in this week’s massacre at a synagogue in Jerusalem is a social worker who is employed by the city of Jerusalem, it was reported on Thursday night.Mothers of Har Nof synagogue terrorists demand their bodies
She has taken several days off in order to be with her family during the mourning period.
The Jerusalem municipality said in response that the sister "is an outstanding social worker. We are not aware that the worker ever expressed any support for the actions of her family."
The bodies of the two terrorists have remained in Israeli hands as the government has reportedly been mulling the possibility of not delivering them to their families for burial, as a punitive measure.Arab Couple Names Newborn Twins After Har Nof Terrorists
On Thursday, the Israeli government issued demolition orders to the families of the two, granting them 48 hours to appeal the decision.
“Let them destroy the houses, but we want the bodies back. We will not calm down until we bury them,” said Fatma Abu Jamal, the mother of Uday.
“The deaths of the cousins hurts us, but I am proud of my son,” Zakia Abu Jamal, Ghassan’s mother, told Ynet. “I didn’t get the feeling that my son was about to die as a martyr. He acted completely normal, but, unfortunately, was is happening at al-Aqsa [mosque] is the cause of a a lot of tension and anger,” she added.
A Palestinian Authority couple from a village near Ramallah decided to honor the terrorists of the Har Nof Massacre, and named their newborn twins after the two Arab terrorists that massacred 5 people in Har Nof.Activists Block Arab Terror Rally at Tel Aviv University
It’s a cultural thing.
A sick cultural thing.
Arab student groups at Tel Aviv University planned to hold a rally on campus "in memory of the martyrs and against the occupation" at 11:45 a.m. on Thursday - until a counter-rally led them to reschedule for Sunday.Death Threats Against Swedish Rabbi after Jerusalem Massacre
Former MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari called on Facebook for a strong attendance at the counter-rally to "tell the enemy we've come home for good." The protest was largely organized by the Im Tirtzu student group; roughly 200 students and activists demonstrated at the entrance to the campus, with some bearing prayer shawls featuring red stains to symbolize the attack on the Jerusalem synagogue this Tuesday.
Dr. Ronen Shoval, founder of the Im Tirtzu movement that organized the counter-protest, said "the Arab incitement on campus continues unabated. Arabs students rioting on campus should not come as a surprise."
"Israel has a serious crisis of sovereignty and should revoke the citizenship of anyone who is not acting as a citizen," Shoval argued. "The university administration should stop the incitement and the Council for Higher Education should issue unambiguous guidelines concerning this matter. Any delay in dealing with incitement may allow verbal violence to become physical violence."
Rabbi Hillel Ḥayyim Lavery-Yisraëli made aliyah (immigration) to Israel at the age of 19 from Canada. After graduating the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem, he has served as Gothenburg's rabbi since 2012. The married father of four serves in the city's Great Synagogue, which was built in 1865 and is the oldest in the country, and which has now been threatened with destruction.BBC coverage of Har Nof terror attack: filmed reports amplify inflammatory misinformation
On Wednesday, a day after the Jerusalem attack, the rabbi told Arutz Sheva he received a letter from an anonymous source to his work e-mail address at the Jewish community referencing the attack in which four Jews and a Druze police officer were murdered.
"What a wonderful day! Four of your satanic murderers were taken from the world, how wonderful! But what a pity that you weren't among them, you lowly pedophile! But soon will come the time when the Gothenburg synagogue will be destroyed to the ground with you inside, and then you too, you pig, will be killed in the eternal fire," read the threatening e-mail.
Lavery-Yisraëli noted that the letter in the original Swedish has numerous spelling and grammatical errors indicating the writer may not have been a native Swede, which would possibly lead to suspicions the culprit was a Muslim immigrant.
Later on in the day the BBC also interviewed Mustafa Barghouti of the PNI (Mustafa Barghouti: ‘Occupation responsible for attack’) who opened with the following blatant falsehoods – unchallenged by the programme’s presenter.Large-Scale Hamas Terror Cell Busted
“We’ve been advocating non-violence but when we conduct non-violent, peaceful demonstrations we are attacked violently by the Israeli army. They injure us, they shoot at us, they even kill young people who are peacefully demonstrating with gun shots.”
