Majed El Shafie

Every three minutes a Christian is being tortured in the Muslim world, and in 2009 more than 165,000 Christians will have been killed because of their faith, most of them in Muslim countries, according to a human rights organization that is visiting Israel starting Sunday.

“Hamas digs up the bodies of Christians from Christian burial sites in the Gaza Strip claiming that they pollute the earth,” said Reverend Majed El Shafie, President of One Free World International (OFWI), who will head a delegation of human rights activists, members of parliament from Canada and religious personalities.

During their visit to Israel the delegation will hold a conference on human rights and persecuted minorities at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem. The conference will provide new statistics on the persecution of minorities in Muslim countries.

El Shafie said that between 200-300 million Christians are being persecuted in the world, 80 percent of whom lived in Muslim countries and the rest in communist and other countries.

Members of the delegation will meet with Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Danny Ayalon and Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat in the hope of enlisting Israel to champion their cause.

OFWI is a human rights organization whose headquarters are located in Toronto, Canada. The organization numbers some 3,000 members, divided into 28 branches that are active in countries all over the world, including Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and even Iran.

El Shafie, 32, was born in Cairo to a distinguished Muslim family of lawyers and judges. Through a Christian friend he was exposed at an early age to hatred toward the Christian minority in Egypt.

He decided to convert to Christianity, wrote a book about it and as a result became an outcast and a victim of oppression.

In 1998 he was arrested, imprisoned, tortured and condemned to death.

El Shafie managed to escape, fled to the Sinai, where a Beduin family hid him for two months, and crossed the Israeli border on a jet-ski. He was arrested in Israel and was imprisoned for over a year in Beersheba, until he was released through the assistance of the UN, Amnesty International and the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, which managed to obtain political asylum for El Shafie in Canada, where he emigrated. He founded OFWI in 2004.

The writer of this Article has performed this job neutrally, not being biased from any concept or theory. Through this Article the writer has invaded in the background of the Jews which is linked with the Muslims by which we may be able to identify the real reason of problems between the people of these two religions.

Israel is a country which has been established to rehabilitate the Jews people who were staying in different places of the world. However, Israel is an independent country which is undeniable but the birth of this country has not been done through peaceful manner. The British led western countries as well as some other powerful countries have established this country dramatically especially to control the Middle East countries by it.

However, one thing is to control by using influence but the world community has been bored looking the killings by Israel especially the killings of the Muslims of Palestine, Lebanon and somewhere of other countries throwing the human rights and international laws in dustbin. However, it is a question that why Israel or the Jews are too much antagonist against the Muslim or against Islam? Actually this is a historical issue which is based on religious sentiment. However, to solve the problem we have to investigate in the background of Jews and Muslim, and then we may get the valuable answer which might be helpful to solve the problems between Jews and Muslim especially.

The country Israel has been established for the Jews people. Now we are to know who are the Jews? The people who are the follower of Prophet Hazrat Moses (Peace be upon him) and holy book “Torah ” are called Jews. It is also to be noted that the Muslims also absolutely believe that Hazrat Moses (Peace be upon him) as their one of the prophets and the Torah is one of their holy books. So, if the Jews and the Muslims both believe Hazrat Moses (Peace be upon him) as their Prophet and Torah as their holy book, so where is the problem? Actually the problem is in other side. 

The Muslims believe in many prophets as the Jews do. When Prophet Hazrat Moses (Peace be upon him) was in this world he said about the last prophet Hazrat Muhammad (Peace be upon him) to his followers that means to the Jews. That is why the Jews people were very much concerned about the last prophet and they were somewhere ready to obey the last Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (Peace be upon him).

During the time of Prophet Hazrat Moses (Peace be upon him), the Jews were very much informed about the different characteristics of last Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (Peace be upon him) to identify him. They would also know when the last prophet will come in this world from that time all previous rules and regulations will be canceled and almighty God will give new rules and regulations. Actually there was no problem regarding this matter.

However, the main problem has been that, the Jews were fully ready to accept the last prophet Hazrat Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and they thought that the last prophet will take birth in their community by which their prestige will be increased. But when almighty God sent the last prophet Hazrat Muhammad (Peace be upon him) in another community that means in Quraish community Mecca, at the time Jews community were very much angry and they started denying the last Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (Peace be upon him) because he has taken birth in another community which is against their dream of long time as well as prestige. But many of the Jews people accepted the last prophet Hazrat Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and the religion Islam directed by almighty God. However, the antagonism of Jews has been started from that time when the last Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (Peace be upon him) came in other community breaking the dream of the Jews that the last prophet will come from their community.

