Bloodthirsty Liberal

This ad uses historical footage of Hitler, dubbed in Turkish. To be a real man, you have to kill like Hitler.

A Turkish shampoo commercial featuring an enraged Adolf Hitler is a “huge insult to human rights” and should be withdrawn, leaders of the country’s Jewish community said on Monday.

The 13-second television spot for Biomen shampoo shows black-and-white archival footage of the Nazi leader at a political rally. Dubbed in Turkish, he shouts that men should not use women’s shampoo.

“Using Hitler, whose brutal ideology caused the deaths of millions of people, in a commercial in order to be different or create awareness (of a product) is unacceptable,” said a statement posted on Istanbul’s chief rabbinate’s website.

The rabbinate contacted Istanbul-based Biota Laboratories – which makes Biomen – to ask them to pull the ad but the company has so far declined to scrap it, saying the commercial’s message was humorous, Jewish community leader Silvyo Ovadya told Reuters.

Hahahaha. Isn’t that the cutest thing evah?

- Aggie

Israel could use a friend in the Muslim world—but Turkey isn’t going to be it:

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan took advantage on Tuesday of the escalation in southern Israel to once again attack Israel, as he has done on a regular basis in recent months.

Speaking at the headquarters of his Justice and Development Party, Erdogan accused Israel of committing a “massacre” in Gaza and called Israel’s citizens to speak out against the government.

“A slow but methodical massacre has been taking place in Palestine since the early 20th century,” said Erdogan, according to a report on Channel 10 News. “I reiterate the call for Israel to stop the inhumane attack on Gaza and the Palestinian territories.”

The Turkish prime minister also directly turned to the citizens of Israel and, referring to the Holocaust, said, “I call on the citizens of Israel, themselves victims of genocide, to oppose any attempt of genocide against the Palestinians and to ask their country to stop the terror.”

Erdogan said Turkey will continue to stand firmly against the “injustice” and alongside the people of Gaza.

He left out the fact that terrorists in Gaza have been constantly attacking Israel with rockets. More than 200 rockets were fired at southern Israel in four days of hostilities. Despite a ceasefire which began Monday night, terrorists continued to fire rockets and missiles into Israel throughout the day.

He also left this out:

A 15-year-old boy was taken to hospital in Israel on Tuesday, after he was injured on Monday morning in the Jabalya area of Gaza, according to a statement by the Coordinator of Government Activities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

The boy was taken to the Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot, according to the statement.

The evacuation took place after contacts between the Coordination and Liaison Administration at Erez Crossing and representatives of the Health Ministry.

The statement noted that the boy’s injury is related to the death of another 15-year-old boy, who initially claimed that he was wounded by IDF forces. However, this claim was denied by the IDF Spokesperson, who said that the IDF was not operating in the area.

The evacuation took place despite constant rocket attacks on southern Israel by Gaza terrorists. During four days of hostilities terror groups fired more than 200 rockets at Israeli civilians, while the IAF responded by targeting the cells firing the rockets.

Stick that in your hookah and smoke it.

Okay, boys and girls, how many of you knew this?

As Turkey welcomes Syrians fleeing violence, the anniversary last Friday of the deaths of more than 750 Jewish refugees who were denied shelter by Turkey in World War II was a reminder of perennial tension between pragmatic and humanitarian impulses.

The SS Struma, whose passengers fled Romania and docked in Istanbul, was denied entry to Palestinian territory by colonial power Britain. On February 23, 1942, Turkey towed the vessel to the Black Sea and set it adrift. A Soviet torpedo sank it the next morning, and only one person survived.

Excuse my ignorance if this is old news to you.

This comes from an article on the diplomatic tensions between Israel and Turkey, but I’m more taken by the behavior of Britain and, of course, the Soviet Union.

While the full horrors of the Holocaust were probably unknown in early 1942, everyone knew—ev-ery-one—knew the plight of Jews in Europe. Turkey’s actions were no better and no worse then the others’.

And everyone behaved so typically! Britain: bloodless and officious. Turkey: senseless and cruel. The Soviets: well, just Soviet.

