Having a pretty face doesn't prevent a person from being an inhumane racist. Ayelet Shaked, a Knesset member from the far-right Jewish Home Party, recently helped prove this with Facebook postings about Palestinians that left at least one Jewish columnist wanting to burn her own Israeli passport. Israel’s latest military operation against Gaza — deplorable as it is for the deadly and indiscriminate collective punishment it is inflicting on the inhabitants of the besieged Palestinian enclave — has also brought out the worst kind of racism and anti-Semitism in Turkey in the form of another woman — the pop star Yildiz Tilbe.

Tilbe, of Kurdish origin, created an uproar among liberal Turks with her highly offensive tweets following the start of the Israeli campaign. More significantly, however, she found support within the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which demonstrated once again that anti-Semitism is never far from the surface in Turkey. It has also been telling that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has chosen to remain silent about Tilbe's remarks although in the past he has equated Islamophobia with anti-Semitism, condemning both in equal measure.

“May Allah bless Hitler. What he did to them was too little. How correct the man was,” Tilbe tweeted on July 10. “The end of the Jews will be at the hands of Muslims. Allah permitting that will happen soon.” Reactions were quick in coming from liberal quarters, with many making sure to underline that they also condemn the Israeli operation.

A number of critics lambasted Tilbe for her inability to differentiate between criticizing Israel over its Palestinian policy and blatant anti-Semitism. Melih Gokcek — Ankara’s controversial, long-serving AKP mayor who has made a name for himself with less-than-diplomatic and often abrasive remarks against critics and rivals — was quick, however, to jump to the pop star's defense.