Current tensions caused by Turkey's actions in the Middle East could spur a major regional war, especially in light of recent clashes between Turkey and Greece, using navy fleets and air missiles. Also, due to Turkey's attempts to take control of Libya by transporting Syrian Islamic State group mercenaries to areas close to Sirte and Jufra — considered by Egypt a red line it will not allow the forces of the Government of National Accord (GNA), operating in Libya with Turkish support, to cross. Europe's inability to deter Turkey and the US's ambiguous position on provocative policies by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a reminder of how Europe addressed what became known as the Jewish “question” or “problem” starting in the 18th century. It seems that Europe (and behind it the US) view the risks caused by Turkey for Western interests as similar to the problems caused by Jews for Europe in the past. Since the “Jewish problem” was resolved by transplanting Jews to the Arab region and enabling them to create a state in Palestine, it appears that Europe is currently prepared to repeat this immoral and catastrophic policy to end the “Turkish problem” at the expense of the security and stability of Arab states. Similarities between the two issues, the Jewish question in the past and the Turkish question today, are based on the same views and justifications. The Jewish “problem” formed over long centuries beginning in the 15th century, but it did not clearly crystallise, nor was coined as a true problem for Europe, until the mid-18th century. It was finally resolved by creating the Jewish state of Israel in Palestine in 1948. During this long history, Europe's Jews lived in ghettos after European kingdoms and principalities isolated them under various pretexts, including the Catholic Church viewing them as cursed for conspiring against Jesus and handing him over to the Romans who later crucified him. Ruling authorities also took advantage of the jobs Jews occupied that were despised by the public, such as collecting taxes, running pawn shops, charlatanry, witchcraft and prostitution, especially in Eastern Europe, as more reason to expand hatred for Jews in society beyond religious reasons. During the Reformation in Europe and rise of the Protestant movement in the 16th century, the view of Jews transformed from a cursed class due to their crime against Jesus and their socially deplorable economic activities, into a class that can play a key role in achieving the prophecy of the Protestant movement. Most notably, the belief in Millenarianism, which is the second coming of Jesus when he returns to Earth to rid it of abundant evil and establish wise divine rule for 1,000 years. This belief requires Jews to return to the Promised Land in the Torah as a prelude for Christ's second coming. Despite the transformed outlook of Protestants towards Jews and their role in the second coming, their attitude overall was not much different from the days of Catholic Church dominance. Protestants continued to hold the same grudge and disdain towards Jews, and the desire to rid Europe of them, but not through confining them in ghettos and assigning them socially despised jobs as Catholicism did. Rather, by enticing them to leave the continent under a holy pretext; namely, returning to the Jewish kingdom in Palestine to greet Jesus upon his return. Since the beginning of the Zionist movement in the second half of the 18th century, it embraced Millenarianism and used it to promote its scheme to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. Thus, it guaranteed the support of Protestant circles in many European countries. Then came the conviction of French Jewish officer Alfred Dreyfus for treason, which further supported the Zionist movement at a time when it was having serious trouble convincing European Jews to emigrate to Palestine, due to the belief in Jewish integration into Western societies. However, the Dreyfus conviction showed Jews that European societies — even those influenced by the French Revolution and its slogan of nationalism irrespective of religion — still hate Jews, and that laws of citizenship and equality for all are nothing more than a grand illusion. Jewish communities in Europe became doubtful of integrating into these societies, which aided the Zionist movement in nurturing its scheme to create a Jewish state. Despite the infamous Balfour Declaration in 1917 in which Britain pledged to grant Jews a homeland in Palestine, European Jews were not too interested in emigrating there due to the influence of Orthodox rabbis, especially in Eastern Europe, who rejected the Zionist scheme under the pretext that it “hastens the salvation” of Jews. They argued that the salvation of God's Chosen People by re-establishing His Kingdom is the mission of the Divine, not man. It can be argued that the Zionist scheme would have withered if it wasn't for the rise of the Nazis in Germany in 1933. Their leader Adolf Hitler launched an “inverted urgency” for Jewish exodus, by ridding Europe