Jews in Turkey singled out, shamed and intimidated:
Beyond downgrading diplomatic relations with Israel; beyond suspending military agreements; beyond threatening naval war; beyond threatening to foment an irredentist insurrection of Israeli Arabs; the Turks decided to terrorize Israeli tourists landing in Istanbul airport.
Forty Israeli passengers, mainly businessmen who had landed in Istanbul on a Turkish Airlines flight from Tel Aviv, were separated from the rest of the flight passengers. Their passports were confiscated.
They were placed in interrogation rooms and stripped down to their underwear. Their carry-on bags were checked. And then they were lined up against a wall, forbidden to sit down or use the washroom.
Passengers who contacted the Foreign Ministry said they felt frightened and intimidated.
The ordeal went on for 90 minutes, until Turkish authorities returned their Israeli passports and permitted them to pick up their suitcases and exit the airport.
What were the Turks trying to accomplish by terrifying the Israeli tourists? They didn't need to threaten trade ties. Their Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu already took care of that over the weekend.
The victimized Israelis said the Turkish airport authorities wouldn't even answer their questions. Any time we asked them a question, the tourists said, the Turks ignored us.
It was as if they weren't even there.
And that's the thing of it. The Turks didn't harass the Israeli tourists in order to send a message to Israel. They have nothing more to say to us. We are non-entities to them. We're only good for attacking.
No, Israel wasn't the target audience the Turks were playing to on Monday. Their target audience was the Islamic world generally and the Arab world specifically.
Note that the date on that piece is September 5th. I'm sure you each have been exposed to this before and that this post is just a rehash. I mean, harking back to the treatment Jews received during WWII is newsworthy isn't it?
Isn't it?
Let one Muslim feel slighted and scream discrimination, or better yet Islamaphobia, because some infidel dared to associate terrorism with Islam …and every single news organization breathlessly reports on for days on end and liberal jackwagons like Alan Colmes, etc. continually, year upon year, falsely refers back to it as evidence of a hate crime. And then this happens and what do we get…the sound of silence is deafening.
Posted by: tim aka The Godless Heathen | Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 12:54 PM