We stopped by the demonstration that took place in Beyazıt square to take pictures. I intended to take more photos but I lost interest quickly when I heard boring, long and cliché lslamist slogans and ranting and stepped into a coffehouse nearby and ended up playing cards. At least the one in Beyazıt turned out to be an Islamist show and lost common ground with non-Islamists. In fact, it was so disorganized that every Islamist group had its own agenda and I was hearing different slogans simultaneously. If things changed after me, I don’t know, but i don’t think so.. In addition to massive amount of Palestine flags, I saw Hezbollah and Chechen flags, too. There were so many high school kids, most of them were female ones probably from Islamic high schools…
Thousands protest Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip in Turkey
Around five thousand people protested the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip in a square in Istanbul after Friday prayer.
Tool: Iranian Google bomb to support Gaza
Description: The Gaza crisis and Israeli attacks have been a top story around the world, and it seems the story will not be over soon. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak referred to the situation as “all-out war” and told lawmakers the country’s military was prepared for more intense action in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip in order to weaken Hamas’ ability to fire rockets into Israeli territory. Iranian islamists demonstarted in Iran against Israel and Iranian leaders are calling on Muslims to support Palestinans in any way they can. Islamist bloggers are fighting a virtual struggle too.
Tools:Google bomb
How tool is used: Iranian islamists are hopeful that people who are googling Gaza find their page, Gaza.Ir, on the top of the list. The site reads:
Gaza: hope after attack, Paul Rogers
The article continued:
“Much of the military action has been directed against the police and security forces of the PNA, with substantial numbers having been killed and many more hundreds taken into custody. Police stations and barracks have been destroyed, as have intelligence and security centres. Moreover, and in some ways much more significant, there has been the destruction of the PNA’s administrative infrastructure.
Can success in the polls justify the Palestinian massacre?
The various aspects of an Israeli attack on innocent civilians in Gaza over the weekend continue to be discussed in the Turkish media. The fact that this brutal attack came at a time when there were increased hopes about settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has saddened and disappointed everyone who harbored hopes for a peaceful solution.
This is a well-planned attack
The actual reason for the Gaza attack was the elections to be held in Palestine and Israel. On Jan. 9, the Palestinian people will elect their new president. It is likely that President Mahmoud Abbas will be re-elected as a moderate leader.
Gaza: the cycle can be broken
Palestinian rescue workers carry a wounded prisoner in the rubble of the Saraya prison after it was hit by a missile strike on Sunday. Photo by Majed Hamdan / AP.
Gaza: the cycle can be broken
The Independent/, Sunday, 28 December 2008
More than 30 years ago, the American political philosopher Michael Walzer wrote: “First oppression is made into an excuse for terrorism, and then terrorism is made into an excuse for oppression.” It was a good description of the Israel-Palestine problem then, and a good description of the dynamic that would make it worse over the following three decades.
Gaza war goes on despite EU diplomacy
Gaza Attacks: Two Related Reactions, in Second Life and Twitter
Global Voices’ coverage of Gaza Strip Bombings (and how to keep the coverage alive)
Turkish PM sees dangerous Mideast situation, begins regional tour
The developments in the Middle East are very dangerous, the Turkish prime minister said Wednesday at the start of a regional tour in a bid to exercise pressure on both Israel and the international community for a ceasefire. (UPDATED)
Israel did not intend to harm relations with Turkey- minister
ANKARA – Israel had no intention of harming relations with Turkey, who has suspended its brokering efforts to organize peace talks between Syria and Israel because of the air assault, a minister said Tuesday. The Israeli minister said his country had to reply Hamas’ attacks.
Turks’ mediation lost in crossfire
ANKARA – The Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip has inflicted a blow on the Turkey-mediated indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said yesterday.
The Turkish option
By Zvi Bar’el
The involvement of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in pushing a cease-fire indicates primarily the deep-seated differences between the Syria-Hamas-Iran axis and the Egypt-Saudi Arabia-Palestinian Authority axis. These two axes that now need an external mediator still cannot agree on Hamas’ status."
Humanity’s stake in Gaza by VACLAV HAVEL, EL HASSAN BIN TALAL, HANS KÜNG, DESMOND TUTU, KAREL SCHWARZENBERG, MIKE MOORE & YOHEI SASAKAWA
AMMAN — Wasted time is always to be regretted. But in the Middle East, wasting time is also dangerous. Another year has now passed with little progress in bridging the divide between Palestinians and Israelis.
The siege of Gaza: Barack Obama’s first test by JOHN L. ESPOSITO
While some had predicted that Barack Obama would be "tested" early in his administration by America’s enem
y Osama, Obama’s first major foreign policy "test" has instead come from America’s ally, Israel.
Why has Israel attacked Gaza?
What were Israel’s goals when it attacked Gaza on the Sabbath (Dec. 27, a Saturday)? There are many analyses focusing on this question. No matter what, it is obvious that the attacks were not the culmination of a new plan and subsequent decisions. Reliable sources show that this civilian carnage was planned a long time ago.
David vs Goliath, the IDF vs Hamas
Lithograph letter illustrating The Child’s Bible Illustrated from a 19th century serial publication./p>
When the once holy land of Biblical proportions is the issue on the front page of every newspaper, politics must make way for metaphor. The Israeli plan to bring down Hamas echoes with Samson bringing down the temple on the Philistines. Lots of Philistines were killed that memorable day, but only with a martyr’s mentality. Plug in “Gazans” or “Israelis” for “Philistines,’ and the martydom makes both scenarios equally mad. Moving forward in Biblical time, the Philistines did not disappear as a thorn in the side of Israel. Today, well beyond the world of the prophets, the jet fighters and tanks of the IDF have replaced David’s sling, but search as the military scanners may there is no Goliath in modern Gaza. Was Sophocles still writing for the stage, the ongoing Israel/Palestine tragedy would make Oedipus Rex look like Twelfth Night. How unbiblical a thought.
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And nobody protest the air attacks on innocent Kurdish civilians the last 25 years…
Turkey shows its hypocritic side once and a while.
No assimilitation for Turks in Europe, but forced assimilation of ‘the Others’ in Turkey’.
Churches are burned down or turned into ‘musea’…
Country of tolerance…country of Cultural integration…
Kindest
hans
such an analogy, mostly made by Kurdish nationalists…
this is the third time i hear it in a single day from Euopean friends; i guess this is because of the guilt of being a European and letting helpless massacred, again and again…
I’m not a Kurdish nationalist..))
And we are all responsible, EU, Turkey, Arab world, USA…
Don’t blame this only on ‘Europeans’…
And the Turks didnt massacred anyone?..))
Kindest
hans
hi hans, i dont know you but the comment you made does not make sense to me. yes, the turks did not protest the attacks on Kurds and it was a bad thing that they did not, as they were passive on the Armenian genocide, Susurluk case, and the list goes on… But it is good that they are (not only Turks I believe, but Kurds, and other ethnic groups) protesting the Israeli attacks now. What is wrong with it? Is it really hypocrisy that they are protesting?
Hi Ebru,
There is nothing wrong with protesting the massacre of Palestinians, but it looks like that Turkey shout loudest, while I think that they have some other issues to solve first as put on Internations.
Kindest
hans