Stratfor gives us a good, if incomplete, background of the Gaza crisis. In any case, it teaches an excellent lesson in propaganda techniques.
A somewhat ‘closer to the truth’ analysis comes from Atlas Shrugs; Pamela seems to have a much deeper vision of Erdogan’s aims to (re)establish a Caliphate or at least imitate Iran’s medieval revolution.
Without going into Turkey’s recent purges of secular elements in the judiciary and the army, of which you are certainly painfully aware, it is clear that Erdogan finds convenient to align himself – for the moment – with the big bully: Iran.
The two have recently slapped the US administration in the face and are still laughing and boasting about it; the “uranium enrichment” farce has worked in a least two ways: first, it has emasculated whatever sanctions Obama meant to submit to the Security Council by showing – falsely – Iran’s good faith, and second, it has given a boost to Erdogan’s reputation and ambitions.
(Note: Lula was lounging about in a drunken stupor as usual, but he’ll gain from the meeting as well)
And here are my two cents: I think it is very likely that, during the infamous meeting Iran-Turkey-Brazil, other issues were discussed: the most important of which is the use of “professional” terrorists (and al-Qaeda elements, probably from Iran itself) in the Turkish NGO flotilla directed towards Gaza.
The whole operation had three advantages for Turkey’s Erdogan and Iran’s Ahmadinejad:
1) It would inevitably provoke Israel to use force, therefore giving an excuse to Erdogan to cancel Turkey’s alliance with Israel and proceed with the islamization of the country
2) As a consequence, Israel would no more be able to use Turkey’s airspace to reconnoiter the region’s terrain or attack Iran (as it did at length before attacking Syria in 2007)
3) Great propaganda value (this phase has already started in earnest)
Israel’s first priority now is to show the world that she is the victim and not the aggressor; failing this, the plot against her will proceed, perhaps even to the point of a war, justified by a world opinion shaped by terrorists and shared by idiots.
