Note to America, Europe and Israel: Turkey is gone and it isn't coming back. That is, so long as it is led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist AKP Party.
Although Israeli officials speak publicly about preserving Israel's relationship with Turkey, they know in their guts that things are beyond salvageable, thanks to Erdogan and Co.'s relentless campaign of anti-Israel demagoguery and aggression. European powers, too, must realize this instinctively as they watch their erstwhile NATO ally cozy up to Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Muslim Brotherhood.
In fact, respected Middle East analyst Daniel Pipes now believes that a rapidly radicalizing Turkey is the greatest threat, along with a the prospect of a nuclear Iran, to Middle East stability.
The Obama administration, however, seems to consider Erdogan's Turkey a model of moderation. Administration officials have gone out of their way to praise Erdogan. And in a particularly infuriating spectacle, Obama greeted his favorite Islamist with a big hug at the G-20 meetings in Cannes last week, in full view of other world leaders (not to mention Israeli officials watching closely from Jerusalem).
This was a natural progression (regression?), I suppose, from Obama's now-infamous bow to the King of Saudi Arabia in 2009.
In fact, Obama reportedly talks to Erdogan more than he does any other world leader, with the exception of Britain's David Cameron. Now comes the bitter fruit of the Obama/Erdogan bro-mance, as detailed by AEI's Michael Rubin, writing in Commentary:
Turkey’s behavior has been atrocious in recent years. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) has presided over a regime which, according to the Pew Global Attitudes Survey, is now the world’s most anti-American. Statistics released by Turkey’s Justice Ministry to Turkey’s own parliament show that, under AKP tutelage, the murder rate of women in Turkey hasincreased 1,400 percent.
Erdogan has placed more than five dozen journalists in prison; many have never had the opportunity to defend themselves in court. Turkey now ranks alongside Russia among the worst offenders of press freedom in the industrialized world. Namik Tan, the Turkish ambassador in Washington, has marred his tenure by facilitating the threatening of critics of Erdogan in the United States. In recent months, Turkish ministers have even threatened Israel and Cyprus with military force.
So what does President Obama propose to do? Send Super Cobra helicopters and perhaps even armed Predators to Turkey to fight Kurdish insurgents. Granted, Turkey has been fighting a Kurdish insurgency for almost 30 years, and the United States already provides real time intelligence to support Turkish forces.
In the past, the Pentagon has declined to send Super Cobra helicopters and additional Predators to Turkey because they were needed in Afghanistan. Defense officials have not explained to Congress why the Super Cobras and Predators are no longer needed to support our troops who are putting their lives on the line to secure Afghanistan and, with it, American national interests.
Read it all. While you're at it, click here to watch what another notorious Turkish Islamist is up to on American soil.