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I will never come back to Davos
Damn, we are all sitting here in open-mouthed astonishment.Turkish premier Tayyip Erdogan has just stormed off the rostrum after calling Israel's president Shimon Peres a "killer" to his face. Mr Peres in turn has been thundering and fulminating at the top of his voice for 25 minutes -- while the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sat in embarrased silence next to him, mostly looking at his shoes. The incensed leaders then walked out passed packed ranks of trembling Davos enthusiasts - all believers in civilized comity, and all horrified by this display of raw and visceral feeling - into a hall where a light-hearted Strauss Waltz being played with shocking insouciance. If we journalists missed our deadlines - and leaving a big gap in our newspapers tomorrow - you must forgive us, because we none could concentrate on anything as this extraordinary spectacle of Mid-East passion unfolded before our eyes. Mr Peres -- winner of the 1994 Nobel Peace prize -- had reason to be angry. The Turkish leader called today for the Obama administration to list Israel as a terrorist state for alleged atrocities against civilians in Gaza. "President Obama must redefine terror and terrorist organizations in the Middle East, and based on this new definition, a new American policy must be deployed in the Middle East," he said. This seems to have tipped Mr Peres over the edge. A genteel panel on Mid-East issues flew out of control after he let rip such eloquence and emotion that nobody dared stop him, and people sat enthralled, or in tears, or aghast, as he related how Hamas was deploying terror in Gaza. A hundred Fatah prisoners in Gaza had been thrown from roof-tops, he said. Dozens had been shot in the legs. The Gaza schools had become a Gulag of Palestinian prisoners, he said, reading aloud a letter from Fatah's secretary-general. "The tragedy of Gaza is not Israel, it is Hamas. They created a dictatorship. A very dangerous one." Israel had withdrawn its troops and settlements from Gaza. It had complied to the letter with all accords, yet it was still attacked, and bombed, and rocket daily. (I merely relate his words this without wishing to make any judgment of my own on a conflict that has killed 1,300 people in Gaza, and 14 Israelis) "What would you do?" he screamed into the face of Mr Erdogan, who sat stony faced, pulling slightly back, his legs twisted, his whole body language at war. "We have been a nation for sixty years, and which other nation has had to fight seven wars?" Mr Erdogan perhaps feels betrayed because Turkey was mediating on behalf of Israel when the Gaza occurred. "I saw this as a lack of respect for us and also a shadow cast over peace," he said. His Swiss trip has ended very badly. "I will never come back to Davos", he said as he strode out, complaining that his own rant had been cut short by the moderator. It has been a bad hair day for Turkey's pro-Islamic leader. The negotiations for an IMF stand-by loan broke down. "It's not the end of the world", he said. We'll see what the markets have to say about that tomorrow. Posted by: 3dc 2009-02-02 |
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