I was once in a conversation about the Cold War with friends and family, and I asked more rhetorically than anything else why the Russians (not merely the Soviets, the Russians themselves) induced such dread in other Europeans. I had temporarily forgotten that one of the group had grown up in central Europe, and all she said was “you just knew”. There was something in her voice that dissuaded you from asking more. There must be countless other acts of inhuman cruelty in their history.

So when two entities can’t settle a territorial dispute, one side can unilaterally annex the land.

Huh.

Turkey would consider annexing northern Cyprus if talks between Greek and Turkish Cypriots failed to reach a deal on reunification of the island, Turkey’s European Affairs Minister Egemen Bagis told a Turkish Cypriot newspaper.

Greek Cypriot leader Dimitris Christofias and his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Dervis Eroglu have made little progress in negotiations to reunite the island, divided in 1974, since the United Nations persuaded them to renew efforts late last year.

…

“Reunification under a deal that (the two) leaders could reach, creation of two independent states after an agreement between the two leaders if they are unable to reach a deal for reunification, or annexation of the KKTC (Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus) to Turkey,” Bagis told Kibris during an interview in London.

“These are all the options on the table.”

Doesn’t sound like anybody’s all that eager to do the annexing, but it’s on the table. Turkey considers it a possibility.

Huh. Interesting.

It is perfectly fine to deny the Armenian genocide

France’s Constitutional Council ruled on Tuesday that a new law that would make it illegal to deny the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago is unconstitutional, a move quickly welcomed by Turkey.

The decision by France’s highest legal authority invalidates the law, which President Nicolas Sarkozy was due to ratify by the end of February, ahead of a parliamentary recess for the April-May presidential election.

Shortly after the ruling was announced, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the cabinet would meet to consider whether to restart economic, political and military contacts with France which were frozen after the French parliament passed the law on Jan. 23.

Cowards.

- Aggie

I. Am. Speechless.

Data collected by an early-warning NATO radar system in Turkey will not be transferred to Israel, both Turkish and NATO officials confirmed Feb. 17, underlining that the missile defense project was designed to protect NATO territories and populations.

“Data is shared within our allies, among our allies. It’s a defensive system to protect the populations of NATO allies,” Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters at a joint press conference with Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄŸlu on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Turkey’s membership in the alliance.

Following insistent questions from Turkish media and lawmakers, Rasmussen had to repeat several times that “it was a NATO system and the data within the system will not be shared with third countries.”

However, DavutoÄŸlu was firmer in singling out Israel from “third countries” when he said, “Especially if it’s about Israel, our view is clear.”

Not only would Turkey allow untold numbers of Jews to be annihilated, so would NATO—of which, last I checked, the US of A was a member.

But that’s okay, Israel. You’re still a partner:

Turkey is a valuable ally and Israel is a valuable partner,” Rasmussen said, adding that NATO was willing to see a speedy reconciliation between its ally and partner.

Feel better?

Wow

Turkish public television will show an epic French documentary about the Holocaust, the first broadcast of its kind by national media in a Muslim state, it was announced Wednesday.

A spokesman for Turkish public television TRT said the 1985 film “Shoah” would be shown on one of the network’s 14 channels, but did not say when.

The director of nine-hour-plus documentary, Claude Lanzmann, called the Turkish move historic.

“We should acknowledge the courage and determination of the Turks,” said Lanzmann, who spent 11 years working on the documentary. “Turkey is a country people don’t know and understand very badly.”

Turkey’s broadcast of the film is the culmination of work by the Aladdin Project, a Paris-based group which tries to improve Jewish-Muslim relations.

…

Consisting largely of Holocaust-survivor interviews, the film examines the killing of European Jews in Nazi death camps during World War II.

Its broadcast comes at a sensitive time in Turkey’s international relations.

I’ll say.

Cross him at your peril!

Following are excerpts from an interview with Prince Orhan Aal Othman, grandson of Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II, which aired on TRT Arabic on December 9, 2011.