Actually everything is the will of almighty God but the Jews cannot accept it. That is why they took many steps to kill the last Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (Peace be upon him) but almighty God saved him. The Jews are also accused for taking initiative to steal the dead body of last Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (Peace be upon him) but almighty God foiled their conspiracy and the ruler of the adjacent area of graveyard of Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (Peace be upon him) was informed by dream that some conspirators are trying to steal the dead body of last prophet Hazrat Muhammad (Peace be upon him) by digging the hole. Then the ruler of that area took urgent initiate to save the graveyard of Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and identified the culprits who were Jews.

 Actually the original root of Judaism, Islam and Christianity are same. They are the different parts of a same tree. That is why, as per the original principles of Islam (not modified by any government) a Muslim can marry Jews or Christian but cannot marry Hindu, Buddhist etc. Although a new question may come into the mind of the readers of this Article that how the root of Christianity is linked with Islam. It is also to be noted that the Muslims also believe the Prophet Jesus (Peace be upon him) as one of their Prophets and believe the holy book which has come to the Prophet Jesus (Peace be upon him). But the differences between the belief of Muslims and Christians that the Christians believe that Jesus is the son of almighty God and the Muslims believe that almighty God has no children and the Jesus (Peace be upon him) is the honorable prophet of almighty God.

When the people came to kill Jesus (Peace be upon him) at that time almighty God brought him in the sky and the person who entered to kill Jesus (Peace be upon him) first, his face was converted as Jesus (Peace be upon him) and the antagonists killed him. The Muslims also believe that the Jesus (Peace be upon him) will come in this world again and will establish the order of almighty God. Then the Jesus (Peace be upon him) will also kill the antagonists of almighty God and all orders of almighty God will be established in this world and also will establish this doctrine that the almighty God has no children, wife etc.

However, the antagonisms of the Jews are still available against the Muslims because of past grievance regarding the last Prophet issue. Although the world has been modernized but the traditional antagonism of Jews is still available against Muslim. That is why the Jews-established Israel is always against the Muslims and in order to destroy the Muslims they deny any existence of international law and human rights. As we are looking the Israel government is killing the people of Palestine showing heavy disrespect to human rights and international law.

The world community is urging the Israel to stop state-terrorism but nothing is being fruitful against them. On the other had Israel is applying “Divide and Rule” policy in Palestine. That is why we are looking Palestine has been divided into two parts, one is Hamas led Gaza and the other hand Fatah led West Banks area. Israel always keeps these two groups in quarreling situation which is in favor of them to destroy the people of Palestine and to grave the land of Palestine.

On the other hand, Israel has spread their sight to destroy Lebanon and other Middle East countries as well as to grave the land of other countries. Actually whatever is said by others basically the Jews want to uproot the Muslims from this world because of their traditional-antagonist sentiment against Muslims. The Intelligence agency of Israel “Mosad” is very much adamant to materialize the ideology of the Jews and they are also accused to kill many valuable Muslim leaders. Actually “Mosad” is such type of dangerous organization which can kill or destroy any person as we kill mosquito.

Actually whoever is said and whatever is said the problem regarding Palestine and Israel will not be solved because Israel will never do it. This is one kind of religious war of the Jews regarding the grievance to the last prophet. Where Israel is trying to spread the theme of secularism in hole over the world directly and indirectly especially in Muslim countries but in case of their country they convey serious religious sentiment. That is why they never want to deliver Jerusalem to Palestine because it has great religious values to the Muslims, Jews, and Christians because the original root of these three religions that means Judaism, Islam and Christianity are same.

So, whatever is said in other countries by them regarding religion, secularism and others, all these are not applicable in their own territory. However, the problems of the Jews and Muslim will not be solved; this will be just a dream and will never be materialized in the lifetime of this world. There is no Muslim country which is free from the problems created by the Jews or Israel. Whatever may be, the main motto of Jews is to destroy the Muslims because they can never endure Muslims and the last Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (Peace be upon him). However, whatever is said by Israel, the world community should come forward to stop the state terrorism of Israel and to make a peaceful world where the people of all religions will stay with peace and happiness.

