Tayyip Erdogan
Source: AP and the Huffington Post
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is returning an award given to him by a Jewish American group in 2004, after the group asked for it back because of comments he made regarding the conflict in Gaza.
Turkey’s ambassador to the U.S., Serdar Kilic, wrote to Jack Rosen, president of the American Jewish Congress, on Erdogan’s behalf. Kilic said Erdogan would be glad to return the award because of Israel’s actions in Gaza and “the regrettable stance adopted by the present leadership of the American Jewish Congress vis-a-vis the recent attacks on the innocent civilians in Gaza.”
The letter, dated July 27, was made available Tuesday.
In an open letter to Erdogan last week, Rosen described the Turkish leader as “arguably the most virulent anti-Israel leader in the world.” He said Erdogan was given the Profile of Courage award in 2004 for working for a peaceful solution in the Middle East and for his commitment to protecting Turkey’s Jewish citizens.
Erdogan, who is campaigning to be elected president next month, has spoken out strongly against Israel’s operations in Gaza, accusing it of committing genocide.
In his letter, Kilic stressed that Erdogan’s “strong determination in fighting against terrorism, preventing all forms of extremism, bringing a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through peaceful means as well as ensuring the safety and well-being of the Jewish community in Turkey still remains as strong as ever.”
However, he said, the Turkish leader “should not be expected to turn a blind eye to the policies of occupation, blockade and destruction that the Israeli government has been implementing against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza,” and said the killing of civilians and the bombing of hospitals and U.N. schools in Gaza “constitute a grave violation of not only the international law, but also the most fundamental human values.”
Categories: Turkey
Has he returned voluntarily or has been asked to return it. Both scenarios have different implications. Just forget about peace in this area of planet. Status Quo likely to continue for a very long time. This is my prediction.
All kings, presidents and prime ministers of Islamic countries have been subjugated by the Western countries. All of them have their personal and political aims. They have no sympathy with Islam or with Muslims. All of them have been made impotent and female character. They have no unity and have been divided to be oppressed and dictated. What is happening among the Muslims is in conjugated with the prophecy of Prophet Mohammad SAW.
Judaism, like Christianity and Islam, bases its spirituality in human compassion:
Benyamin Netanyahu is acting against the Jewish Ethics of compassion
In one of his many speeches, Benyamin Netanyahu said on July 24, 2014: “The terrorists are firing rockets from schools, from mosques, from hospitals, from heavily civilian populations. We have to try and are doing our best to minimize civilian casualties. But we cannot give our attackers immunity or impunity.”
Now let us look at his reasoning in the light of the Jewish Ethics of compassion.
The Talmud (Beitzah 32b) says that the Jews are a compassionate people (rachmanim), and that someone who claims to be Jewish but doesn’t show the quality of compassion is not really a Jew.
Sefer Chinukh (Yitro42) says that Jews are “compassionate people, sons and daughters of compassionate people”.
The Zohar (1:174a) even says that when Jacob received the name Israel after wrestling the angel, that this was in order to allow Jacob to become attached to this quality of compassion.
According to rabbinic tradition (both midrash and Kabbalah), the most important name of God, YHVH (often translated as Lord), is also tied to compassion, whereas the name Elohim (God) is tied to God’s judgment.
The Zohar explains that Jacob was renamed Israel in order to bring down into the world that quality of YHVH’s compassion.
“One who shows no compassion, it is known for sure that he is not of the seed of Abraham.” (Talmud, ibid.)
If one prosecutes a war, in a place where innocents have no place safe to flee to, and no way to leave, then that becomes murder.
Unfortunately, Torah defines the borders of the land of Israel in a way that includes all of Gaza and the West Bank (Numbers 34), and in Numbers 33:55, it commands the Israelites to “drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you” because otherwise “they will be thorns in your sides and they will harass you”. The rabbinic response was that these strictures applied only to the original Canaanite nations, and not to anyone else, certainly not to the Palestinians.
We are already “cruel to the compassionate“. Along with more than a thousand Palestinians and fifty Israelis who have died, so has our claim as Jews to be the unwavering seed of Abraham. Perhaps if we realized this, we would be ready to make peace, one broken people to another.
From the statement of Rabbi David Seidenberg in Tikkun Magazine on Line
As things get out of control interfaith and peace groups in USA are getting uneasy.
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On the Gaza Conflict
July 22, 2014
As events continue to unfold in Israel and Gaza, we in the Silicon Valley Interreligious Council (SiVIC) are grieved by the human cost and suffering occasioned by the current conflict. While members of our community may lean more toward support for Israel or for Gaza, together we know how important it is for us to maintain connections and dialogue with one another, especially when some would polarize the debate and end discussion.
Regardless of our individual stances, we share a recognition of our common humanity and a conviction that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must cease, that there is no violent solution to that conflict, that all human life is valued, and that all parties must cooperate to achieve a just and lasting peace on behalf of God’s children who reside in the land that many of us call holy.
We affirm these guiding principles, articulated during previous armed conflicts in Gaza:
We acknowledge the long, complex, and painful history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict;
We acknowledge the wide range of deeply-held beliefs, and intensely-felt narratives on all sides;
We mourn the loss of innocent lives in Gaza and in Israel;
We deplore any invocation of religion as a justification for violence, for the deprivation of people’s dignity, or for the denial of human rights;
We decry any use of inflammatory rhetoric that demonizes others, fostering hatred and disrespect; and
We believe that just solutions to the conflict are better served by political and diplomatic means.
Guided by these principles, we recognize the urgent need for the prompt implementation of a just and lasting peace. Toward that end,
We call upon the United States and the international community to intercede with the goal of helping to establish a permanent cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas;
We call for an immediate and significant increase in humanitarian aid to address the needs of the people of Gaza, and support for trauma counseling for all those affected; we call upon all parties involved to join in taking responsibility to address those human needs;
We call upon all parties involved in the conflict to work sincerely and vigorously toward a just and lasting peace that addresses and promotes the national aspirations of both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.
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