Muslims Reaction to Israeli Attack on Freedom Flotilla

Last week Israel attacked Gaza bound flotilla that was taking aid to the besieged Palestinian. The voyage was actually a protest against the Israeli blockade of Gaza. The ship was carrying European parliamentarians, civil society representatives, journalists from different countries and the common people as well, most of them were Turks. Israel attacked the ship in international waters that was against international law. The attack took at least ten lives, nine of whom were Turks. Turkish president, prime minister, foreign secretary, and Turkish media censured Israel for this attack. Similar was the out rage in other Muslim countries. However a recent survey in Turkey shows that people were still not satisfied with the Turkish government reaction to Israeli attack. What does Turks and Muslims living in other parts of the world are expecting from their governments?


International community also censured for this attack. Several countries including European as well, Arab League, and Organization of Muslim Conference demanded for an international investigation. However the U.S. reaction to incident was very cautious and it supported an Israeli investigation.

Looking at the survey, what does the Turkish dissatisfaction with their government reaction mean? Is the Turkish reaction representative of all the Muslims living in different parts of the world? Generally we find a gap between public perceptions in predominant Muslim countries and their states official state on several foreign policy issues. Take the example of relations with U.S. or Israel, and war on terror. Somewhat similar seems to be the public feelings on this current episode of flotilla.

The Israeli attack has once again revitalized the Muslims sympathies with Palestinian. Will this further help unite Muslim states on a single stand regarding Palestine issue? Can Muslims states really generate international diplomatic pressures at this point of history against Israel to pay due respect to Palestinian right to co-exists? To what extent this incident bring U.S. pro-Israel policy to lime light?