Turkish Educational Institutions Are Raising a Generation to Hate Israel

Addressing the United Nations yesterday, the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the General Assembly to recommend the use of force to stop Israel from fighting back against Hamas, Hizballah, and other terrorist groups. This, however, is mere rhetoric, unlikely to translate into real action. Perhaps more consequential are Erdogan’s educational reforms, which could poison future reconciliation between Jerusalem and Ankara with their powerful strain of anti-Israel indoctrination. Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak observes how this curriculum evokes the Ottoman victory over British forces at Gallipoli during World War I:

[I]n its quest to create its own ideal pan-Islamist Turkish citizen, Erdoğan’s Ministry of National Education had no problem associating Gallipoli with Gaza. By referencing the Gallipoli War Monument, which features the symbolic war helmets of soldiers who joined the Ottoman army from Jerusalem and Gaza, the ministry sought to emphasize the brotherly relations between Turks and Palestinians. This was done while completely disregarding their betrayal and collaboration with British forces during the Arab Revolt of 1916–1918, which led to Ottoman-Turkish casualties and the loss of the entire Middle East.

In addition, by drawing this parallel between Gallipoli and Gaza, the ministry reiterated President Erdoğan’s April 17 speech in the parliament that equated Hamas with the Turkish independence-war fighters. This comparison implicitly seeks to delegitimize Israel.

Read more at Dayan Center

More about: Anti-Semitism, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey, World War I

Egypt Is Trapped by the Gaza Dilemma It Helped to Create

Feb. 14 2025

Recent satellite imagery has shown a buildup of Egyptian tanks near the Israeli border, in violation of Egypt-Israel agreements going back to the 1970s. It’s possible Cairo wants to prevent Palestinians from entering the Sinai from Gaza, or perhaps it wants to send a message to the U.S. that it will take all measures necessary to keep that from happening. But there is also a chance, however small, that it could be preparing for something more dangerous. David Wurmser examines President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi’s predicament:

Egypt’s abysmal behavior in allowing its common border with Gaza to be used for the dangerous smuggling of weapons, money, and materiel to Hamas built the problem that exploded on October 7. Hamas could arm only to the level that Egypt enabled it. Once exposed, rather than help Israel fix the problem it enabled, Egypt manufactured tensions with Israel to divert attention from its own culpability.

Now that the Trump administration is threatening to remove the population of Gaza, President Sisi is reaping the consequences of a problem he and his predecessors helped to sow. That, writes Wurmser, leaves him with a dilemma:

On one hand, Egypt fears for its regime’s survival if it accepts Trump’s plan. It would position Cairo as a participant in a second disaster, or nakba. It knows from its own history; King Farouk was overthrown in 1952 in part for his failure to prevent the first nakba in 1948. Any leader who fails to stop a second nakba, let alone participates in it, risks losing legitimacy and being seen as weak. The perception of buckling on the Palestine issue also resulted in the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat’s assassination in 1981. President Sisi risks being seen by his own population as too weak to stand up to Israel or the United States, as not upholding his manliness.

In a worst-case scenario, Wurmser argues, Sisi might decide that he’d rather fight a disastrous war with Israel and blow up his relationship with Washington than display that kind of weakness.

Read more at The Editors

More about: Egypt, Gaza War 2023