A Palestinian boy challenges an Israeli soldier

An uneasy calm is descending over East Jerusalem after thousands of Israeli troops lifted a tight siege lasting two weeks on Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, one of Islam’s holiest sanctuaries.

The site witnessed violent disturbances two weeks ago when Israeli paramilitary police stormed the Haram Al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) in an effort to arrest Palestinians who had repulsed an attempt by a group of Jewish fanatics who were trying to arrogate “prayer rights” at the Islamic shrine.

Dozens of Palestinians were injured, some quite seriously.

Following the incident, hundreds of Muslims from Jerusalem and also from Arab towns and villages in Israel decided to maintain a constant presence at the mosque in order to repulse new attempts by Jewish extremists to seize a foothold at Al-Aqsa compound. On many occasions, Israeli police forces threatened to storm the Noble Sanctuary if the sit- in didn’t end. Meanwhile, they maintained a constant presence outside the compound. But on Sunday, the Israeli government decided to lift the siege, effectively allowing participants in the sit-in to leave peacefully.

The deal apparently was part of a behind-the-scenes understanding between Israel and Jordan whereby Israel agreed to reinstitute the status quo ante at the site and to refrain from provoking Muslim sensibilities. According to the Jordanian- Israeli Peace Treaty, Jordan retained the role of custodian of Al-Aqsa Mosque. Jordan had harshly criticised Israel for the “standoff”, and unconfirmed reports indicated that the Jordanian government threatened to expel the Israeli ambassador from Amman if the provocations continued.

Indeed, King Abdullah II warned in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz last week that the irresponsible Israeli behaviour with regard to Al-Aqsa Mosque could spark off a huge conflagration in the region and “destroy everything”. Jordan and other Muslim countries witnessed large anti-Israel protests following Friday congregational prayers.

In addition to Jordan, several Muslim countries also filed protests with Israel, warning the Israeli government that any attempt at a gradual Jewish takeover of Islam’s third holiest site would be viewed as crossing an ultimate red line by Muslims, and would also put an end to any semblance of peacemaking efforts in the region. The protests prompted Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to publicly deny that Israel was harbouring hostile intentions with regard to Al-Aqsa Mosque.

“Last week extremist figures tried to undermine Israel’s stability. This is an extremist minority that spread lies about Israel digging under the Temple Mount [Haram Al-Sharif]. This is a lie,” he said.

Another Israeli official, Trade and Labour Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer warned that Israeli Arabs were beginning to “link up” with Hamas against Israel. “A certain alliance is forming between Israeli Arabs, specifically the Islamic Movement, and Hamas,” Ben-Eliezer told Israeli state-run radio, adding that Israel would eventually pay a heavy price if this was permitted to continue. Muslim leaders in Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories scoffed at these statements, calling them “brash lies”.

“Israel is trying to tell the Muslim world that this is a confrontation with Hamas. This is a lie, because Al-Aqsa Mosque belongs to the entire Muslim umma (nation) and Israel is trying to demolish the mosque or at least arrogate part of it in order to build a temple for Jews,” said Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement in Israel.

Salah was arrested briefly last week on charges of “incitement against the state” and of “making contacts with a terrorist organisation” — an allusion to Hamas. Both Salah and his deputy, Sheikh Kamal Khatib, have also been barred from entering Jerusalem for 30 days. Israel has accused Salah and other Muslim leaders of carrying out “subversive activities” and “orchestrating” claims about an Israeli conspiracy against Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The restoration of calm at Al-Aqsa Mosque seems to vindicate the view of Muslim leaders that the main source of tension was Jewish provocations, particularly the repeated attempts by messianic Jewish fanatics to enter the mosque — not as ordinary tourists, but as provocateurs and trouble- makers. Sheikh Ikrema Sabri, a chief imam and preacher at Al-Aqsa Mosque, said Muslims in Jerusalem and the rest of Palestine would never stop resisting and protesting efforts by Jewish intruders to establish a foothold or gain “prayer rights” at the Muslim shrine.