of Jews since they were not leaving and waiting for God's will. He annihilated them instead of enticing them to emigrate from Europe, and millions of European Jews died in the Holocaust, the largest massacre in history. During the long history of Jews in Europe, governments sometimes used myths, other times incentives, or massacres and genocide to deal with the Jewish problem, and finally ended up supporting the creation of Israel as a Jewish state in 1948 at the expense of the Arab people. This policy has immersed the Palestinian people in suffering and prevented the political, economic and social development of other Arabs, under the pretence of Arab nationalism and supporters of the Islamic caliphate vowing to liberate Palestine of Jews as a top priority above all other needs for development and progress in Arab countries. It is not difficult to draw parallels between the Jewish question in Europe in the past and the Turkish problem today. Historically, the Turkish issue grew into a problem for Europe from the 16th century when Turkish tribes united under the Ottomans and created a sprawling empire on the continents of Europe, Asia and Africa. This empire posed a serious threat to Europe until the 17th century when it began to gradually decline and its eventual defeat led to its dismantling after World War I. All that remained was the Republic of Turkey, which was built on the ruins of the failed empire in 1923. Unlike the empire that was Europe's nemesis, Kemal Ataturk led the Turkish republic to fully integrate with European culture and politics. However, the Europeanisation or Westernisation of Turkey failed, even though Turkey joined NATO in 1952. Turkish culture combines an arbitrary ethnic identity without a history or civilisational achievement, and a religious Islamic component that has a deep historic clash with Europe and Western culture. This has prevented Turkey from seeing to fruition its dream of integration with Europe. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, Turkey's previous importance in the Western alliance was now doubtful. With encouragement from Europe and the US, Turkey turned to compensating its failure to integrate with Europe to reviving the Ottoman Empire. Turkey, with its Islamist outlook since the end of the 20th century, could find opportunity as a leader in the Arab world to compensate for its rejection by Europeans. Under Islamic leadership, Turkey can also build bridges of understanding between Europe and the Islamic world, since Europeans support a pipedream of establishing a moderate Islamic model that embraces democracy and Western values, that is led by Turkey, and that subjugates the Arab world which has become a quagmire and unstable for Western interests in the aftermath of the Soviet Union collapsing and even a few years before that. The European view of how to solve the Turkish problem is not too different from what Europe did, with US support, to get rid of the Jewish problem by creating Israel, which came at a great cost for Arabs and Palestinians who were forced — and continue to be forced — to resolve a problem they did not create. It is a model of the selfishness and immorality of Europe and the West. Today, Europe — also with support from Washington — is trying to end the Turkish problem which is summarised as an attempt by Turkey to take revenge on Europe and the West for defeating the Ottoman Empire in the past, and insulting Turkey today by rejecting its application to the EU. Europe is also trying to protect Greece and Cyprus in their disputes over gas and oil resources in the Eastern Mediterranean. Europe is using the same method it used with the Jewish question to resolve the Turkish problem, which is threatening the EU's cohesiveness today and threatens a war with Turkey. Essentially, tossing the problem outside Europe by ignoring Ankara's expansion into Libya and its attempts to take control there. This policy will only lead to serious security, economic and humanitarian catastrophes for Libya's neighbours, most notably Egypt. European policies and the US's silence seem like a repetition of resolving problems facing Europe and the West by exporting them to the Arab region, without any sense of moral responsibility caused by this policy. It will not only harm North African countries, but in the long run will also be a reason for heightened security threats against European countries on the Mediterranean Sea. Europe's insistence on leaving Erdogan to continue his expansionist policies south of the Mediterranean will likely result in major wars that will inevitably become greater footholds for international terrorism and corridors for illegal migration, with an intensity that is greater than previous waves of migrants from Syria to Turkey, and from there to the European continent. This will also cause suffering among millions of people in the region due to endless fighting, displacement and civil wars. *A version of this article appears in print in the 3 September, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
