this is telling (in which I try to be positive)

Remember the Israelis that thought they'd send a message to Turkey by sending their own boat to Cyprus? Well, Bibi is telling them not to, but look at why:

Israeli government officials persuaded the activists to cancel the voyage, because they were worried that the media attention would remind international media of the Gaza flotilla when most of the world’s attention had shifted to other issues like the British Petroleum spill and the World Cup.

“The publicity we already received did its part in reminding the world [that the Turks are occupiers],” one of the organizers of the flotilla said. “Personally it’s depressing for me that we didn’t get to go. But the government officials we spoke to were professionals, and they told us that doing it now was not right for the state, so we listened to them.”

Apparently paying attention to one occupation reminds you of others, who knew? At least Bibi is honest about his intentions, which is more than I can say for the people who cry about every other humanitarian problem in the world if you mention Palestine, and then conveniently forget about it. When they do it with issues that have been close to my heart for some time to provide cover for people who have been on my shitlist for a long time, it's personal. But it works both ways, if they want to play that game, good: it's the perfect oppourtunity to raise the issue of Palestine (and our own indigenous peoples for us North Americans) so go ahead and bring it.

If you read the American academics they really freak out when Armenian genocide is raised in US politics cause NATO is still a big deal. So long as there are troops in Iraq and Afghanistan Turkey still matters, not to mention that now that Turkey is no longer buying Israeli arms it opens up a big market for US manufacturers, which I guess is just another reason for me to be stoked for any signs of deterioration of that relationship. Despite my dislike of the Turkish state I still think the deterioration of relations with Israel is good however it happens, but I'm never going to see all these issues as mutually exclusive. I'm only glad that the Armenian Genocide is already recognized in Canada so I won't ever have to see Harper play that card, and playing is the right word.(link lifted from JSF, definitely one of my favourites of the many Jewish anti-Zionist blogs around.)