Turkish PM Stands Up to Israel
I wish Obama would do this! I just checked and this wasn't in our mainstream media AT ALL.
BBC: Turkish PM storms off in Gaza row
Turkey's prime minister has stormed off the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos after a heated debate on Gaza with Israel's president.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan clashed with Shimon Peres, whose voice had risen as he made an impassioned defence of Israel's actions, jabbing his finger.
Mr Erdogan said Mr Peres had spoken so loudly to conceal his "guilt".
He accused the moderator of not allowing him to speak and said he did not think he would return to Davos.
The Turkish PM stressed later that he had left the debate not because of his disagreements with Mr Peres but because he had been given much less time to speak than the Israeli leader.
Turkey is one of the few Muslim countries to have dealings with Israel, but relations have been under strain since the Islamist-rooted AK Party was elected to power in 2002.
Dinner time
Mr Erdogan was cut off as he attempted to reply to Mr Peres.
Earlier he spoke himself, describing Gaza as an "open-air prison".
When the audience applauded Mr Peres, he said: "I find it very sad that people applaud what you said. You killed people. And I think that it is very wrong."
The moderator, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, had given him a minute to reply, then asked him to finish, saying that people needed to go to dinner.
"I do not think I will be coming back to Davos after this because you do not let me speak," Mr Erdogan shouted before marching off the stage in front of Mr Peres, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and an elite audience of ministers and international officials.
Mr Peres had told the audience Israel was forced on to the offensive against Hamas by thousands of rockets and mortars fired into Israel.
"The tragedy of Gaza is not Israel, it is Hamas," the Israeli leader said.
"Why did they fire rockets? There was no siege against Gaza. Why did they fight us, what did they want? There was never a day of starvation in Gaza."
He argued that Mr Erdogan would have reacted in the same way if rockets had hit Istanbul.
More than 1,300 Palestinians and 14 Israelis were killed during the three-week conflict which began on 27 December.
At news conference later on Thursday, Mr Erdogan complained that he had been allowed to speak just 12 minutes to 25 for Mr Peres.
"I did not target at all in any way the Israeli people, President Peres or the Jewish people," he said.
"I am a prime minister, a leader who has specifically expressly stated that anti-Semitism is a crime against humanity."
Turkish PM Cheered by Thousands!!!
Hours after clashing with the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, in angry scenes at the normally sedate world economic forum, he was welcomed at Istanbul's Ataturk airport by thousands of supporters waving Turkish and Palestinian flags and chanting "Turkey is proud of you". Sympathisers also left bouquets of flowers at his official residence.
The outpouring of support displayed the domestic political capital Erdogan gained from his performance at the Swiss resort, where he told Peres: "When it comes to killing, you know very well how to kill." He then walked off the stage, declaring that he would never return to Davos, after claiming he had not been allowed to speak by the debate moderator, the Washington Post columnist David Ignatius.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/30/turkish-prime-mi...
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/01/30/davos.wef.fri...
*****
"I truly wish that real life would no longer surpass the worst excesses of my nightmarish imaginings... Arthur Silber **
"I think we are living in a world of lies: lies that don't even know they are lies, because they are the children and grandchildren of lies." ~ Chris Floyd
Obama will continue the War Crimes Policies
in Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran
good read here by Arthur Silbur~
The Necessary Violence of the Murderous National Bully~
"Throughout the continuing scenes of dismembered bodies, corpses of bloody children and all the nightmarish further details, Obama maintained his loathsome silence, and broke it only to express a generalized "concern" with the great suffering being endured. Obama also claimed he would have "plenty to say" about Gaza once he is inaugurated. However, as I recently discussed, there is no reason whatsoever to believe that his policy toward Israel will differ in any significant way from that of previous administrations. In fact, there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that his policy will be virtually identical
Terrorizing an entire captive population, making large numbers of people (including many entirely innocent people) believe they have no choice but to obey, and visiting destruction and death upon them if they do not do exactly as they are told -- all of that is the purpose. To summarize this point, which applies to the governments of both the United States and Israel:
The fundamental lesson is unmistakable, and unmistakably evil in intent and execution (a word made horribly appropriate in more than one sense by our government's actions): you will do exactly as we say -- or else.
Israel did all this -- and no one stopped it. When Israel does it again, it is almost certain that no one, certainly not the U.S. government, will stop it then, either. That, I submit, is precisely what victory looks like"
full article
http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2009/01/necessary-viole...
*****
"I truly wish that real life would no longer surpass the worst excesses of my nightmarish imaginings... Arthur Silber **
"I think we are living in a world of lies: lies that don't even know they are lies, because they are the children and grandchildren of lies." ~ Chris Floyd
CNN International does report the "Incident"
and so are all european networks.
Most posters cheer Mr. Erdogan for standing up to Peres.
While Erdogan tries to answer the 25minutes uninterrupted monolog of Peres, this Washington Post guy David Ignatius has no other worries than getting people to diner:
http://www.sabah.com.tr/video_detay,dd1c1c1e8ba343e499b86b91...
(the voice in the back at 1:09 minutes)
What a poor excuse to stop any critical voices.