OK it’s Haaretz, a left-wing rag, but hey. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdo?an, they argue, is the pick of today’s rum bunch of global leaders. Without him, “belligerent Iran, medieval Saudi Arabia or shaky Pakistan (caught in the calipers of sinister madrasas and a state of emergency) would be setting the tone.” Haaretz even parades Tayyip’s charms before a sceptical European Union, warning:
“You have 70 million Turks in your court, Europe. Instead of embracing Turkey, you are sending it scurrying hither and yon. Instead of proving that this is not a matter of ego, prejudice and xenophobia, you are humiliating the very sane alternative that Turkey represents.
“As though the Turkish democracy is the only one that’s not perfect, the only one whose laws are flawed and in need of amendment – the only one violating civil and human rights.”
The latter point echoes a letter I wrote to the FT in September bemoaning the double standards surrounding Turkey’s EU accession, but Tayyip might be useful for Israel as well as Europe. As a friend of the country but also a respected and devout Muslim, could he be just the man to act as honest broker with the Palestinians?
