04 September 2011

Turkey blows a fuse

Okay, so I got it wrong, and The Guardian hasn't yet reported on the Palmer Report, although you'd think they would have someone scanning the net and the BBC News website to keep an eye on interesting things, especially to fuel their unusual take on the Middle East. However, what they do report is that Turkey is planning to take Israel to the International Court of Justice over the naval (and possibly land) blockade of Gaza. Given that the UN Report specifically stated that the naval blockade was and is legal, one would expect them to be laughed out of court, but only after it's cost everyone lots of money, time and frustration. Of course, Turkey might be planning to challenge only the land blockade. In which case, why aren't they linking Egypt to the case? Also, given that anyone who keeps even half an eye on this issue knows just how much humanitarian aid goes through those crossing points and would guess that Turkey's chances of success at the Court are somewhere between very low and zero. Perhaps they are just trying to win brownie points with the Islamists and Jihadists.

This post was contributed by Brian Goldfarb.

10 comments:

Noga said...

It's interesting to see how irrationality and belligerence have evolved in direst ratio to Turkey's movement from a secular democracy to a semi-Islamist neo-Ottoman dictatorship.

Katie said...

A fuse?  Don't they have circuit breakers?  They are the safer option.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

This is all part of the package, I guess.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Definitely.

peterthehungarian said...

Snoopy do you really think that Turkey's chances are small to win a favorable (for them) judgment from the ICJ?
What happened  to the Legal Dept of the Elders Alliance?! All of you went totally nut?! The ICJ? ...For Israel's case? ....

SnoopyTheGoon said...

That's not Snoopy who authored this one, Peter. As for my opinion on the outcome: dunno, but ICJ will have to take into account the officiali UN position on the blockade.

jams o donnell said...

Hmm if the blockade is UN Sanctioned then what s the point of the court case

SnoopyTheGoon said...

The point Turks have in mind is that they may still get a knee-jerk judgment from ICJ

bhch said...

Let's not be overconfident.  Thankfully, Qaddafi is unlikely to attend the hearings as a judge, but countries like China will be there.  

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Well, let's wait.