You may have seen this story:
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday described Zionism as a "crime against humanity" on par with anti-Semitism and fascism.Is attacking Zionism the moral equivalent of attacking Jews? You decide. In any case, needless to say, Erdogan's statement is being denounced as anti-Semitic.
Speaking in Vienna at a United Nations event devoted to dialogue between the West and Islam, Erdogan decried rising racism in Europe and the fact that many Muslims "who live in countries other than their own" often face harsh discrimination.
"We should be striving to better understand the culture and beliefs of others, but instead we see that people act based on prejudice and exclude others and despise them," Erdogan said, according to a simultaneous translation provided by the UN. "And that is why it is necessary that we must consider -- just like Zionism or anti-Semitism or fascism -- Islamophobia as a crime against humanity." ...
Now, guess who's responsible for it, according to Jennifer Rubin.
You see when we put in high office someone who dabbles in anti-Jew rhetoric world leaders take it as a green light freebeacon.com/erdogans-error/
— Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) February 28, 2013
Yup: according to Jennifer Rubin, the prime minister of Turkey made an anti-Zionist remark because the United States made Chuck Hagel defense secretary.
So I guess the 2010 Ha'aretz story titled "Israel Accuses Turkish PM of Inciting Anti-Semitism" is evidence that Hagel's reward from the White House for surviving the confirmation process was access to a super-secret Defense Department time machine.
And hmmm ... I find that Erdogan has been charged with making anti-Semitic remarks as far back as 1997, when he was mayor of Istanbul. And what about this YouTube clip, said to be an anti-Semitic remark in a 1993 Erdogan speech? Or, for that matter, what about the reportedly anti-Semitic play Erdogan wrote in 1974?
I guess that DoD time machine is really, really powerful. Right, Jennifer?
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And if you're wondering, even the story Rubin links from the clownish Free Beacon doesn't hang this remark around Hagel's neck. That's all her idea.
