WORLD WAR III ARISES FROM ANKARA (AND PENNSYLVANIA)
From the Last Crusade:
ISRAEL FACES SHOWDOWN
By
Paul L. Williams, Ph.D.
Get ready for World War III.
In preparation for a military offensive against Israel, Turkey has deployment troops, F-15 and F-16 fighter jets, Hercules C-130 cargo planes with paratroop units, war ships, frigates and destroyers to its naval bases in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and the international airport of Ercan, which is located south of Nicosia.
The deployment has occurred even though Israel acceded to Turkey’s demands for the release of hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists who were taken into custody after the Israeli commando launched a raid on a Turkish vessel, which was leading a fleet of ships through the Gaza blockade on May 31.
The Turkish government under Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told President Barack Obama shortly before midnight on June 1 that if the United States did not punish Israel for the raid, Turkey would exact justice in order to defend its national honor.
“Israel cannot wash its hands of its perpetrated crimes in the Mediterranean,” the Turkish Prime Minister informed Mr. Obama.
The relationship between Turkey and Israel has worsened with the ascendancy of Prime Minister Erdogan and the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma, AKP) in 2002.
The AKP was established by Fethullah Gulen, who seeks to bring about the restoration of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of a universal caliphate.
Gulen, who has amassed a fortune in excess of $25 billion, fled Turkey in 1999 and is presently holed up within a mountain fortress in Pennsylvania.
Mr. Erdogan is a Gulen disciple along with Abdullah Gul,Turkey’s first Islamic president, and Yusuf Ziya Ozcan, the head of Turkey’s Council of Higher Education.
Under the AKP, Turkey has transformed from a secular state into an Islamic country with 85,000 active mosques – - one for every 350- citizens – - the highest number per capita in the world, 90,000 imams, more imams than teachers and physicians – - and thousands of state-run Islamic schools.
Despite the rhetoric of European Union accession, Turkey has transferred its alliance from Europe and the United States to Russia and Iran. It has moved toward friendship with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Syria and created a pervasive anti-Christian, anti-Jewish, and anti-America animus throughout the populace. A string of Christian killings has erupted throughout Turkey in recent years, including the murder this week of a Roman Catholic bishop.
“What I saw,” he said, “was not pretty. It was ugly.”
Inside Turkey, Prime Minister Erdogan mustered all the machinery of his Islamic Justice and Development Party to create furious street demonstrations across the country demanding revenge against Israel.
“From now on, it is no longer possible to turn a blind eye on the lawless behavior of the current Israeli government,” Mr. Erdogan said, adding he did not advise anyone to test Turkey’s patience.
Israel’s military chiefs have warned that a military engagement with Turkey might rapidly spin out of control and draw Syria, the Lebanese Hezbollah, and the Palestinian Hamas in Gaza into the conflict.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, said that Turkey’s military movements left Israel no option but to stand ready for a showdown.
“If Erdogan stops massing his army against Israel,” Mr. Netanyahu told Mr. Obama, ‘Israel will stand down too.”
Israel is in the process of airlifting diplomats’ families from the embassy in Ankara and the consulate in Istanbul, along with the staffs of its defense missions and trading firms.
The members of the Israeli embassy and consulate have been ordered to shred and burn classified materials and remove or destroy the hard disks from their computers.