Turkey and Israel: 'On' Again, Only to Be 'Off' Again

by Burak Bekdil • December 8, 2022 at 5:00 am

Turkey's Islamist strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, appears to be on yet another hoax charm offensive: he is faking the restoration of diplomatic relations with Israel and Egypt, and even signalling peace with President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria.
He needs to look pretty to his Middle East nemeses to A) avoid further Western sanctions, B) wink at Washington, and C) raise some international cash flows into the badly ailing Turkish economy that threatens to end his reign after two decades of uninterrupted rule.
Erdoğan and his ministers pledged to isolate Israel internationally. Instead, it was Turkey that was isolated by the international community, including the European Union, the US, Israel, Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
There will always be the risk of Turkish-Israeli friction, including the possibility of a new break up, as long as any Islamist regime in Turkey refuses fully to respect the Jewish state's sovereignty and admit that Hamas is a terrorist entity that aims to annihilate Israel by any means necessary (see Hamas charter).
Come May 2023, with the commemoration day of the "Nakba" ("catastrophe") -- meaning the loss by five invading Arab armies of the war they had initiated to try to destroy Israel in 1948 -- there is likely to be a new escalation of hostilities with a fresh wave of Hamas violence, and Israel's response to Hamas's violence, then Turkey's response to Israel's response. Erdoğan will try to exploit this in Turkey's June presidential elections.
Once again Erdoğan plans to be shining as the anti-Zionist, Islamist neo-Ottoman sultan, the savior of oppressed Muslims!

Turkey's Islamist strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, appears to be on yet another hoax charm offensive: he is faking the restoration of diplomatic relations with Israel and Egypt, and even signalling peace with President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria -- in addition to his earlier reconciliation efforts with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He needs to look pretty to his Middle East nemeses to A) avoid further Western sanctions, B) wink at Washington, and C) raise some international cash flows into the badly ailing Turkish economy that threatens to end his reign after two decades of uninterrupted rule.

It is true that foreign policy is often more about interests, rather than love and hate. Erdoğan, however, represents a school of his own: pragmatism in dire times blended with high doses of ideology and emotion. He once suggested that Zionism must be designated a crime against humanity. The civilized world was shocked.

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Apple Crushes Dissent in America and China

by Daniel Greenfield • December 8, 2022 at 4:00 am

"Think Different", Apple's slogan, actually means collaborating with a Communist dictatorship where thinking differently is a crime. And it also means suppressing free speech in America.
That's why Apple is threatening free speech on Twitter just as it's threatening it in Shanghai.
What China had to offer was mass production under a ruthlessly totalitarian system that would, when Steve Jobs decided to revamp the iPhone a month before launch, wake up 8,000 workers at midnight for a 12 hour shift.
After Jobs' death... CEO Tim Cook [signed] a secret $275 billion pact to help Communist China develop "the most advanced manufacturing technologies" and vowed to use even more Chinese technology in Apple's products.
When the Hong Kong protests began, the streets filled with young men and women, most of whom... believed the hype that it was a noble company that didn't just make gadgets, but aspired to harness human creativity for a better world. Instead, Apple quickly moved to suppress the protests by removing an app used by the protesters to avoid police.
A year before Jobs died, 14 men and women jumped from buildings at Apple's Foxconn Chinese contractors.... workers were forced to sign contracts promising not to kill themselves. Afterward nets were hung up to catch the falling bodies.
[W]ith protests breaking out against zero-Covid tyranny breaking out in China, people were once again surprised when Apple rushed to aid Communist China's crackdown by preventing protesters from using AirDrop to communicate and coordinate their activities.
They believed, like so many Americans and Europeans, that Apple stood for something. And Apple does. It stands for tyranny.
That's why Apple is threatening Twitter's place in its App Store because under Elon Musk the platform has begun to offer the very thing Apple is helping China stamp out: freedom.
Apple isn't a great American company, it's a great Chinese company.
The real message of "Think Different" wasn't that everyone ought to think differently, but that geniuses are a superior group who ought to have the unlimited power to rigorously implement their vision.
The company doesn't empower its customers, it tricks them into giving up control so that they can be better controlled.
That is why it's coming for Twitter and threatening it over its newfound free speech.

"Think Different", Apple's slogan, actually means collaborating with a Communist dictatorship where thinking differently is a crime. And it also means suppressing free speech in America. Pictured: Flags of Communist China are displayed in front of an Apple store in Shanghai on October 9, 2021. (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

The largest lockdown uprising in China took place at facilities run by Apple's Foxconn supplier, where workers had previously jumped to their deaths. After thousands fled the Apple gulag, making their way through the woods and rural areas to freedom, other employees battled with Communist authorities over abusive conditions and treatment in the iGulag.

Apple had nothing to say about the rights of those workers who thought differently enough to break free and fight back. If they were foolish enough to have iPhones, there's little doubt the company would have eagerly helped authorities track them down to be imprisoned or killed.

"Think Different", Apple's slogan, actually means collaborating with a Communist dictatorship where thinking differently is a crime. And it also means suppressing free speech in America.

That's why Apple is threatening free speech on Twitter just as it's threatening it in Shanghai.

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