The Divergence of Judaism and Islam. Interdependence, Modernity, and Political Turmoil

(Joyce) #1

14 · Michael M. Laskier and Yaacov Lev


the upheavals in the country that were ignited in winter 2011, one cannot
say with utmost confidence whether a post-Qadhafi era will inaugurate
the desired changes or make matters worse.
One final point is germane to our analysis in modern and contempo-
rary times. Previous essays here accent the special historical bonds be-
tween Jews and Muslims in Turkey—once the seat of the Islamic caliph-
ate—and its Ottoman possessions and the struggle against their common
enemies. The Jewish-Muslim interaction and interdependence continued
in secular Turkey, expanding since the late 1940s to special ties between
its government and the state of Israel. During the cold war and its im-
mediate aftermath, both joined ranks to stave off common challenges in
the Middle East, including Soviet Russian, Syrian, and Iraqi bellicosity.
They fortified military and intelligence links while open diplomatic re-
lations between the two countries endured for decades. Nevertheless,
after 2000, the picture began to change as Ankara began to level harsh
and unfounded accusations at Israel over a variety of political and mili-
tary issues. The weakening of Turkish secular institutions, including the
military establishment, and Turkey’s growing identification with Islamist
Iran, the Hamas-led Palestinian government, and Syria may damage or
scuttle the Ankara-Jerusalem nexus in the coming years. Moreover, it has
an adverse effect on the 25,000 Jews living in Turkey. Are the develop-
ments merely attributed to Israeli-Palestinian-Syria hostilities? Are they
symptomatic of a growing process of Turkish Islamist radicalism? Is this
unfavorable trend irreversible? We have no answers.
In our companion volume, The Convergence of Judaism and Islam, Nor-
man A. Stillman made the following astute observation: “The lack of a
resolution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, the height-
ened tensions between Jews and the Muslim populations in several
Western European countries,... and the sorry state of Muslim-Jewish
relations worldwide... would all seem to indicate that, for better or for
worse, Muslims and Jews still share a destiny that is intricately inter-
twined.” Our genuine hope—mixed with caution and concern—is that
better times will loom large on the horizon.

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