For the longest time I’ve listened to conversation of the deaf between the liberal
Israeli Left and the Muslim world. It was so obvious to me that both sides were talking a different language, albiet using English words. I recently read an essay by Dror Eydar in Israel Hayom.
Talk about an apology to Turkey comes under the category of a rational Western debate. In fact, in a liberal debate, an apology is perceived as a mature matter and a gesture of good will to open a new page and leave the older pages filled with disagreements behind. But we do not live in a Western region. The heartbeats in our region are thousands of years old, and they show up in our ancient regional myths. They blow up on us time after time in the form of naïve liberal voices who consider themselves utterly deep and sophisticated.
I am talking about the subconscious style of language in the region, including political language. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or President Shimon Peres can meet Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, since the language they speak is supposedly universal, but only supposedly. Erdogan no longer represents the Kamalist values of the secular Turkish revolution. He represents an entirely different world, one that is religious and mythological, from which he originated, and to which he is headed. In that world, relinquishing the national honor, or a leader’s honor, is perceived very differently. It may end up damaging the country itself, and lead to war, heaven forbid.
Although most Israeli media pundits (primarily holder of Left wing political beliefs) criticized Prime Minister Natenyahu’s refusal to apologize, mentioning that National Honor was of Strategic Value here in the Middle East, as so much catering to the right-wing ministers in his government. I believe that after careful reading of books like “The Closed Circle” and almost forty years of direct contact with Arabs of all persuasions – he wasn’t far off the mark!
Interested in learning more? Check out a powerful and insightful book by David Pryce-Jones, The Closed Circle.
