Watch Out for The Snake, Erdogan!

You cannot tame a snake to become a friendly, household pet. That creature never changes, always retaining its determined serpent-like deadliness. That’s a good way of describing Turkey’s current Islamist dictator for life, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Yet, he’s attempting an abrupt about face and reaching out for a better relationship with Israel, Egypt and the other partners of the recent Abraham Accords. Watch out for the slimy guy. He’s a fake-out. Turkey, going back a few years, although 98% Muslim, was then a strong friend of Israel. Its Jewish citizens, going back to the 4th century BCE were one of the first settlers in Byzantium. But Erdogan, an ardent defender of the Palestinian cause and huge critic of Israel, just last September addressing the UN, damned Israel for extending its “dirty hand” over Jerusalem and did not hold back on his punches when he stated, “The order of occupation and oppression in Palestine (by Israel), which is the bleeding wound of humanity, continues to hurt consciences.” And now he wants “reconciliation” with Israel and its new found Arab allies? Fuggedaboudit! He’s lying through his teeth.

The reason for this sudden 90 degree turn? Erdogan wants to destroy the good and still growing friendly relationships Israel and Egypt now have with Greece and Cyprus, age-old Christian enemies of Islamist Turkey. Erdogan and his cohorts also want to torpedo the current negotiations among Israel, Cyprus and Greece for the creation of a mammoth gas pipeline deal that would strengthen those three nations immensely. The Aphrodite Field, located in the Mediterranean Sea between Cyprus and Israel is immense and Turkey would like to somehow slow that creative process down with its fake “love-fest’ with Israel. The former Ottoman Empire, now a shell of its former self, has boxed its way into a corner with the regional democracies if has openly hated and threatened for years. He is not trusted by any of them. They are no dopes.

Turkey is also spreading lies of its new “friendships” in the region to stop the jelling of good will among Israel, Arabia and the UAE. Turkey belatedly understands that its own attacks on the states of the region have forced a unity among them to stand up to Ankara. Its goal was to drive a wedge between Israel and Greece, to isolate them and the other Gulf states to force them to work with Turkey on its own terms. Their plans have backfired. Now Erdogan, who despises the nations of Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, Arabia and Israel, now wants to make nice to them to steer them away from their new found process of “strength through unity” and destroy them, one by one. He has, thank goodness, failed. Under President Trump, these nations have found there is more to be gained by friendship with one another and Israel, rather than hostility. We hope and pray that Mr. Erdogan will soon be toppled from his seat as leader of Turkey and a modern Mustafa Ataturk, that republic’s first President, replaces its current dictator and again brings peace and unity to that troubled region. That bad neighborhood may be in for a complete renovation!