Washington Report On Middle East Affairs – October 2018

attack by foreign powers—principally the

U.S.—and their local, traitorous allies.

COMPARATIVE CRISES

Yet, “nothing is fundamentally wrong” is

clearly not the case in today’s Turkey.

For some years, the country has been

fueling growth with major construction

schemes, often closely tied to AKP offi-

cials’ and supporters’ companies. This

boom has been financed largely on

cheap credit. It is a recipe that has pro-

duced tangible results, in terms of a

much-improved infrastructure, jobs and

higher incomes—but it has also pro-

duced periodic over-heating. This hap-

pened most notably in 2011, 2014 and

2016, when the central bank had to inter-

vene to raise interest rates, the classic

remedy for such a problem.

Normally, that is what should have

happened this time, too. Yet, since Erdo-

gan was re-elected president back in

June, under a new constitutional

arrangement that gives him sweeping

powers, he has had much more direct

control over the central bank.

This has enabled him to pursue one of

his more controversial beliefs: that rais-

ing interest rates raises prices. Indeed,

he has long railed against the “interest

rate lobby,” a shadowy international

grouping who back rate increases to

control inflation. His dogwhistle calls to

rise up against this ill-defined entity go

down well with many of Erdogan’s pro-Is-

lamist supporters, too, who are in no

doubt about this group’s identity: a

global, Jewish-Christian, Western con-

spiracy against Islam and Turkey.

This time, then, there was no interest

rate medicine—thereby undermining the

confidence of many Turkish and interna-

tional investors in Ankara’s ability to

manage both this crisis and future ones.

Given that Turkey is very dependent on

a steady inward flow of these people’s

hard currency, this is a major problem.

Years of advancing credit to finance

growth have also left many of the coun-

try’s banks with foreign currency debts—

now all the more difficult to pay off as the

lira has tumbled and those investors

have grown cautious. This has raised

fears of default, with the banks facing

some $2 billion in monthly repayments

up to the end of the year, increasing to

$4.5 billion in April/May 2019.

While in the past Turkey has had few

options other than to follow a U.S./Euro-

pean Union/IMF prescription for such

crises, this time Ankara has been proac-

tive in seeking out assistance from a

range of other countries.

These include close ally Qatar, which

recently provided a $15 billion backstop,

as well as Russia and Iran, which have

also been supportive. Although neither

has much financial clout to offer, Moscow

has accelerated the sale of S-400 mis-

siles to Turkey, while Ankara has also

said it will not adhere to re-imposed U.S.

sanctions on Iran. The crisis has thus ac-

celerated Turkey’s drift away from its

NATO allies in the West and further com-

plicated a range of regional issues, from

Syria to Central Asia.

Meanwhile, for many ordinary Turks,

this Eid—known as the kurban bayram,

or feast of sacrifice—has undoubtedly

required some more painful financial

sacrifices, too.

of all create a Jewish majority[by expelling

Arabs.]” Expulsion of the Palestinians, p. 29

Sagi Kaisler, then director of Samaria

Residents’ Committee:

“Wherever there are Arab villages, there

is fraud. This is the way they work...it is in

their nature...the [Arab] Joint List united in

order to pass the electoral threshold, but

primarily because they are evil parties that

want to overthrow the right-wing govern-

ment...We are in a battle for the future of

our state, against Arabs....” March 2015

Moshe Katsav, Israeli president 2000-

2007:

“There is a huge gap between us (Jews)

and our enemies, not just in ability but in

morality, culture, sanctity of life, and con-

science. They are our neighbors here, but

it seems as if at a distance of a few hundred

meters away, there are people who do not

belong to our continent, to our world, but

actually belong to a different galaxy.” The

Jerusalem Post, May, 10, 2001

Yisrael Koenig, author of the April

1976 “The Koenig Memorandum,” a

confidential internal Israeli govern-

ment document. Koenig served as the

Northern District Commissioner of the

Ministry of the Interior for 26 years:

“We must use terror, assassination, in-

timidation, land confiscation, and the cut-

ting of all social services to rid the Galilee

of its Arab population.”

Avigdor Lieberman, Israeli foreign minis-

ter, 2009-2012 and 2013-2015, and cur-

rently minister of defense, on Arab Israelis:

“Those who are against us, there's noth-

ing to be done—we need to pick up an

axe and cut off his head. Otherwise we

won't survive here.” March 2015

Rabbi Yaacov Perrin, in his Feb. 27, 1994

eulogy for American-born Dr. Baruch

Goldstein, who massacred 29 Palestinians

praying in Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque:

“One million Arabs are not worth a Jew-

ish fingernail.”

Miri Regev, (Likud), the former IDF

spokeswoman, current minister of cul-

ture and sport:

“The Sudanese are a cancer in our body.

We will do everything to send them back

where they came from.” May 2012

MK Ayelet Shaked, current justice minister:

Posted on Facebook in the summer of

2014 the text of an article by the late Israeli

writer/Netanyahu aide Uri Elitzur that

called Palestinian children “little snakes”

and argued that it was justified to bomb

civilians when they give shelter to “evil.”

Eli Yishai, Israeli Interior Minister, Nov.

2012:

“The goal of the operation [Pillar of De-

fense] is to send Gaza back to the Middle

Ages. Only then will Israel be calm for forty

years.”

48 WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS OCTOBER 2018

Racist Remarks

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