The Ottoman state did not collapse in a year or two, or even ten or twenty years. It began when Sultan Abdulhamid made his decision in his meeting with Dr. Herzl. Herzl made several requests to meet Sultan Abdulhamid, and he was refused – once, twice, and three times. The fourth time, he met him, and [Herzl] prepared the ground… he asked him for land in Palestine, to serve as a place for settlement of the Jews. When the Sultan rejected this request – that was the beginning of the fall of the Ottoman state. A decision was made that there should no longer be an Ottoman state, a caliphate, or a sultanate.

Interviewer: So you are saying that Herzl was the cause of this.

Prince Orhan Aal Othman: Exactly.

Interviewer: Some Turkish history books maintain that the Arabs were the cause.

Prince Orhan Aal Othman: No, of course not.

Interviewer: You are clearing the Arabs?

Prince Orhan Aal Othman: Absolutely.

Herzl, man, you didn’t screw with him. He was a bad-a** mother-[bleeper].

When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night he checks his closet for Theodore Herzl. He could play the Minute Waltz in 38 seconds. The Great Wall of China was originally created to keep Theodore Herzl out: it failed miserably. Theodore Herzl knows where Carmen Sandiego is. If you have five dollars and Theodore Herzl has five dollars, Theodore Herzl has more money than you. Theodore Herzl sleeps with a night light. Not because Theodore Herzl is afraid of the dark, but the dark is afraid of Theodore Herzl.

You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to ME?

Good. Screw ‘em:

Israel is set to join France and recognize the 1915 Armenian genocide, according to a report Sunday on Channel 10 News.

…

According to the report, the committee is expected to pass the initiative, though it is still unclear what the exact wording will be and whether terms such as genocide or disaster will be used.

Channel 10 noted that the Prime Minister’s Office is concerned that such a decision might worsen the already tense relations between Israel and Turkey. The report said that Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin will be attending Monday’s discussion due to the sensitivity of the issue.

…

The deterioration in the relationship between Turkey and Israel began when Turkey demanded that Israel apologize for the deaths of nine Turkish nationals onboard the Mavi Marmara in May of 2010. The Turkish citizens were killed when Israeli soldiers who boarded the Gaza-bound ship were forced to open fire after being attacked by the activists on board with clubs and knives.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu refused to apologize for the incident, and Turkey responded by downgrading its diplomatic ties with Israel.

Last week, Israel ordered the cancelation of a sale of advanced intelligence equipment to Turkey, worrying that the technology might get into the wrong hands.

I believe the Turkish position with regard to the Armenians is that they tripped and stubbed their toe, one million of them en masse. Nothing to do with Turkey, much less genocide.

Israel has nothing to lose by this. If Turkey is so threatened by the recognition of the Armenian genocide, that’s their problem, one of many, not Israel’s.

Israel offers Turkey help with earthquake

Turkey on Tuesday finally accepted Israel’s earthquake aid, two days after a devastating temblor hit eastern Turkey, and following a number of rebuffed Israeli government offers of assistance.

According to a Foreign Ministry spokesman, the Turks made a request through Israel’s embassy in Ankara for Israel to send mobile homes to the devastated Van province where the earthquake hit.

The Defense Ministry chartered a civilian 747 plane Tuesday night to take seven mobile homes to Turkey on Wednesday. According to a Defense Ministry official, this will be the first of a number of planes that will be sent carrying aid.

The official would not comment on whether the reason a civilian plane was hired, and that an IDF transport plane was not being used, was because of a Turkish ban on Israeli military flights over Turkey since the Mavi Marmara incident in May 2010.

Since the earthquake hit on Sunday, both President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu contacted their Turkish counterparts and offered assistance.

At this point the Turks have not asked for Israeli personnel to help rescue and recovery efforts. After a massive earthquake there in 1999, Israel dispatched a search and rescue team of some 250 people, plus a field hospital.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak set up a small team in the ministry on Tuesday to look at what other aid can be supplied, and how to best to get it there.

Ok, I’ll tell you what I think of this. Israel does this because it is part of Jewish ethics to help people, etc., but it bothers me. Turkey sent a hostile ship into Israeli waters and Turkey has been a pain in the ass ever since. None of this is the fault of the poor people who got caught up in the earthquake, but I have to admit that if I was Queen of Israel, I’d stay home and do my nails.

- Aggie