Later on, in response to the presenter’s assertion that “some Israelis feel” that Mahmoud Abbas “has been making provocative statements”, Barghouti says:
“No. I think in this case Mr Netanyahu has been provoking the Palestinians, is trying to transform this conflict – which is a national liberation movement trying to get freedom – into a religious conflict. It’s not a religious conflict and we don’t want any people who pray to be attacked; this is unacceptable.”
The presenter fails to point out to audiences that several of the recent terror attacks have been claimed by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad – both religiously motivated Islamist terror organisations – or that much of the incitement coming from Palestinian officials in recent weeks has had a blatantly religious theme.
Israeli security forces busted a major Hamas terror cell aimed specifically at carrying out terror attacks in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, Palestinian Arab sources said Friday.PA arrests 30 for planning attacks, in bid to calm West Bank
The terror cell is closely related to the crackdown by the Israel Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet) and police over the summer, which saw 93 Hamas terrorists arrested for an alleged coup being planned against the Palestinian Authority (PA), sources told Walla! News.
The sources added that the targets were specifically against "settlers" - referring to Jewish civilians in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem - and IDF soldiers. Several terror attacks in the past couple of weeks have been prevented as part of the ISA bust.
The cell included several Hamas terrorists already sitting in Israeli prisons on terror charges, they said, similar to other terror cells busted over the past year.
The man behind the plot is Saleh al-Arouri, Hamas's most senior operative in Turkey, where since 2010 he has set up the headquarters for Hamas's "military wing," the Al-Qassam Brigades, while in exile - working alongside other Hamas terrorists, including several released as part of the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal.
The Palestinian Authority has arrested some 30 suspects over the last 72 hours thought to be planning terror attacks, primarily against settlers, as well as operatives involved in incitement against Israelis, senior Palestinian sources told The Times of Israel on Thursday.Temple March Around Old City Dedicated to Yehuda Glick
The wave of arrests was primarily focused in Hebron, where some 20 Palestinians were detained, most of them Hamas operatives. Additional arrests were made in Nablus and Ramallah.
According to the sources, several of the detainees sought to perpetrate attacks similar to those of the past few days, with weapons other than firearms for example, while others planned more complex attacks.
A march that will be held on Sunday around the gates of Jerusalem's Old City in a call for the building of the Third Temple is to be dedicated to Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick, who was shot by an Arab terrorist late last month.West Bank van attack was terror, not accident, IDF says
The march, highlighted by prayers and dancing, is held monthly on the eve of Rosh Chodesh (the Jewish new month), and will set off from the Western Wall Compound at 7 p.m. After making a tour of the entire Old City accompanied by police the march is to conclude at the Hulda Gate, near the Western Wall.
"The encircling of the gates that we have held every Rosh Chodesh for 15 years is a public focus point of expectation and desire for the Temple out of joy and faith," said Rabbi Yossi Peli, who teaches at Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in Yitzhar and is an organizer of the event.
"In the encircling we strengthen our connection to Jerusalem, to the site of the Temple, and to the complete vision of the redemption and the Temple," added the rabbi. "Precisely in these days we invite the public to strengthen these ties and take part with us in an encircling of the gates."
The army informed the families of the three soldiers who were injured in the November 5 van attack in the Etzion Bloc region of the West Bank, south of Jerusalem, that the incident was nationalistically motivated, after wrapping up a two-week investigation into the incident, Channel 2 reported.IDF Blog: IDF & ISA Arrest Hamas Operative Responsible for Car Ramming in Jerusalem
A day after the attack, a senior security official said the attack may have been a car accident, according to Israeli media reports. The driver of the van, Hamam Mesalmeh, turned himself in to Israeli authorities on November 6, ending a manhunt following the incident.
Mesalmeh told officials that he lost control of the large commercial vehicle he was driving, and panicked when he realized he had hit Israeli soldiers and fled the scene.
