Israel's new government: steps towards a civil society (not so quickly)

Here is an excerpt of my latest in Today's Zaman (20 March 2013):

Even if on the surface the demand that the Haredim also serve in the army seems just, we need to remember that it was secular Jewish politicians in the first place who extended exemptions to them and facilitated their strong influence. Second, demands that they serve in the army are irrational since it is questionable whether or not the military establishment believes they can be integrated into the ranks, due to their strict religious demands; not to mention the question if the army is ready to restructure a force that is based greatly on the integration of women, and not the segregation of sexes.

More importantly, why demand from the Haredim to serve, yet ignore the fact that there is no consensus concerning the recruitment of Palestinian citizens of the Israeli state, who make up 20 percent of the population, and are considered by some Israeli Jews as an internal threat. Concerning this case, there have been calls for the Arab community to commit to doing community service in place of the army. However, due to the fact that the Arabs suffer legal and social discrimination at the hands of the state and society, Israeli Jews are fooling themselves if they think they will agree to this. Moreover, the Arabs only need to look as far as the small Arab Druze community who are forced to serve in the army, and some Bedouin communities who volunteer, to demonstrate that army service by no means brings equality.

To continue reading, here is the link

A Brief look at January: Israeli Elections and Turkish media

Due to a very tiring January writing two policy articles (both will be posted here once published), and a post-election op-ed article (see below), unfortunately I am only now able to submit a post-election update with links to interviews I took part in. 

Israeli Elections covered in Milliyet

In addition to the articles, I also was overwhelmed by the intensive election coverage in Turkey, being interviewed on three Turkish television channels. The evening of the elections, I was interviewed on Cuneyt Ozdemir's 5N1K evening program, the next day on T24, and the following evening, I was on SkyTurk's evening news program with Korcan Karar. In addition, I also gave three newspaper interviews, with the newspapers Milliyet, Agos, and Zaman. 

In addition to this, I participated in a fascinating symposium on the Israeli elections and its regional's implications, at Kadir Has University, together with professors Salih Bicakci, Ufuk Ulutas (SETA), and Karel Valansi, a columnist at Shalom (Turkish Jewish newspaper) and moderated by Professor Mitat Celikpala.  Due to the fact that we were speaking the morning after the elections, we spent the most time speculating how Yair Lapid's surprise success in elections, raking in 19 seats, would change the political map. Further, we talked about prospects for renewed Turkish-Israeli relations, and the future of the region in the wake of the ongoing war in Syria.  

Sreen shot of my interview on CNN TURK

In the above talk and interviews, I stressed my hope that Israeli will apologize for the Gaza Flotilla incident, which led to the death of nine Turkish citizens, almost three years ago (see Haaretz article below).

All of the attention the Israeli elections was receiving in Turkey led me to the conclusion that what was actually missing was Israeli coverage of how the elections were being covered in Turkey. Therefore, I wrote an article for Haaretz, which was entitled Cheering then Cursing: Israel and Turkey's Volaitle Relations should be a Priority, and focuses on a history of the relations between the two states, especially during the last decade. Further, it looked at the elections as a chance for Israel to patch up its bad relations with Turkey.