The current relative calm is unlikely to last for long, however, given the determination of messianic Jewish groups that are bent on demolishing Islamic holy places in Jerusalem in order to build a Jewish temple on their ruins. Some of these groups, such as the Temple of Faithful, believe that Jews won’t attain redemption until Al-Aqsa Mosque is destroyed and a Jewish temple is erected in its place. According to extremist Jewish doctrine, the ensuing violence that would see the death of a huge number of people would expedite the appearance of a Jewish Messiah, or Redeemer, who would bring about salvation for Jews and rule the world from Jerusalem.

Messianic Jewish groups, which exert a lot of influence on the Israeli government and parliament, and even the army, seem to show little deference to any government decision to maintain status quo ante arrangements at Al-Aqsa Mosque esplanade where the Muslim Waqf (religious endowments authority) has been managing the holy site since 1967. A few days ago, a number of Jewish intruders disguised as foreign tourists entered the mosque despite tacit Israeli assurances to the contrary. Similar attempts, coordinated or uncoordinated with the government, are expected in the coming days and weeks.

Moreover, it seems that the current right-wing Israeli government fully identifies with the declared and undeclared goals of the extremists, despite any public stand to the contrary. Indeed, not a single member of the current government has criticised — let alone denounced — the fanatics for their repeated provocations.

This week, Sheikh Salah alluded to Israeli government collusion with messianic fanatics. He said nothing short of a full liberation of Al-Aqsa Mosque from the Israeli occupation would shield the Muslim sanctuary from harm. “The Israeli government is the prime mover of all plots against Al-Aqsa Mosque. The important thing is not what they say to the media, but what they do at, around and especially beneath Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

 by Dennis Prager

Hazem Farouq (C), a Muslim Brotherhood parliamentarian who boarded the aid flotilla attacked by Israel

With the exception of the United States, nearly all the world’s nations; newspapers, radio and TV news stations; the United Nations; and the world’s Leftist academics and organizations have condemned Israel over the Gaza flotilla incident. The characterizations of the Jewish state range from a society so evil that it should not be allowed to exist to a villainous nation that is responsible for a) the suffering of millions of innocent Palestinian men, women and children; b) the lack of Mideast peace; therefore c) the Muslim world’s anger at the West; and therefore d) Islamic terrorism itself.

Let’s hope the world is right.

Israel is almost totally isolated. A visitor from another planet would have every reason to report back home that the greatest problem on planet earth was this planet’s Jewish state. Though Israel is the size of the American state of New Jersey and smaller than El Salvador, and though its population is smaller than that of Sweden, Burundi and Bolivia, it is the most censured country in United Nations history.

Let’s hope the world is right.

Though Israel is a thriving liberal democracy for all its citizens, including the one out of five that is Arab (83 percent of whom are Muslim), with an independent judiciary and press; though it signed an agreement establishing an independent Palestinian state; though it returned to Egypt every inch of the Sinai Peninsula, a land mass larger than Israel itself with major oil reserves — the world deems Israel a villain.

Let’s hope the world is right.

Though Hamas runs a theocratic police state based on torture and terror, with no freedom of speech, no freedom for any religious expression outside of radical Islam, seeks to annihilate the Jewish state, and its state-controlled media depict Israelis and Jews as worthy of death, the world sees Israel, not Hamas, as the villain.

Let’s hope the world is right.

Here is a random sampling of world reactions:

“The EU condemns the use of violence that has produced a high number of victims among the members of the flotilla …”

“The President of (France) expresses his profound emotion in the face of the tragic consequences of the Israeli military operation,” Sarkozy’s office said. “He condemns the disproportionate use of force …”

“Spain unequivocally condemns the Israeli attack on the humanitarian flotilla and it does so as a country and as the acting president of the EU Council.”

“Swedish Port Workers Union spokesman Peter Annerback says workers will refuse to handle Israeli goods and ships …”

“The Swedish Football Association said it was to ask European football’s highest body, UEFA, to rule if the qualifier scheduled for Friday in Tel Aviv should go ahead or not, citing the ‘strong reactions in Sweden and around the world.’”

“Norway’s military says it has cancelled a special operations seminar because the Defence Ministry objected to the inclusion of an Israeli army officer in the program … Norway calls for boycott on arms to Israel.”

South Africa recalled its ambassador to Israel, Ismail Coovadia, “to show our strongest condemnation of the attack.”

