Who Is Turkey's Yair Lapid?


The current demonstrations in Turkey are not parallel to the Arab uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and Syria.

Turkey is a fully-fledged Western-style democracy. (Well, all right, a Western Democracy Minus).

The end-game is not overthrow of dictatorial regimes or civil war.

A better analogy would be the social justice ("Housing" "Tent") demonstrations in Israel 2011.

In Israel, the spark which ignited the hundreds of thousands of participants in these protests was unafordable house prices.

In Turkey, it was the demolition of trees and of a park in Istanbul for a new development.

In both Israel and in Turkey it is predominantly the educated secular middle classes who have taken to the streets.

In both countries, this historically 'quiet' sector had reached the point of despair about a political establishment which had overlooked their needs and interests - effectively disenfranchising them.

A point of difference is the way in which the police tactically responded to the protests.

In Israel the police used non-violent means of controlling the demonstrators, whereas in Turkey, the protesters in Taksim Square have been tear and pepper gassed and the crowds  routinely water-cannoned, resulting in allegations of police brutality.

In Israel, the social justice protests resulted in the push to the new center-left, with the formation and election of Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid as the new king-makers in parliament.

It is too early in the Turkish protest to predict if there will be a similar swelling of the center secular left in the next elections. And there is no charismatic leader of the protest movement.

There is little doubt that, if elections were to be held in Turkey tomorrow - Prime Minister Erdogen would be elected... for the fourth time.

And the protesters will remain disenfranchised.

On the other hand, right until the votes were counted up on election night, the same "no chance" was said in Israel about Yesh Atid's election potential.

Somehow, Yair Lapid, who was not even involved in organizing the Tel Aviv protests, but managed to subsequently ride the waves created by them, has become the second most powerful political figure in Israel.

So, the question that is seeking an answer is not "Will Edogan be Overthrown?", but "Who is Turkey's Yair Lapid?"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Marrying a Soloveitchik

Image
Mazaltov! My nephew, Gedaliah Kestenbaum married Devori Soloveitchik in Jerusalem last week. Gedaliah has married into rabbinical aristocracy .    Devori is the daughter of  Rabbi Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik, and the grand-daughter of Rabbi  Meshulam Dovid (Reb Dovid) Soloveitchik , who is Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Brisk (one of the two) in Jerusalem . The Soloveitchik's are a rabbinical dynasty descended from Rabbi  Yosef Dov (HaLevi) Soloveitchik (The "Beis Halevi") and his son Rabbi  Chaim Soloveitchik ("Reb Chaim Brisker"). Rav Chaim's sons Rabbi  Yitzchak Zev (Reb Velvel) Soloveitchik ("The GRIZ" The Brisker Rov) and Rabbi  Moshe Soloveitchik seem to have gone in different hashkafik directions. Whereas Reb Velvel's descendents are predominantly right wing hareidim, Rav Moshe's branch are leaders in the Modern Orthodox/National Religious hashkafa – most notably Rav Joseph Ber Soloveitchik ("The Rav") ...
Read more

Hoax Letter Sent to Synagogue

Image
            (Beis Tefillah Synagogue, Ramat Beit Shemesh) The following hoax letter has been sent to members of the Beis Tefillah Synagogue board of management, as if it was written by Rabbi CM [ed. name respectfully withheld] who serves as their rabbi: I think that as long as David Morris sets policy for L.A [ed. Lema'an Achai ], and is their public face,  I will not allow L.A. to use the Shul for fundraising purposes. This will change if: 1)David M apologizes publicly for stating,and insinuating again and again(in many forums,but especially in his childish Tzedek Tzedek blog) that , as a group ,  "Rabbis" (of RBSA ) are guilty of aiding and abetting and enabling child molesters.(And that of course that leaves LA to come to the rescue of our children.) OR IF  2)LA  publicly , clearly,and unambiguously disavows such statements .They must say--we clearly,and unambiguously ,disavow  statements or...
Read more