Tehran

Over the past week, there's been a lot of talk over how the West has "lost" Turkey. Even Defense Secretary Robert Gates seems to be buying into this line of thinking.

It could almost make you cry.

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan's seemingly limitless concern for the oppressed and downtrodden has been in high gear of late - and he's mobilized his country's diplomats to echo his anguish. But wait, that empathy is reserved solely for the people of Gaza.

Stephen Kinzer is a journalist of a certain cheeky fearlessnes and exquisite timing. In his new book he's ahead of the game again.

First came the clash at Davos in January 2009, when Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan walked off the stage after an angry exchange with the Israeli president, Shimon Peres during a panel discussion on Gaza at the World Economic Forum. Then came the surprise uranium deal with Tehran, undermining Western pressure on Iran to come clean about its nuclear program, followed by the Israeli assault on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which sailed under Turkish flags, sending shockwaves throughout the world.

The international crisis over the Israeli raid on the on the Gaza "Peace Flotilla" was not yet over, but the usual suspects were already sending me emails with horrific pictures of the Armenian Genocide - and it was a Genocide - by the Turkish army in 1915 as well as other Turkey-bashing stuff providing details about the Turkish illegal occupation and colonization (150,000 settlers) of (northern) Cyprus and the government's brut

The media tirade against Helen Thomas is as illogical as it is hysterical. The few sentences uttered by her were, as she quickly acknowledged, wrong--deeply so, I would add. But they cannot justify the road-rage destruction of the dean of the Washington press corps. Suddenly this heroic woman who broke so many gender barriers and dared to challenge presidential arrogance was reduced to nothing more than the stereotypical anti-Israel Arab that it is so fashionable to hate.

Until quite recently, it seemed that Turkey had a clearly defined role in the Middle East, from the standpoint of U.S. policy. They were the "good Muslims," who were part of NATO, who contributed troops to U.S. wars, and who had good relations with Israel.

Why would Israel, in a deliberate and methodical operation planned over a week in advance -- according to statements by senior Israeli military commanders made in Hebrew-language media days before the attack -- target an unarmed ship on a humanitarian mission flying the flag of Comoros? (Unlike Turkey, Comoros is a party of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which has jurisdiction over war crimes committed on vessels of member states.)

"During his campaign for the 2008 election, Mr. Obama promised to brand the mass killings genocide." That's how the left-wing BBC described one of Barack Obama's promises in his most successful election campaign of two springs ago. It seemed so easy then to satisfy every group of voters. Everyone, it seemed, was getting in step behind the pied piper.

By Stephen P. Cohen
Author, "Beyond America's Grasp: A Century of Failed Diplomacy in the Middle East."

Until the tragic and reckless Israeli raid on the Gaza flotilla, three recent developments dominated the current environment in the Middle East and offered President Obama opportunities for successful Arab-Israeli peacemaking:
• Proximity talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis finally began, creating a slim hope of breaking the impasse on that front.
• A very wide international consensus emerged on further sanctions against Iran.