India announced that “There can be no justification for such indiscriminate use of force, which we condemn.”

“The Argentine Government expressed on Monday its condemnation of Israel’s naval attack to an (sic) humanitarian six-ship flotilla.”

The Brazilian Foreign Ministry in a statement said that “Brazil strongly condemns the Israeli attack, because there was no justification …”

Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini: “I deplore in the strongest terms the killing of civilians. This is certainly a grave act.”

The News, the leading Pakistani English daily: “This monstrous outrage has caught the world’s attention and once again put the spotlight on the activities of a state that has been a law unto itself for most of its life.”

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu: “We were shocked by the Israeli attack which led to severe casualties and condemn it.”

Let’s hope that the European Union, France, Spain, Sweden, Norway, South Africa, India, Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Pakistan, China and nearly all other nations are right.

And not just nations, of course. According to Amnesty International, “It is imperative that Israel lifts the blockade of Gaza without delay, as it is a form of collective punishment … Israel should invite the relevant UN experts to carry out an investigation … It begs credibility that the level of lethal force used by Israeli troops could have been justified. It appears to have been out of all proportion to any threat posed.”

To restate AI’s positions:

1) Since blockades are “collective punishment,” presumably Amnesty International deems all blockades as immoral. 2) The U.N. is fair regarding Israel, so Israel should support a U.N. investigation. 3) And the Israeli soldiers should have allowed themselves to be beaten to death rather than throw away their paintball guns and use real ones.

Let’s hope Amnesty International is right.

Now, some representative views in American newspaper editorials:

The Los Angeles Times, in its editorial, posed some deep questions. Here are three:

“Were the boats ferrying novelists and Nobel Peace Prize winners and elderly Holocaust survivors, as news accounts have suggested, or seething Israel haters, as defenders of the raid would have us believe?”

Apparently, the Los Angeles Times believes that novelists, Nobel Peace Prize winners and elderly Holocaust survivors cannot be “seething Israel-haters.”

“Was the goal to bring 10,000 tons of aid to needy Gazans in an act of peaceful civil disobedience, or to provoke Israel into just this sort of violent response? …”

I did not make this up in order to embarrass the LATimes. They really posed this question.

“We agree with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the blockade ‘… hurts forces of moderation and empowers extremists.’”

Unlike the Times, many of us thought that Palestinian extremists were more powerful than the “forces of moderation” prior to the blockade.

Let’s hope the Los Angeles Times is right.

And now, The New York Times editorial:

“There can be no excuse for the way that Israel completely mishandled the incident … It has damaged Israel’s ties with Turkey, once its closest ally in the Muslim world.”

“No excuse?” Being beaten to death by “peace activists” while carrying paintball guns is “no excuse”? And why wasn’t it Turkey’s sponsorship of an Islamist organization labeled a terrorist group by the American government that damaged Turkey’s relations with Israel? Why is it not Turkey’s cooperation with Iran’s Holocaust-denying, Holocaust-planning Ahmadinejad that has damaged Turkish-Israeli relations?

Let’s hope The New York Times is right.

The reason mankind has to hope that the world, its leaders, its newspapers, its so-called human rights organizations and the United Nations are right about Israel is quite simple: If Israel is the decent party in its war with the Palestinian Authority and Hamas — and nearly all the world’s countries, nearly all the world’s media and the United Nations are morally wrong — what hope is there for humanity? If the world’s moral compass is that broken, are we not sailing into a dark age?

By disarming the Muslim countries one by one, the neo-conservative US policy serves the Israeli objective of ‘securing’ its expanding borders, which at present is confined to building settlements (land theft) in the occupied territories. When this episode is forgotten, Israel will try to occupy another piece of land using the pretext of security, no doubt the world will be told, Israel was compelled to act in self-defence; thus, creeping towards its ultimate dream of creating Ertez (greater) Israel that runs from the Nile, to the Euphrates. The latest attempts to intimidate nuclear-free Iran by nuclear Israel, reflects that long term Israeli ambition.

Here are the facts:

*       Iran has not attacked any of its neighbours over the last 60 years, unlike belligerent Israel. 

*       Iran is a signatory to Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) treaty, and has no nuclear weapons.

