So, here is Cameron:
“Turkey’s relationships in the [Middle East] region, both with Israel and with the Arab world, are of incalculable value. No other country has the same potential to build understanding between Israel and the Arab world. I know that Gaza has led to real strains in Turkey’s relationship with Israel. But Turkey is a friend of Israel. And I urge Turkey, and Israel, not to give up on that friendship. Let me be clear. The Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla was completely unacceptable. And I have told PM Netanyahu, we will expect the Israeli inquiry to be swift, transparent and rigorous. Let me also be clear that the situation in Gaza has to change. Humanitarian goods and people must flow in both directions. Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp. But as, hopefully, we move in the coming weeks to direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians so it’s Turkey that can make the case for peace and Turkey that can help to press the parties to come together, and point the way to a just and viable solution.“
Cameron is also very anxious to see Turkey join the European Union.
This would be all well and good, were Erdogan not a pro-Hamas Islamist, who has spent the last few months trying to scupper sanctions on Iran, and forging closer ties with Syria. It would be lovely to think that Erdogan was the man to square the circle between Islamist regimes and the West, and to broker a new understanding with Israel – but that’s patently not the goal of his administration.
Likewise, it evidently matters little to Cameron that IHH – linked closely to Erdogan’s regime – is a jihadist organisation, whose sister outfit has just been banned in Germany, which may yet be banned in the United States, and which staged a public demonstration and mourning ceremony for Basayev, the Chechen jihadist leader and mastermind of the Beslan school massacre, when the Russians killed him.
What precisely is Cameron playing at?
