Western destructiveness and Türkiye’s constructive role

The stakes in the Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians are quite high for Western countries, the United States in particular. Due to their unconditional support for the Israeli war crimes in Palestine, the U.S. and European partners cannot get support for their position in other international crises such as the Ukrainian-Russian War. It means that the Israeli-Palestinian question will serve as one of the most important turning points in the decay of the Western, i.e., American hegemony.

Supporting Israel does not only severely damage the U.S. image in Western public opinion but also in the non-Western part of the world. Millions of Westerners, including Christians and Jewish people, have been clearly warning their respective governments to abandon their support for killing innocent civilians in Palestine.

The West has largely lost not only its credibility but also its moral superiority for directly or indirectly aiding and abetting Israel’s mass killings in Gaza. From now on, it will be quite difficult for the West to claim any moral ground against any political actor from the non-Western world. By disproportionate use of force against innocent civilians, Israel and its Western supporters have put the final nail in the coffin of the world order established by the U.S.

Furthermore, following the footsteps of Western countries, other states will not respect international rules either.

Not only Israel but also Western countries have begun to undermine almost all global international institutions more often and more overtly. For instance, when 120 countries voted at the United Nations General Assembly calling for an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza, most Western countries either voted against it or abstained. As expected, Israeli officials have rejected the decision. Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen has gone further and has dared to describe the decision as “despicable.” Thus, they do not mind blaming any state that criticizes Israeli atrocities in Palestine.

Israeli and Western politicians, in a hysterical mood, have begun to underline religious texts, norms and rules. They mostly extract negative ideas from religious texts. For instance, most American top officials have tried to explain the developments in Palestine through a religious perspective. U.S. President Joe Biden has declared that he is a Zionist, the name of the ideology that had emerged in Europe in the last quarter of the 19th century against the alienation of the Jewish people by European countries. Similarly, during his visit to Israel after the Oct. 7 attacks, the U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken declared that he was in Israel not only as the secretary of the U.S. but also as a Jew. Following the same logic, the new speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, has described the conflict in Palestine as a “conflict between good and evil, and light and darkness.”

Reactions of Muslims, Arabs

Although Arabic countries have not taken strong positions against Israel’s attacks against the Palestinians, they may change their reluctant positions in case of strong reactions from their respective populations. There are strong reactions all over the Arab and Muslim worlds against the Israeli atrocities. The Palestinian problem has returned to the agenda of the Arab and Muslim peoples and countries.

Today, there is no heavyweight power and no charismatic leader representing the Arabs or Muslims to take concrete action against the Israeli mass killings in Gaza. King Faisal bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia was such a leader, who first led the establishment of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) as a reaction to the attempt to burn down the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and the imposition of an oil embargo on Western countries supporting Israel during the Yom Kippur War of 1973.

It seems that Türkiye can lead the establishment of a regional coalition to deter Western countries from providing unconditional support to Israeli criminal acts. With his past constructive interventions and extensive experience in mediation efforts, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his government are the best alternative to lead in taking concrete steps in Palestine and searching for real peace in the region. As mentioned by President Erdoğan, considering that, unlike European countries, it is not a country indebted to Jewish people, Türkiye can play a balanced role in its mediation efforts.

As all related experts know well, Türkiye has accepted Jewish people into its country twice against the alienation and atrocities of European countries. The Ottoman State embraced the Jewish people in 1492 in today’s Spain and saved them from extinction. For the second time, Türkiye welcomed Jewish intellectuals and academicians who were subjected to oppression by Nazi Germany during the interwar period.

Therefore, as explained by President Erdoğan, Türkiye cannot be blamed for being “anti-Semitic.” All these realities facilitate an atmosphere for Türkiye, which can relatively easily persuade other Muslim countries to support its efforts, to play a constructive role in its mediation efforts.

[Daily Sabah, November 1, 2023]