Turkey has a unique role to play linking the East and West. If Turkey lurches too far East, it may become more popular on some Arab streets, but it would lose a lot of its strategic relevance and, more importantly, its historic role as a country that can be Muslim, modern, democratic — and with good relations with both Israel and the Arabs. Once this crisis passes, it needs to get back in balance.After reading Matt Taibbi's many useful and hilarious analyses of Thomas Friedman's writings, I learned it's important to have a dictionary at hand when reading Friedman, and today is no different. Friedman seems to be using the word 'strategic' in this sense:
Ditto Israel. There is no question that this flotilla was a setup. Israel’s intelligence failed to fully appreciate who was on board, and Israel’s leaders certainly failed to think more creatively about how to avoid the very violent confrontation that the blockade-busters wanted.
Important or essential in relation to a plan of actionApparently Friedman's 'plan of action' for Turkey is that it be 'Muslim, modern, democratic'. Nevertheless, heavy thinkers have valued Turkey most for its geographic importance, astride the Bosporus, not for Friedman's 'plans', or anyone's 'plans' that don't involve large armies and navies. So, whether Turkey lurches East, West, North, or South, it will remain strategically important. History in the area has proven much too mercuric for any mortal's 'plans'.
Nevertheless, I agree this flotilla idea was guaranteed to provoke Israel. That's why it was done. Whether all the participants understood that violence was part of the plan all along is unclear. Whether even all the planners understood that violence was part of the plan all along is unclear. These matters have yet to be clarified. But some planners did understand what was going to happen, and their handiwork is now on display for everyone to appreciate.
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