How Erdogan exploits Syrian refugees
Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan had hoped a wave of Syrian refugees, created with assistance to the Islamic State, would force NATO to act against Syria's Bashar al-Assad, and when that failed, he allowed the refugees to move westward to pressure Europe.
So far, Israel has not made any public comments about what lies behind the wave of Middle Eastern refugees now sweeping across Europe. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is proud that no illegal immigrants have gained access to Israel via Egypt since his erection of a fence along the southern border. At a ceremony on Sept. 6 to mark the start of a new fence along Israel’s eastern border with Jordan, Netanyahu said, “This is a success that almost no Western country — and very few countries at all — has been able to achieve, but Israel has achieved it, and I am determined to continue this on Israel's other borders.” At the same event, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said, “We can see the stream of refugees washing over Europe. What is happening in Europe could have happened to us, had we not behaved in an intelligent manner.”
Senior Israeli political sources consider the current wave of refugees additional proof of what they call “President Barack Obama’s failed Middle East policy.” “If Obama had bombed [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad, all of this would have been avoided,” said a senior source who requested anonymity. He was referring to two years ago, when Assad crossed the US president’s “red line” by using chemical weapons, but instead of attacking, Obama decided on disarmament. In response to a question about what would stop the flood of refugees now, the source said, “There is no way of avoiding boots on the ground in a simultaneous attack against Assad and the Islamic State [IS].”
