Commentary: Israeli foreign policy involved in double game

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan is intoxicated with success after his party’s third electoral victory handed him a mandate for domestic and legislative reform, with boundless gusto to go after Ergenekon operatives to demonstrate to the civilized world that he means business in putting Turkey’s house in order, says a commentary in The Armenian Mirror-Spectator.

Erdogan’s foreign policy guru, Ahmet Davutoglu, had devised his zero-problem-with-neighbors stance, although that zero-problem policy thus far has yielded only zero results, as Armenia’s foreign minister, Eduard Nalbandian, has indicated. Now it is headed further south for negative dividends. Turkey has begun to move its warships from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean in a challenge to NATO, Israeli and Greek naval forces, which have dominated the Eastern basin of the seaway, in a part of the world where many conflagrations are extant, the article says.

Erdogan’s mounting dispute with Israel has crossed another threshold, reaching a point beyond the demand for an apology for the Mavi Marmara incident and plainly declaring his intentions to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza strip. Erdogan’s intoxication is derived from the success of his lip service to the Palestinian case, which Turkey has translated into an economic boom throughout the Muslim world, it says.

The article goes on to say: Israeli policymakers who were looking for creative formulas to meet the Turkish demand, now have scrapped those efforts for a more assertive and aggressive posture. Indeed, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s arrogance matches that of Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and he has thrown down the gauntlet and undertaken a series of punitive measures to tame Turkey’s bold initiatives.

Those measures include some reference to the Armenians and the Armenian Genocide. Thus far, all lobbying activities in the US in passing the Armenian Genocide resolution in the Congress have been hampered by the Israeli lobby, as part of its service to Turkey. We cannot miss this window of opportunity if it is sincere, because it may not last very long. Though the Jews had gone through the same traumatic experience of ethnic cleansing, Israeli official policy always opposed the recognition of the Armenian Genocide because of political expediency. Now the tables have been turned through the exigencies of the same political dynamic. We do not believe that the Holy Spirit visited Mr. Lieberman to stir love and sugar in that country’s policy towards the Armenians. The Genocide issue is being used as a chip, which unfortunately is the nature of politics. But the proof of the pudding is in its eating. Mr. Lieberman’s sincerity may be proven if he takes the initiative to pass through the Israeli Knesset the Genocide resolution before heading for Washington, it says.

Similarly, Israeli foreign policy is involved in a double game. Indeed, Israel is training the Azeri army and supplying it with lethal military hardware. And Azerbaijan has only one enemy in the world: Armenia. On the one hand, Israel is using the Genocide issue to punish Turkey and on the other hand, it is encouraging Baku to launch a blood bath in the region. Should Mr. Lieberman carry his new policy to the end, he will offer us some political dividends we cannot refuse, the article concludes.