 | Let us know when they condemn Hamas' daily rocket attacks, kidnappings, and murders... |
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday denounced Israel’s offensive in the Palestinian territories and the arrest of dozens of Palestinian politicians as a disproportionate and mistaken response to the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier. “I find it hard to understand the abduction of (Palestinian politicians) and cannot see it as a contribution to Middle East peace,” Erdogan told reporters in Ankara, the Anatolia news agency reported. “It is a very, very mistaken attitude,” he added.
| Lots of us don't see daily rocket attacks and occasional kidnapping campaigns as conducive to Middle East peace, either. Lots of us, in fact, have a hard time seeing how Hamas' war mongering is remotely connected with Middle East peace. |
Following the capture of the Israeli soldier in a Palestinian raid on an army post near Gaza last Sunday, Israel hit back with a massive ground and massive offensive in the Gaza Strip, an area it evacuated only nine months ago. On Thursday, the Israeli Army rounded up 64 politicians from the governing Islamist movement Hamas, among them eight Cabinet ministers and 24 Islamist MPs, in a massive sweep in the occupied West Bank. “It is not right to kidnap a soldier, but should the price of that be the abduction, capture of parliamentarians and local administrators?” Erdogan said.
| Sure, when the kidnapping — not capture, but kidnapping — is the result of either government policy or government connivance. |
He also criticized IsraelÂ’s airstrikes in Gaza, which has knocked out bridges and a power station.
| So what's his opinion on the daily rocket attacks? Or is he like Kofi, in the dark about them? |
In Amman, visiting Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar yesterday condemned Israel’s ongoing military operation as a “provocation,” and demanded the release of Palestinian officials detained by Israeli troops.
| Kidnapping campaigns and rocket attacks aren't provocations, of course... |
“What is going on in the Palestinian territories is disappointing and a provocation which is out of proportion to the event which sparked” the Israeli attack, Albar said.
| I guess proportion must be in the eye of the beholder... |
Albar urged Israel to release Palestinian ministers and lawmakers including the mayor of Jenin, Hatem Jarrar. “This Israeli provocation will only lead to the deterioration of the situation in the Palestinian areas,” he said.
| Eventually you reach a point where a situation can't deteriorate any further. |
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