During his interrogation, Masalama admitted to running over the soldiers as part of a pre-planned attack, and said that he was inspired by the car-ramming that took place in Jerusalem earlier that day, and motivated by photos from Operation Protective Edge. He reconstructed the attack, and also admitted to planning other attacks before his arrest.Bill to Outlaw Main Islamist Movement Behind Jerusalem Rioting
Masalma initially tried to disguise the attack as a car accident, but after the interrogation admitted that it was a terror attack. Furthermore, he admitted that for some time he has wanted to attack IDF soldiers.
Indictments against him will be filed in the coming days.
Yisrael Beytenu MK Alex Miller's bill to blacklist the Islamic Movement in Israel will be reviewed by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday, and if passed, would strike a major blow against Islamists blamed for the continued Arab rioting in Jerusalem and elsewhere.Islamist Sheikh Declares 'Third Intifada Has Begun'
The Islamic Movement's northern branch, headed by Sheikh Raed Salah, was named by Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz as the prime culprit behind the rise of Arab rioting in Jerusalem and in northern Israel last week. Katz has long called to blacklist the movement and jail Salah for incitement, but no full-scale legal action has been issued to blacklist the group until now.
“The northern branch of the Islamic Movement openly undermines the State of Israel’s sovereignty through cynical use of its [Israel’s] institutions and basic values as a Jewish and democratic state," the explanatory note for the bill reads.
In the midst of the growing wave of terror attacks, Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, has called on Arab residents of Judea and Samaria to go forth in an intifada terror war and declared that the "Third Intifada" has already started.Police summon Palestinian coroner over bus driver’s death
Salah told Al-Jazeera "residents of the (West) Bank should not respond to occurrences in Al-Quds (Jerusalem) from a position as observers of the situation, but rather residents of the Bank want to emphasize their commitment to the holiness of Al-Aqsa (Mosque) and the holy city."
"The (Palestinian) Authority should provide them an environment of freedom and not act to oppress their processions as happened in Hevron and Shechem (Nablus)," continued Salah, calling for demonstrations that frequently feature violent clashes with IDF forces. The PA has in the past said it is giving a free hand to terror.
The Israel Police reportedly have summoned for questioning the Palestinian pathologist who contradicted an Israeli autopsy report saying that an Egged bus driver hanged himself.Belying current tensions, army foresees Israeli-Palestinian clinic in West Bank
Dr. Saber al-Aloul received the summons on Thursday, he told the Palestinian Maan news agency.
Aloul, who had been chosen by the driver’s family to participate in the autopsy at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv, said he believes that Yusuf Hassan al-Ramouni was murdered. Ramouni was found hanged in his bus at a Jerusalem bus terminal.
“During the autopsy, there was agreement – including by the pathologist chosen by the family – regarding the findings and their significance; there was no suspicion that death was caused by anyone else,” the Health Ministry said in its statement.
Lt. Col. Dr. Adi Leiba, chief medical officer in the IDF’s Judea and Samaria Division, has founded an against-the-odds joint medical societyUS lawmakers warn Abbas: Curb incitement or risk American aid to PA
His vision is to found a joint Israeli-Palestinian medical clinic on Mount Gerizim, where Israeli and Palestinian doctors will work in tandem treating patients suffering from kidney diseases and other ailments.
That may sound farfetched in today’s climate, in which Israeli government ministers have accused PA President Mahmoud Abbas of being “the voice” behind some of the gruesome murders in Jerusalem and Abbas himself has spoken of Jews as contaminating the Muslim holy sites on the Temple Mount, but doctors on both sides, having endured the gruesome developments of the past summer, contend that it is both feasible and the only path toward coexistence.
In today’s environment, “professional cooperation is the only way forward,” said Dr. Wesam al-Jamal, a gynecologist from Hebron currently doing a fellowship at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center.
“What the politicians aren’t able to do, we did in a second,” he added.
Top congressional appropriators told Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that Congress “remains committed” to conditions for continued funding of the PA, including controlling incitement.Egypt prosecutor asks for death sentence for Morsi
“This aid is predicated on the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to countering terrorism and pursuing a comprehensive peace with Israel,” said the letter sent Thursday signed by Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), the chairman of the US House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), the ranking Democrat on the committee and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), the chairwoman of its foreign operations subcommittee.
