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In this mailing:
by Burak Bekdil
• August 11, 2016 at 5:00 am
- Europe is
giving signals, albeit slowly, that it may be waking up from the
"Turkey-the-bridge" dream. Germany's Foreign Minister
Frank-Walter Steinmaier said that his country's relations with
Turkey have grown so bad the two countries have virtually "no
basis" for talks.
- "Italy
should be attending to the mafia, not my son," said Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Typically, he does not understand
the existence of independent judiciary in a European country. He
thinks, as in an Arab sheikdom, prosecutors are liable to drop
charges on orders from the prime minister.
- "We know
that the democratic standards are clearly not sufficient to justify
[Turkey's] accession [to the European Union]." — Austrian
Chancellor Christian Kern.
Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmaier
(right) said that his country's relations with Turkey under Recep Tayyip
Erdogan have grown so bad the two countries have virtually "no
basis" for talks.
Nations do not have the luxury, as people often do, of choosing
their neighbors. Turkey, under the 14-year rule of Recep Tayyip Erdogan's
Islamist governments, and neighboring both Europe and the Middle East,
was once praised as a "bridge" between Western and Islamic
civilizations. Its accession into the European Union (EU) was encouraged
by most EU and American leaders. Nearly three decades after its official
bid to join the European club, Turkey is not yet European but has become
one of Europe's problems.
Europe's "Turkish problem" is not only about the fact that
in a fortnight a bomb attack wrecked a terminal of the country's biggest
airport and a coup attempt killed nearly 250 people; nor is it about who
rules the country. It is about the undeniable democratic deficit both in
governance and popular culture.
by Shoshana Bryen
• August 11, 2016 at 4:00 am
- 100% of the
money will be spent in the U.S., while Israel is presently able to
spend 25% in Israel. This is a subsidy for U.S. defense industries
and constrains Israel's defense choices by forcing the IDF to
exclude weapons from Europe and elsewhere.
- Without the
ability to spend some money in Israel, it will be harder for
smaller defense and high-tech industries to keep up.
- Israel will be
prohibited from asking Congress for additional funds for ten years,
effectively removing a bipartisan center of support for Israel's
security from the equation and reducing Israel's flexibility in
addressing rapidly emerging threats.
- This could be
particularly problematic: an administration that opposes missile
defense in principle -- as does the Obama administration -- could
effectively stifle Israel, which protects its people with a layered
missile defense system.
It is hard to get the nuance right in a security
arrangement between a superpower and a small country, even if the small
country is a first-world democracy in terms of education, income,
technology, and political structure. Above, Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu meets President Barack Obama at the White House, May
20, 2011. (Image source: Israel PM office)
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is an agreement between two
parties -- in this case, the governments of Israel and the United States.
It is less than a treaty, more than a handshake. The first MOU was signed
in 1981, recognizing "the common bonds of friendship between the
United States and Israel and builds on the mutual security relationship
that exists between the two nations." The current MOU, signed in
2007, represented a 10-year commitment. The Obama Administration and the
government of Israel have been negotiating a new 10-year agreement that
will come into effect in 2017.
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