BY ERDAL SAFAK
SABAH- The United Nations Security Council convened in the waning hours of 2008 to discuss a resolution on Israel's attacks in the Gaza Strip which was prepared by Libya on behalf of the Arab League. But it never even came to a vote, as the US and Britain blocked it. The Security Council will discuss the Gaza tragedy again in the coming days, but with a changed structure. Turkey's two-year temporary membership officially began yesterday.
The foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Libya, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, Syria and Palestine and Arab League Secretary General Amr Musa will meet with Security Council members, including Turkey's EU Ambassador Baki Ilkin, in New York at a new meeting, as yet unscheduled. This means that results of the contacts held by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Ministry advisor Ahmet Davutoglu in the region will be evaluated at a broader platform in New York and may become a wider initiative which might yield results at the Security Council. (We also believe that Foreign Minister Ali Babacan will be present in New York in order not to miss this opportunity to lay out Ankara's stance to Arab countries).
As certain actors became mere onlookers to Gaza, Turkey's role and responsibility in this tragedy has increased. Let's accept to a certain extent that the West has contended itself with calls for a ceasefire which will come to nothing due to the West's support for Israel. But what about Arab leaders' passivity and silence? They're so silent that hundreds of people, mostly in Egypt and other Arab countries, went to the streets, fearing their countries are collaborators with Israel.
This isn't unfair, either, because there's a lot of speculation in diplomatic circles particularly about Egypt, which is the official mediator between Israel and Hamas. For example, some said Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's administration gave a green light to Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who visited Cairo only two days before the attacks, telling her that it can punish Hamas but shouldn't hurt civilians.
This may be just a rumor, but there are other indicators which point to Egypt. For example, when the Gaza Strip was filled with bombs and death, it refused to open the Refah border gate, despite numerous calls for humanitarian aid. It acts more severely than even Israel on this issue. It applies Israel's blockade more strictly than the Israelis. For example, ambulances and emergency aid sent by Turkey were delivered to Gaza through Israel.
The same holds for three airplanes of medicine, medical equipment and food sent by Qatar. Egypt stated that it kept the border gate on the Gaza strip closed for just one reason: not to strengthen Hamas! But dozens of people die every day in hospitals due to the embargo, because they can't get treatment, and ambulances can't move due to gas shortages. Fully 75% of children in Gaza are malnourished, because food can't be brought there. According to the UN, 1.1 million of Gaza's 1.5 million people depend on food aid. And Arab countries avoid fulfilling their promises about donations to Palestine made at international meetings. Egypt also says that it won't open the Refah gate until Fatah takes control of Gaza. And Arab countries stay silent, just like in 2006 when Israel caused so many deaths in places in Lebanon controlled by Hezbollah, because Hamas and Hezbollah are considered threats.
Attacks against those threats are almost applauded at the cost of mass deaths. This desperate picture increases Ankara's responsibility in Gaza, the Middle East and the Security Council. Turkey can fulfill this responsibility by carrying the oppressed people's voices to the Security Council.