“US law also clearly stipulates that the Palestinian Authority must act to counter the incitement of violence against Israelis in order to continue receiving US assistance,” the letter said, adding: “We remain resolute in our commitment to these conditions.”
The United States grants the Palestinian Authority about $500 million in assistance annually.
Prosecutor Emad el-Sharawy said in closing remarks Wednesday that Morsi and his aides leaked state security documents to foreign intelligence agencies, namely Iran, while in office for one year. The military removed Morsi from office in July 2013 following mass protests against him accusing him and the Brotherhood of monopolizing power.Egypt acquits doctor in female genital mutilation death
El-Sharawy said the defendants, who include Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie and 34 others, cooperated with militant groups, including Gaza’s Hamas, to destabilize Egypt.
Morsi told the court he refused its jurisdiction. He asked to defend himself in upcoming sessions. The case resumes on Nov. 26 for closing defense remarks.
An Egyptian court on Thursday acquitted a doctor charged with performing female genital mutilation that led to a 13-year-old girl’s death in a Nile Delta village, the country’s first trial on charges of breaking the ban on the practice.Deputy Leader of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood Arrested
The verdict surprised activists against the practice, who had been hoping for a conviction and tough sentence to serve as a deterrent for doctors and families. Egypt has one of the highest rates of female genital mutilation in the world and criminalized the practice in 2008, but it remains widespread.
The court in the Nile Delta Province of Dakahliya ruled that the doctor, Raslan Fadl, and the father of Sohair el-Batea, the girl who died, were not guilty on charges of breaking the ban on the practice, said Reda el-Danbouki, a lawyer involved in bringing the case to trial. The judge did not immediately explain the verdict.
Jordanian authorities on Thursday arrested the deputy leader of the Muslim Brotherhood’s branch in the kingdom, Zaki Bani Arshid, the Turkish Anadolu agency reported.A New Gaddafi: Harsh Criticism Against Erdogan Following Bizarre Claims About America
According to the report, the reason for the arrest is statements made by Arshid against the United Arab Emirates.
“The security agencies arrested Bani Arshid over his remarks against the United Arab Emirates over its release of a list of designated terrorist groups, which included the Brotherhood,” a Jordanian security source told Anadolu on condition of anonymity.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been under heavy criticism from a number of prominent Arab writers and journalists after recently claiming that Muslim sailors, not Christopher Columbus, had discovered the Americas.Turkey's "Foreign" Citizens
Erdogan, who has been in power in Turkey for more than a decade, stirred up controversy on Saturday when he claimed that the Americas were discovered by Muslims in the 12th century, nearly three centuries before Columbus.
Under the headline “Erdogan’s Sad Search for Past Glories”, Abdulrahman Al-Rashed, the general manager of Al-Arabiya television, wrote in the influential al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper:
By repeating the same kind of tales as Libya’s late Muammar Gaddafi, Erdoğan has gone from successfully overseeing a renaissance of his country’s fortunes to joining the ranks of political jesters and swindlers, all for the sake of satisfying an idle audience through taking credit for other people’s achievements.
In conference talks and in private, most members of Istanbul's Jewish community voiced "serious and increasing" concern over their increasingly secluded and riskier lives in the country where their ancestors first arrived 522 years ago. Turkey is their country. And it is not.Erdogan: Turkey the Hope of All Peoples in the Region, We Will Be the Architect of a New Middle East
They carry Turkish passports. They pay their taxes. Their sons are conscripted into the military. They vote in Turkish elections. They have Turkish ID cards. They make up a peaceful, law-abiding society minding their own business. They remain loyal to their country, Turkey. But they are "foreigners" in their own country. Ordinary Turks, even their own Turkish friends, refer to them as "foreigners."
"Should we pack up and leave?" one of them asked. A middle-aged woman objected: "Why should we be forced to leave our country? We are Turkish, and this is our country."
"Do you think our businesses are in danger of governmental discrimination?" a businessman asked. Others in the hall knew the answer.
"Would this school have to maintain the same level of security at its gate had it been, say, a Georgian school?" a man asked. "If it had it been a Japanese school or an Indian school? Or, to put it in reverse, would this Jewish school have to maintain the same level of security had it been located in Japan or Georgia?"
