Bad news for US-Turkey relations and maybe worse news for the Turkish economy.
US-Turkey ties go from bad … US-Turkey bilateral relations already were fractious, given US support for Kurdish groups Turkey considers terrorists and Turkey’s purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system.
… to worse. And now Turkish President
Joe Biden of writing history with your bloody hands because of US support for Israel, in the context of an emotional diatribe on behalf of the Palestinians. On Monday, Erdogan said in a televised speech that a “Jewish prime minister” had told him he took “greatest pleasure” to kill Palestinians when the unnamed official was a general in the Israel Defense Forces. “This is part of their (Israelis) nature and “they are only satisfied by sucking blood. The US State Department called out Erdogan for anti-semitic and incendiary remarks. Erdogan’s communication director
(Clay Enos/Warner Bros. Entertainment via AP)
Israeli actress Gal Gadot, best known for her portrayal of “Wonder Woman” on the big screen, issued an urgent plea for peace on Wednesday, as Palestinians continued to indiscriminately pound Israel with rockets and the Israelis stepped up retaliatory strikes, reportedly taking out top Palestinian commanders and leveling multiple buildings.
Here’s a bit of background, via The Daily Wire:
Responding to a barrage of thousands of rockets against Jewish civilians launched by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad from the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have executed hundreds of precise strikes against terrorist targets.
A week ago, it looked like Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu might, after four indecisive elections and facing an ongoing corruption trial, finally be on the way out. The eruption of violence between Israel and the Palestinians could change that.
Brief timeout. Until running street violence in Jerusalem crescendoed into Hamas rocket attacks on Israel and Israeli aerial attacks in Gaza, it had seemed likely that Israel was going to get a new government in the coming days, unified only in its opposition to Netanyahu. The path seemed to pass through
Mansour Abbas, who leads the United Arab List (Ra’am), which was going to be the final piece of a coalition of anti-Netanyahu parties. Center-left There is a Future (Yesh Atid) party leader
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Presented by the Alzheimer’s Association
With Marianne LeVine, Andrew Desiderio and Melanie Zanona.
CHEN REACTION: The House Freedom Caucus is wrestling with how to respond to the speedy efforts by GOP leaders to install Rep. Elise Stefanik as the No. 3 House Republican. HFC members are in a goldilocks and the three bears sort of situation as they consider a new conference chair.
Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu couldn’t form a government by May 4, so next up is Yesh Atid (There is a Future) Chair
Yair Lapid.
Done deal? Lapid already has a pact with Jewish Home Party (Yamina) leader
Naftali Bennett to divide the prime ministerial duties, with Bennett going first, in a coalition built on nothing more than a shared determination to end Netanyahu’s run as prime minister the longest in Israel’s history. That is if they can assemble the coalition.
Closing ranks. It remains to be seen whether Bennett’s far-right constituency will accept a deal with Lapid, the left and likely Arab Knesset members. Yamina Knesset member