Will NATO be forced to choose between Israel and Turkey?
Turkey is whining again about NATO's use of information gathered from a NATO early warning station in Turkey whose equipment is supplied by the US. Turkey's obsession with Israel is leading them to raise the possibility that the US might share data with the Israelis (Hat Tip: Joshua I). But despite NATO’s assurances, the Turks do not feel comfortable. “The U.S. is a NATO member and Israel’s major ally. We do not think there can be effective mechanisms to stop the Pentagon if it wished to share data with Israel privately,” a senior Turkish security official said. “And this possibility has the risk of straining both Turkish-U.S. and Turkish-NATO alliance especially at a time when Turkey’s ties with both are very good.”This is headed for a situation where NATO will have to drastically scale back its cooperation with Israel, or it will be forced to terminate Turkey's membership. If anyone other than Obama were President, this would be a no-brainer. Israel provides NATO with military equipment and a geographical opening to the Arab world. It is a Western democracy like most of the NATO countries. Turkey is no longer the necessity that it was during the Cold War. It is amassing a human rights record that is just a step below Syria's or Iran's. It is in the process of turning itself into an Islamic Caliphate.
I would look for this to become an issue after the 2012 elections. If Obama loses, Israel wins. If Obama wins, I have some doubts as to which side wins out. But as much as Obama would have a free reign on foreign policy, I find it hard to believe that Congress would not block such an eventuality by withholding funding from NATO if it were to stop cooperating with Israel.
What could go wrong?
Labels: NATO, Turkish obsession with Israel
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:23 PM
2 Comments:
A third option, one which is more frightening would be for Obama to simply turn over the operations of the center to Turkey and not bother to check or worry about how they use it or who they share the information with.
Obama will have Turkey pick a fight with Israel, maybe over the Fabulous Drilling?, and then use NATO to whack Israel. Turkey, since it no longer wants to live a Western Civ life, should be take out of NATO and all the equipment they have on site from NATO or the U.S. should be repossessed. Same with Egypt. Same with Jordan, if they turn. VOTE OUT TEAM OBAMA AND THE DEMS! TOP TO BOTTOM!
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