00:00It's really unfortunate to see how isolated Israel indeed is, even with its closest allies
00:05these days. But I do believe that Turkey actually has a very positive role to play. And I think
00:13from a personal perspective, I think it's quite a shame that in the post-October 7th
00:19environment, because of Turkey's very well-placed relations with Hamas, it was able to usher Hamas
00:26into a new era following the atrocities of October 7th and turn Hamas somehow into a legitimate
00:33political player that could maybe one day integrate into the PLO, into the legitimate framework of the
00:39Palestinian government and usher elections. Instead, I feel like the Erdogan government has just
00:48kind of used its position to fan the flames of dissent between President Abu Mazen and the Hamas
00:56leadership or whatever's left of it. And unfortunately, Hamas hasn't learned and nobody's
01:01really helped it adopt this mentality that, yes, you can be an Islamic government or a very pro,
01:09you know, even Muslim Brotherhood ideology government and still, you know, forego
01:15indiscriminate killing of civilians like it did on October 7th. And I think that's a missed
01:19opportunity. Maybe there's still time to help usher Hamas in that direction. But I think just as
01:25Israel's suffering serious challenges in its democratic arena, I think so too, the Palestinians
01:31are. And I think Turkey here has a very positive role to play if it wants to play it. I
01:37think Turkey
01:37also has certain regional aspirations, just like Israel does. You know, there's maybe a power struggle
01:43over Syria and, you know, how each country would like to see the future Syria. But yes, there are things
01:50behind the scenes that might be more positive than the, you know, the statements made by politicians.
01:54There still is security cooperation. That's quite good. So hopefully things can get better.
Comments