ERDOGAN STILL AS HORRIFIC AS EVER

Turkey's terrible leader Tayyip Erdogan, as reported by the AP Wire, which has now picked up on this serious matter, has been taken to task in a special Israeli foreign ministry report:

JERUSALEM (AP) - An internal Israeli Foreign Ministry document accuses Turkey's prime minister of fueling anti-Semitism with his criticism of Israel, an official said Tuesday, threatening to spark a new diplomatic row with one of its few Muslim allies.

The ministry's report comes two weeks after Israel's deputy foreign minister enraged Turkey by summoning the country's ambassador for a humiliating public reprimand shown on Israeli TV. Although Israel was forced to apologize, the report said the reprimand made it clear to Turkey that there must be a limit to its criticism.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been a fierce critic of Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip last year. The report accused Erdogan, leader of an Islamic-oriented party, of going too far with his rhetoric and creating "negative public opinion" toward Israel.

Isn't he the president of Turkey? That's something this article may get wrong. But really, he's an autocrat. (Update: Abdullah Gul, from a search I did on Google, is the president. I suppose that straightens things out a bit.)

"He does this by repeating motifs in his speeches of describing the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza and blaming Israel of committing war crimes, going as far as using anti-Semitic expressions and incitement," the report said.

It said Erdogan, for instance, does not distinguish between "Israeli" and "Jewish," turning criticism of Israel into anti-Jewish diatribes.

It also said he has turned a blind eye to anti-Semitic references in the Turkish media and has made ignorant and insulting comments about Jews.

The report said Erdogan has made comments like "Jews are good with money" without understanding their anti-Semitic character, but officials would give no further examples.

A year ago, a statement attributed to Erdogan said that in its Gaza war, Israel was "perpetrating inhuman actions which would bring it to self-destruction. Allah will sooner or later punish those who transgress the rights of innocents."

Excerpts of the ministry's report were published in the Haaretz daily and confirmed by an Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing a confidential document.

In Turkey, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu rejected the charge. "To criticize Israel is not anti-Semitism," he told independent NTV television. "Criticism of Israel's policies should not be given other meanings." He called on Israel to lift its blockade of Gaza.

Maybe it's not anti-semitism to criticize Israel, and there are legitimate reasons to do so if you can find them, but to distort the reasons why Israel has to maintain a blockade on Gaza most certainly is. Israel needs to maintain the barrier because of terrorist attacks. But I guess Turkey considers those okay.

The ties between us and them are going to come sooner or later, and there's no chance Turkey will call off the anti-semitic attacks they have on TV now. And lest we forget, the Turks still don't recognize their genocide of the Armenians during WW1.