*         With the direct help of the US, Israel has been armed with nuclear weapons, and the power of its conventional forces continues to increase in relation to the surrounding countries. 

*        Israel continues to build more settlement in the occupied territories, openly violating the UN resolutions in place.

*         In direct contravention of International Law, Israel denies the right of the Palestinians to return to their homes, and concurrently permits any Jews to come and settle in occupied Palestine.

*         In addition to state terrorism, the inhumane and illegal blockade of Gaza has turned it into an open concentration camp, and corroborates Israel’s brutal policy of ethnic cleansing.

*         Israel refuses to become a signatory of the NPT, and denies the international inspection of its nuclear weapons.

*         Recently, United Nations ratified a resolution aimed at creating a Middle East without any nuclear weapons, which is casually ignored by Israel.

*         All the 189 signatories to the NPT agreed for the establishment of a Middle East without nuclear weapons. For this purpose, they have called on all Middle East nations to attend a conference to be held in 2012. Israel has confirmed they will not participate in this collective peace process.

*         The agreement also, stressed “the importance of Israel’s accession to the treaty and the placement of all its nuclear facilities under comprehensive IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) safeguards.” Israel will not sign the NPT treaty. 

Israel and the US oppose this unified move from the International community, the same old excuse of Israel’s security, and it rants about the ‘threat’ from nuclear-free Iran. Over the years, the numerous military adventures undertaken by Israel have proven that its conventional force provides adequate security, not to mention, the mighty US is always ready to help should Israel need it.

Therefore, what does Israel do? It sends two of its submarine equipped with nuclear weapons to the coast of Iran. Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons with its record of disproportionately killing Arab civilians is not a problem for the US. Why should it be? The US has excelled in that arena. As for Israel, it continues to commit state-terrorism, assassination, and now piracy in international waters; from Ban Ki Moon to Obama and every other western leader looks on with regret after regret, whilst privileged Israel continues to ignore and plead the usual ‘argument’ of: we are victims acting in self-defence.

After disarming Iraq, the first step towards disarming Iran is to ensure that it remains nuclear-free, whilst helping Israel to increase its strength. Power in international arena is always relative. That would leave Turkey as the only other Muslim country in the region. Perhaps, Turkey has spotted that, even as a NATO ally it too will be subjected to the same US-Israeli policy eventually and the noise is being made about saving the Armenians are ominous.  This may partly explain why nationalist Turkey has have started to take a radically different stance on its relationship with Israel and the Arab countries, in recent times.

The weekend move by Turkish premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government is the latest reflection of widespread anger — especially in Muslim countries — over the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in last winter’s Gaza conflict.

But it also could have broader relevance because of Turkey’s growing regional clout, and strategic position as a nation of more than 70 million that borders Iraq and Iran and is embroiled in a sputtering effort to join the European Union.

“Turkey is trying to reposition itself in the world,” Carina O’Reilly, Europe analyst for London-based Jane’s Country Risk, said Monday. “It’s trying to establish itself as a power in its own right.”

In Turkey, analysts see a complex situation with a government deeply rooted in Islam trying to balance an emerging role as a voice for Muslims with a continuing alliance with the West.

Turkey’s approach to Israel reflects a “double-faced policy” that began when Erdogan scolded the Israeli president over Gaza casualties at an international forum in Switzerland, said Huseyin Bagci, professor of international relations at Middle East Technical University.

“The Turkish government, since the Davos incident, (tried) to become the consciousness of the Middle East,” Bagci said. Behind the scenes, though, ties with Israel are largely “business as usual,” he said.

The furor began Sunday, when Israeli defense officials said Ankara had called off the international stage of the Anatolian Eagle drills, which were to have included the U.S. and NATO, because it opposed Israel’s participation. The U.S. and NATO have not commented on why the exercise was scrapped.

Turkey itself insisted the reason it “postponed” the exercise to have been held this week in the Turkish city of Konya was not political, saying only that it was the result of talks with participant countries. It urged Israel to exert “good sense in its approach and statements.”

However, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu linked the exercise’s cancellation to the Gaza war in an interview with CNN on Sunday. Asked why Israel was excluded, he said: “We hope that the situation in Gaza will be improved, that the situation will be back to the diplomatic track. And that will create a new atmosphere in Turkish-Israeli relations as well.”

