Blog

A Turkish flag is seen as Palestinians attend a rally in support of Hamas in Gaza city, Friday Jan. 30, 2009. Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan is winning praise from Gazans after his public spat with Israeli President Shimon Peres over Israel’s Gaza offensive. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa) (Hatem Moussa – AP)

Pictures of Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan are seen during a rally in support of Hamas in Gaza city, Friday, Jan. 30, 2009. Erdogan is winning praise from Gazans after his public spat with Israeli President Shimon Peres over Israel’s Gaza offensive. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa) (Hatem Moussa – AP)

By BEN HUBBARD
The Associated Press
Friday, January 30, 2009; 1:30 PM

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — More than 5,000 Hamas supporters rallied in Gaza on Friday, as a leader of the Islamic militant group emerged from hiding to declare victory in the 23-day Israeli offensive that devastated much of the Palestinian territory.

Hamas lawmaker Khalil al-Hayeh appeared in public for the first time since the war’s start on Dec. 27 and remained defiant despite Hamas’ heavy losses.

“We thank God when we see our houses bombed and our institutions destroyed, but our people say yes to the resistance and yes to martyrdom for the sake of God,” al-Hayeh said, standing in front of the damaged Palestinian parliament building. “We say proudly that Gaza has won the war, the resistance has won the war, and Hamas has won the war.”

if ( show_doubleclick_ad && ( adTemplate & INLINE_ARTICLE_AD ) == INLINE_ARTICLE_AD && inlineAdGraf ){placeAd(‘ARTICLE’,commercialNode,20,’inline=y;’,true) ;}
Israeli launched its offensive to stop eight years of near-daily militant rocket fire from Gaza at southern Israeli towns. Nearly 1,300 Palestinians were killed in the fighting, about half of them civilians, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. Thirteen Israelis were also killed, three of them civilians.

The aerial and ground offensive ended with a tentative cease-fire on Jan. 18. Hamas has since resumed its rocket fire toward Israel.

On Friday, the crowd waved red and white Turkish flags next to green Hamas banners. Al-Hayeh called Turkish Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan “a hero” for criticizing Israel over the Gaza offensive during a panel discussion Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Erdogan stalked off the stage after telling Israeli President Shimon Peres: “You kill people.”

Demonstrators burned and stomped on posters of Peres and other Israeli leaders and held up placards with Erdogan’s picture on them.

Al-Hayeh repeated previous declarations that Hamas would not agree to a long-term cease-fire with Israel that does not include lifting the 18-month blockade on the tiny, impoverished seaside strip and opening its border crossings with Israel.

In London, a European Union spokesman, John Clancy, said Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid flows into Gaza are “unacceptable” and must be lifted. He said about 120 supply trucks are currently entering Gaza each day, compared to about 500 in 2007.

Clancy said the EU had asked Israel to allow its aid workers to be fast-tracked into the territory. It currently takes about five days for a worker to get into Gaza, and the EU wants to shorten that to 48 hours.

Al-Hayeh also said Hamas would only release captured Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit in exchange for Hamas members imprisoned in Israel.

FromJavid Huseynov [[email protected]]

on Davos forum spat: some personal thoughts

I think the position taken by Turkey in this conflict was strategically right. Although the implementation of strategy wasn’t worked out well in terms of PR, it’s actually beneficial for Israel. Why?

Turkey is truly becoming a leader of the Muslim world, and instead of being an alien bystander, once more taking in hands the moral authority once held by Ottomans. It’s a well calculated policy, and Turkey is already influencing not only the politics but also the hearts and minds of all Muslims (sufficient to say that entire MidEast lives watching Turkish soap operas and television nowadays). Being the leading major secular democratic Muslim nation, NATO member with EU aspirations, Turkey has an excellent chance to become a respected Muslim superpower and a party to deal with in all matters pertaining to Islamic world… and it already is now.

Shimon Perez, being a brilliant veteran politician and a Nobel Peace prize winner knows this very well, which is why he called Erdogan further to say he was sorry about what happened. Because it is in Israel’s and US best interest to work with democratic secular Turkey on all Muslim issues, instead of doing so with a divided, mostly corrupt and radical Arab statehoods. It’s better for Israel to have Turkey as a representative of Islamic world than irrational Ahmadinejad who threatens to erase Israel. And this position taken by Turkey will actually seriously weaken Iran’s influence in the Muslim Middle East but such policy requires getting the hearts of Muslim folk first, which is precisely what Turkey is doing.

But, Erdogan was not the right person to deliver this Turkish message. His behavior was unprofessional, his speech delivered in Turkish instead of English was far weaker and irritating than that of Shimon Perez. This shows that Erdogan is an excellent strategist but a horrible diplomat. Doing so in perpetration by an Armenian-American host was not appropriate. I am not sure who arranged for David Ignatius to be the host of this panel, and perhaps, Erdogan was unaware of it, but a positive side is that even as a host of a major global forum, a person of diaspora Armenian descent was unable to hold off his biases and let Erdogan finish his talk.

Regards,
Javid