Ibrahim wrote:I'm not saying you're wrong about the Druze and Circassians, or the Turkish military preference for Muslims (Turkey is %98 Muslim). I guess what I'm saying is that I don't see how this is related to "Original Palestinian Jews in the 19th Century. I also don't really care that much. The Turkish military is full of meat heads, and we know that because its a military. Israeli is nice to Druze and Circassians? Neat, but not really the top of the list of important facts about Israel. Maybe that Druze pilot got to fly some air strikes in the last invasion of Lebanon.
Meat heads: Until recently, until the top Turkish officers were dismissed due to their secular attitudes ( by the way, I do agree that there should be no military coups by the way, even the military coup against Erbakan a few decades ago was wrong, I will cover Professor Erbakan extensively in a special thread dedicated to his political movement later) by the current new government, there were a lot less meat heads in the Turkish military, as this profession (being an officer) attracted very dedicated Turks with high morals and high intelligence. I cannot prove this but there are many articles saying that these officers were dismissed for political reasons, not due to a massive conspiracy to overthrow the government as advertised, and these officers were replaced with more religious ones. I don't mean to insult to religious people, Newton was very religious, but clearly the caliber of the new officers declined significantly with the politically motivated appointments.
The reason the Druze decided to cast their lot with the Israelis is because they are a sect that Arabs discriminate against. It is possible that the Druze pilot may have flown in some air strikes not only in Lebanon against Hezbollah, but even against Hamas in Gaza.
The Circassians are also in good shape in Israel, and they too decided to cast their lot with the Israelis, as they find more freedom in Israel, even though unlike the Druze, the Circassians are officially considered Muslim by the Arabs.
The fact that many non-Jews in Israel, especially the pure-Muslim Circassians and the quasi-Muslim Druze cult are not discriminated like the Palestinians is a very important thing about Israel. It shows that if the Palestinians show more tolerance, the Israelis will also reciprocate.
As a digression that is not irrelevant to show that Israel is not anti-Muslim, consider the GREAT relations between Israel and Azerbaijan that is both Muslim and Turkish speaking (never mind AzeriLoveIran insisting that Azeris are of Iranian ancestry and that the Ottomans forced Azeris to learn Turkish, the bottom like is that the Azeri people think they are Turkish). Azerbaijan and overall almost all of the Turkic former Soviet republics have less than zero antisemitism, despite the wars between Israel and Palestinians, as well as the Mavi Marmara event covered on Azeri television.
The Mavi Marmara incident was severely criticized in Azerbaijan, but this did NOT lead to any increase in antisemitism there.
Here the Azeri Rabbi (Mountain Jews are neither Ashkenazic nor Sephardic/Mizrahi, many of them were connected with the Khazar Turkish Empire) in Azerbaijan, praying for the Azeri Army that lost the war in Karabagh 20 years ago. The Imam, the Rabbi and two priests are praying together in Azerbaijan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHMGOHhTZ58&feature=plcp
The same Azeri Rabbi reads a poem for the Jewish Azeri Tank Commander Albert Agarunov who fought and died in the war against Armenia 20 years ago. Here he uses the word Allah to refer to God, and the Azeri Turks pray for the soul of their Jewish soldier who became a national hero and they say "inşallah":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNnU5MU0MDQ&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ewTTlrGznE&feature=plcp
This is the grave of that Jewish Azeri tank commander who is an official national hero. On the grave it is written that he is the national hero:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SJL34k-rOo
Here is a detailed video about Azerbaijan war 20 years ago, where Albert Agarunov was interviewed before he died in combat. The interview is at time t=2:56: In this interview he proudly says he is Jewish and that he feels obliged to serve in the Azeri army. There were many other Azeri Jews who fought in this war:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwrQ97kDo0s
Although Azerbaijan lost this war and the result was a clear Armenian victory 20 years ago, Albert destroyed 9 Armenian tanks and 2 armored trucks. Albert also destroyed the tank of the leading rival Armenian tank commander in a famous artillery duel, and he became a legend in Azerbaijan. The Armenians decided that he was an important target and offered a big financial reward to anyone who can kil him. In the end Albert was killed by a sniper bullet.
But the bottom line is that Azerbaijan did not see any increase in antisemitism despite the Israel/Palestine wars or the Mavi Marmara incident. This diverges significantly from the situation in Turkey. Azerbaijan likes Israel despite the Mavi Marmara incident.
You won't believe the next video but here it is. Although the Armenian massacre by the Ottomans was recognized in Europe, no significant recognition was given for the corresponding massacre of Azeris by the invading Armenians 20 years ago in the Karabagh war.
Thus the Azeri politicians went to Israel to ask for the Israeli political support to get the Europeans to recognize the Khodjaly massacre and the 600,000 Azeris who were ethnically cleansed by the Armenians 20 years ago. In this next video (which has 4 parts), the Azeri representative lectures in Israel, and instead of lecturing in English, she speaks in Turkish because there are a lot of Azeri Jews who feel nostalgia in Israel, and as she speaks there is translation in Hebrew, so I was able to understand both in Turkish and Hebrew. Basically this Azeri representative brought to Israel her new book about the massacre of Azeris 20 years ago, imploring Israelis to speak to the European human rights organizations on their behalf.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0vxZZaKtt8
But the following lecture in Israel is in English, so you can understand everything. In this video another Azeri representative speaks about the good relations between Israel and Azerbaijan, please watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft6oWjeb ... ure=relmfu