Word: israelity
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...General Assembly in New York City in September, when Erdogan was the only world leader to allude to Gaza in his speech. He also told reporters that "there should be accountability for anyone guilty of war crimes in Gaza." Days earlier, Davutoglu had canceled a trip to Israel after being refused permission to visit the Gaza Strip. "Not being allowed to visit Gaza was the last straw," says Sahin Alpay, a political science professor at Bahcesehir University in Istanbul. "That, combined with the Gaza attacks last year and the [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu government's refusal to freeze settlement...
...countries have sparred before, but Turkish criticism of Israel has grown more forceful since Erdogan's Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002. For decades Turkey was obsessed with Europe (despite a lukewarm reception) and all too keen to comply with the official NATO line, but in recent years it has started to look east, cultivating a role as a regional superpower. From Syria to Iran, the government has aggressively pursued closer ties with its neighbors. Amid the latest spat with Israel, Turkey signed a historic peace accord with its age-old foe Armenia...
...result of the Turkish government's having increased its control over the country's powerful generals in a bitter - and ongoing - seven-year power struggle. "Until very recently, it was the upper echelons of the Turkish military who determined the scope and pace of the strategic relationship between Israel and Turkey," Ayturk says. "What we are witnessing is the chief of staff allowing, willy-nilly, Erdogan to take the initiative. They are acquiescing in a 'political' decision." (See TIME's video "Egyptians on the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty...
...popular level, almost as worrying as the political brinksmanship being played out between Turkey and Israel is the speed with which official hostility has trickled down to the streets. Visitors from Israel to Turkey - formerly the second most popular travel destination for Israelis after the U.S. - have fallen 47% since January, compared with the same period last year. The Turkish government has also been less than careful in fanning the flames of anti-Semitism. Erdogan recently exhorted university students to take a page from "the Jews," whom, he said, "invent things and then sit back and make money off those...
Pragmatism is still likely to keep the crisis in check. Israel is involved in two major defense projects in Turkey that are worth more than $1 billion, and the prickly issue of Iran's nuclear program looms larger than anything else in the region. But the latest dispute signals that it is no longer business as usual between the two erstwhile friends...