Why Israel's Hezbollah strike didn't bother Turkey's Islamists

On Jan. 18 news broke that Israel attacked a Hezbollah convoy moving in the Syrian Golan Heights. Although Israeli sources have not officially confirmed the attack, Hezbollah has confirmed it lost six senior officials along with an Iranian general from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The attack came at a time when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were engaged in a heated war of words about who should or should not have been present at the Paris solidarity march condemning the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks.

In his address at an Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) gathering in Istanbul on Jan. 21, Erdogan brought up Israeli attacks on Gaza and how the West turned a blind eye to Israeli atrocities. He again ridiculed Netanyahu for the Paris march. However, there was not a word about the Jan. 18 Israeli attack on Hezbollah forces. Intriguingly, as of Jan. 22, there was no comment or condemnation from the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the incident. Pro-Justice and Development Party (AKP) media were silent on the attack as well. A journalist from the government news agency Anadolu, Samet Dogan, tweeted Jan. 18: “In 2006, Hezbollah was at war [with Israel] with the support of the Sunnis. Now, they are alone. God erases one murderer with another.” Other social media users made comments that the fight between Hezbollah and Israel was nothing more than a deception.

Although most pro-AKP media ignored the attack until Hezbollah leadership made the headlines saying, “Hold tight for an attack, prepare your bunkers,” to the Israeli authorities. The Islamist daily Yeni Akit reported this headline with no reference to the names of those killed or the details of the incident. This silence was not lost on some of the social media users, as one mocked AKP supporters in a tweet: “There is commotion on the Lebanese border. Israel is on alert. Let AKP supporters defend the nation against Hezbollah along with Israel on the Golan Heights.” Opposition groups have been implying how Israel and Turkey are in a tacit agreement over Syria.

Middle East expert and journalist for the Hurriyet daily Ali Ornek told Al-Monitor, “I do not think Erdogan’s attitude toward Hezbollah has changed much over the last decade. Remember, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had criticized Erdogan for remaining indifferent toward the struggle in southern Lebanon in 2006 [the Israel-Hezbollah war]. After the Syrian civil war, of course, Erdogan’s discontent with Hezbollah has increased.”