Israel’s good ties with Turkey — a mostly Muslim nation — have been a boost for Israel over the years, easing its isolation in the region at a time of tension between the Jewish state and much of the Muslim world. Israeli tourists flocked to Turkey and Ankara benefited from a strong defense alliance with Israel’s powerful, high-tech military.

But these ties — always brittle — have started to fray since Israel’s Gaza war in January, when the deaths of Palestinian civilians outraged opinion worldwide. Use of Konya as a location for the exercise was sensitive: during the war, pro-Islamic media in Turkey published stories alleging Israeli pilots who bombed Gaza targets had been trained in exercises there.

Some Israeli commentators have raised concerns that the cancellation of the exercise is part of a gradual policy that will shift Turkey closer to fundamentalist Iran. Still, despite Turkey’s improving relationship with Iran, it covets its ties with the West and, like its allies, has deep concerns about Iran’s nuclear activities.

In the background is an increasing skepticism among Turks that their country, a secular state where tradition is nonetheless strong, will ever be admitted into the European Union as a full member. Talks have sputtered for several years and there is persistent opposition in key EU nations like France and Germany.

In fact, Turkey doesn’t want to side with any one camp or category, given its complex identity: a Muslim country with a secular political system, a deeply nationalist place with a rich imperial history that is still insecure and crafting its place in the world.

These traits shape its dispute with Israel, and drive its campaign to become a regional heavyweight with a web of intricate, overlapping alliances, from NATO to Europe, the Middle East, the Caucasus and the Balkans. It seeks reconciliation with Armenia after a century of hostility, and is trying to solve its long conflict with its own Kurdish citizens.

For decades, Turkey was a junior player in the West’s Cold War alliance, run by military generals; now it has its own voice and enough clout to spar at times with its NATO partners.

Despite harsh rhetoric, Turkish pragmatism has kept military business with Israel largely intact. Israel is involved in two major military projects — tank and fighter plane upgrades — worth more than US$1 billion in Turkey. The Turkish military has also bought Israeli drones to help fight Kurdish rebels, whose strength has waned since their heyday in the 1990s.

“Relations between Israel and Turkey are strategic and decades-old,” said Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. “Despite the ups and downs, Turkey continues to be a key player in our region. We shouldn’t be drawn into frenzied statements about it.”

Alon Liel, who was Israel’s No. 1 diplomat in Turkey in the 1980s, described the situation as a “crisis” and said Israel had received “very harsh signals” from an increasingly assertive government.

“Today there is a new foreign policy that doesn’t rely only on the West. They see themselves as a player in many regional circles,” he said. “All this assertiveness in the region gives Turkey a self-confidence that allows it to be tougher to us.”

Why does Europe hate Israel? That’s the question asked in Robin Shepherd’s A State Beyond the Pale, which I’ve reviewed in the Catholic Herald this week. The book came out some months back, but with Helen Thomas’s recent outburst (Shepherd also includes the American Left in the growing league of Israel haters) it’s more timely than ever.

I tend to avoid the subject of Israel-Palestine because there are already a billion people expending measureless energy discussing it on a million internet messageboards and social media outlets, probably costing the world economy trillions of dollars a year in lost production.

It’s also a very complex issue that seems to attract the most ironic and absurd partisans: on the one hand feminist or gay and lesbian organisations that support the violently reactionary Islamists of Gaza against one of the most gay-friendly states on earth; on the other, Christian religious nuts who support the settlement of Jews in the West Bank at the expense of the Christian community there – and not just any Christian community either, but one founded by Jesus Christ himself.

And those on both sides who paint this as a simple clash of civilisations between Jews/Christians and Muslims ignore the fact that Israel’s arch-enemy, Syria, has a large, well-protected and equally anti-Israeli Christian minority (indeed if and when the current dictatorship falls the Christian community may well face the same fate as their brethren in Iraq). The Syrians also have an attitude towards Islamists that makes the Israelis look like Birkenstock-wearing pinkos in comparison – 53 Palestinians (mostly combatants) were killed during the IDF’s attack on Jenin a few years back; anywhere between 25-40,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed when the Syrians stormed the town of Hama to crush an Islamist revolt. How many of the flotilistas have even heard of Hama? None, because no one in Europe cares about 40,000 dead Arabs if it’s Arabs doing the killing – it seems if you can’t blame the Jews, it ain’t news.

