Diary
David Cameron's politics of McCarthyism
27 July, 2010
As I am on holiday for a week, there will probably be no blogs until the following Friday.
Any pretence that David Cameron is a friend of Israel has been blown to smithereens today. In his visit to Turkey today, the PM made a series of scathing anti Israel remarks designed to placate his hosts, and much of the world media. He reiterated his belief that Israel's interception of the Turkish flotilla was 'completely unacceptable' and added that "Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp." "Humanitarian goods must flow in both directions," he added.
There was no mention of the Turkish IHH terror group that set out to cause a major international incident, no mention of the fact that Hamas terror is the real reason why Gaza is being blockaded, no mention of Egypt's blockade, no mention of the humanitarian assistance already given by Israel to improve life for Gazans. No, these were one sided remarks calculated to win favour with a Turkish audience.
But why is David Cameron, normally a man of shrewd judgement, going out of his way to insult his Israeli ally?' The answer is that he supports Turkey's proposed membership of the European Union. Indeed he has even accused those who oppose its membership of blatant Islamophobia.
But this implicit charge of racism is nothing short of scandalous. Granted, some national leaders may oppose Turkish membership for irrelevant historical and cultural reasons.
But there are serious reasons for why we should be wary of Turkey joining the EU. For one thing, it has a massive population which would give Turkey the second larges voting rights of any EU country by 2020. It also has a large rural population which would test the EU's finances and a number of question marks about human rights and democratic governance. More importantly, this country is ruled by a hard line Islamist who has turned Turkey into an ally of Iran and Syria. Do we really want these two sponsors of terror as neighbours of an enlarged Europe? It is a serious issue that cannot be trivialised.
But by condemning his detractors as racists, Cameron is silencing debate in the most egregious fashion. He is mimicking the worst features of New Labour's 'thought police' who used to viciously clamp down on critics of immigration and multiculturalism. He is engaging in the politics of McCarthyism and this is worse than misguided; it is evil.
Simon Mostyn
27/07/2010
I see arguments on both sides re Turkish membership of EU. DC probably thinks that if Turkey joins the EU, they will be more inclined to look West rather than East (towards Syria and Iran). With the state the EU is in at the moment, the thing I find baffling is why Turkey would want to join at the moment.