Zionism is now a dirty word in everyday parlance in our continent, and yet it is perfectly justified on liberal nationalist grounds, as is Palestinian self-determination. The only possible solution – it seems – is some sort of reversion to pre-1967 borders, with a demilitarised zone around the Holy Land and a fully independent (but disarmed) Palestine.

But England will win the World Cup before that happens. In the meantime what’s interesting and disturbing is the intensity with which Europeans increasingly hate Israel, with many otherwise sensible people convinced it’s the main obstacle to world peace.

Here is the full review of Robin Shepherd’s book:

Why does Europe hate Israel? That is the question asked and answered in this powerful and forceful polemic. Shepherd is a former director of Chatham House and a Slavic linguist who spent many years in Russia and eastern Europe. He is not Jewish, which he feels the need to point out, since the views of pro-Israeli Jews are so readily dismissed. He has visited the Holy Land many times and, like most visitors, found he liked both Israelis and Palestinians. It is his fellow Europeans he has a problem with.

Europe, he says, should be berated for “dishonouring the memory of the Holocaust, for making common cause with tyranny, for lacking a moral compass, for hypocrisy, wickedness and appeasement. It is accused of succumbing to an obsession, of giving in to irrationalism and anti-intellectualism, of hatred, scorn and contempt.”

Europeans mostly see Israel as the aggressor, view its treatment of Palestinians as tantamount to genocide, and claim it is a “racist” state akin to apartheid South Africa, with no right to exist.

On the contrary, he argues, Israel has the legal right to exist, like any other state, laid down by the British Mandate under the League of Nations as well as UN Resolution 181, which offered a two-state solution in 1947.

The “racist” argument is based on the fact that Israel is a home to the Jewish people. But, he argues: “Just as France has a right to exist as a state for French people, China for Chinese people, Egypt for Egyptian people and so on.” In fact: “Just as dozens of states define themselves as Christian or Muslim, so Israel has a right to define itself as Jewish.”

There are 56 members of the Organisation of Islamic Conference, and most make sharia law an aim. Israel’s status as a state identified by its religion is not exceptional.

The Palestinians also have the right to national self-determination, but their leaders have repeatedly rejected it, starting with the 1937 Peel Commission and the UN partition, and more recently Yasser Arafat at the Oslo talks.

After the 1948 defeat Palestinians left en masse in what became known as the Nakba (catastrophe), and Europeans now back their “right to return”.

Yet, he argues, Israel had simply won a war that “could quite possibly have resulted in the massacre of large sections of the Jewish populations”, and pressed home their advantage. Who could blame them? “Certainly not the European Union or most of the nations of Europe which have long accepted the reality of the almost contemporaneous German refugee problem following World War II.” No one cares about the 12 million Germans forced out in 1945. Here he is on shakier ground, since Palestine did not start a world war that killed 35 million, nor kill 11 million in genocides – were it not for those factors, the ethnic cleansing of eastern Germans would be considered Europe’s worst atrocity.

His argument that anti-Zionism is largely re-shaped anti-Semitism will also anger the pro-Palestinian lobby. The existence of anti-Zionist Jews does not contradict this, just as the existence of black slaveholders in the Deep South does not mean slavery was not racist.

Indeed, this is merely the third stage of an old European disease. “In anti-Semitism’s first stage, when the hostility was based in religion and expressed in religious terms, the Jew always had the option of changing sides,” he writes. “During the medieval and early modern periods, Jews persecuted by Christians could convert. Not only could they escape the persecution; they could join the persecutors if they so wished, and some indeed rose to high rank in the Church and the Inquisition. Racial anti-Semitism removed that option. The present-day ideological anti-Semitism has restored it, and now as in the Middle Ages, there seem to be some who are willing to avail themselves of this option.”

As for the endless comparisons with Nazi Germany, this trope was invented by the Soviet Union’s Anti-Zionist Committee of Soviet Public Opinion, formed in 1983 to blacken the name of Jewish anti-Soviet dissidents flocking to Israel, and also to curry favour with Arab governments.

Shepherd’s book is a powerful defence of an unpopular cause, and a perhaps even more ringing condemnation of our continent’s enfeebled and infantilised political culture.