Qatar, and other American "allies", are among the villains in Gaza

Professor Alan M. Dershowitz is correct. Turkey's behavior is both "erratic" and "irresponsible," and Washington must reassess its relationship with Ankara. However, there are other equally important reasons that require the United States to reevaluate its policies towards Turkey. There is an abundance of evidence showing that Turkey has been a disloyal and an unreliable US ally and that Ankara and its US-paid agents have made over-inflated assumptions about Turkey's strategic value to the United States (Gene Rossides, ed., 2011; Gene Rossides, 2014).

Following are some examples of Turkey's unreliability as a US and western ally:

During World War I, the Ottoman Turks fought against the United States and its allies. Despite their professed neutrality, the Turks continued to supply the Nazis with chromium ore that enabled Nazi Germany to prolong World War II for several months and cause more deaths and suffering. The Turks allowed German warships to pass through the Straits, and they continued to cooperate with Nazi Germany's secret services.

During the cold war, the Turks collaborated with the Soviet Union. Moscow paid them very well for their collaboration. Between 1967 and 1979, the Soviet Union gave the Turks 650 million dollars (Ekavi Athanassopoulou, 2014). Turkey was the largest recipient of Soviet aid outside the Soviet block.

The Turks refused to help the United States in its war against Iraq in 2003, voted against sanctions on Iran by the UN Security Council and continuously attacked Israel, an important US ally and friend. Apart from attacking Israel, the Turks displayed aggression towards another important US ally and friend, Greece.Turkey's hostility towards Greece continues to this day based on Ankara's outrageous claims to Greek islands in the Aegean.

The United States does not need to be a friend to Turkey nor does it need Turkey's help to carry out its military objectives or to protect its interests. Washington has proven many times that it has both the strength and capacity to achieve these goals alone. The most-recent example is the American victory in the 2003 war against Iraq. Besides, the United States can count on friends like Cyprus, Israel, and Greece to help it in defending and protecting its economic and security interests in the eastern Mediterranean.

It is not a secret that US-agents and lobbyist paid by Turkey have underestimated America's capabilities and exaggerated Turkey's strategic importance to the United States. The government in Ankara "has consistently lavished millions each year on-well connected Washington lobbying firms," reveals Luke Rosiak (Sept., 2009). Turkey is one of "The Top Players in Foreign Agent Lobbying," indicates a study authorized by writers from ProPublica and the Sunlight Foundation (Aug., 2009).

"The reality is that Turkey is of limited value to US security interests," writes Gene Rossides (2014), who served both in the Eisenhower and Nixon administrations. Turkey does have some "limited value to US security interests," but what benefit does the US get out of this when Turkey is disloyal, unreliable and rarely on the side of the United States and its allies?

Very often it is hard to criticise islamism. We stay silent out of fear.
it is very important for me as a consumer or an investor to spend my money ethically .
I looked up how to boycott Qatar Saudi Arabia and others but did not come to results.
While the anti Israel lobby is very active with tips what to buy, where and from whom.
Why is it so hard to boycott islamism?
Aia

Qataris are totally outnumbered by 2 or 3 to 1 by the indentured servants that they exploit. In the heat of the summer, many of the Qataris leave for Europe and elsewhere. The only thing keeping that country from their own Arab spring or people's revolution is the presence of the US military base.
The US should pull out and leave them alone to make nice with the Islamic extremists.

Of course the US will not (publicly) speak out against Qatar when it has its air-force comfortably cushioned in the suburbs of Doha and has numerous US expats ensconced in its education,gas, oil and hospitality sectors?

How can the US speak out against or oppose Qatar's support for Hamas and ISIS when it involves itself in providing "aid" to numerous anti-government forces in Syria and in many other countries, under its so-called "fight against terrorism" and/or in its efforts to spread democracy?

Qatar will continue to run with the hares and hunt with the hounds.....it's lavish sponsorship of Hamas etc., continually being treated with benign disregard.

The author correctly focuses on Turkey's untrustworthiness as well as its opportunistic and dangerous policies in the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean. He is also right to remind of Turkey's past crimes such as the genocide against the Armenians.Regrettably, he failed to mention the military aggression by Turkey, a NATO member, against the independent, sovereign Republic of Cyprus, an EU member, which has been going on with impunity since 1974.

Turkey's international aggression against its small defenseless neighboring state and its refusal to put an end to the military occupation, colonization, ethnic cleansing and forcible division committed against the Republic of Cyprus, should have been a warning to the international community of Turkey's expansionist and hegemonic ambitions in the region. But instead of trying to terminate Turkey's aggression on the basis of the rule of law and accepted rules of international conduct, self-proclaimed champions of the rule of law and human rights such as the USA, the UK and some Scandinavian countries, have been acting as apologists and facilitators for Turkey's crimes against the state and the people of Cyprus, pressuring this small country to surrender to the wishes of the occupying power through a number of nefarious schemes that would legitimize the results of Turkey's military occupation.

One such sinister and badly flawed design was the 2004 infamous "Annan Plan" [aptly characterized as an "international debacle"] which was overwhelmingly rejected by the people in a referendum. But instead of getting the message from the people and offering a different plan that would liberate Cyprus from Turkish occupation and colonization, the same powers behind the Annan fiasco, so embarrassing that the former UN Secretary General who lent his name to it refused to discuss it in his memoirs, have been trying to devise new variations on the old failed plan and impose it on the people of Cyprus.

These same hypocritical countries have been pushing Turkey to join the EU as a full member while ignoring Turkey's ongoing aggression against an existing EU member and an assortment of other crimes that automatically make Turkey unfit for EU membership. Interestingly, Turkey's belligerence has taken a new more regional character since the discovery of natural gas by Israel and Cyprus in their respective Exclusive Economic Zones and their close collaboration to exploit them through regional cooperation that would include other countries such as Egypt. The UN, NATO and others have kept largely quiet on this belligerent attitude further feeding and encouraging Turkish arrogance and destabilizing behavior in the region.

Turkey has been a pariah since 1974 when it invaded and occupied nearly half of the Republic of Cyprus. It is not only complicit in crimes but the perpetrator of major crimes against Cyprus and others. It is time for the international community to treat Turkey as the criminal and pariah she is and put an end to its military aggression against Cyprus and its belligerence in the region before Ankara gets totally out of control.

The title is intended to be ironic. I do not believe that any thinking person could be surprised at the contents of this article. On the one hand, you have Qatar run by a fundamentalist potentate and Turkey which is busily trying their best to overturn the reforms of Ataturk that brought Turkey into the 20th century and on the other hand: You have the United States run by a President who appears to have sent himself onto 'Gardening Leave' with no apparent concern for the running of his country and being represented by a Secretary of State, Kerry, who has little diplomatic experience; looks like a joke and lied on his résumé.

It is truly a shame that a country so powerful as the United States can place so much power in people elected solely on a populist vote and with no real conception of diplomatic affairs that so seriously affect the world as a whole and treat the matter merely with expediency.

"Go after the money" should replace "follow the money" and those damaged by the results of what just happened should litigate against Qatar whereever it's possible.
And of course, Congress should be encouraged to investigate what the White House is up to.
It wouldn't hurt to start a boycott by Jews of Dems this November unless some real concrete action happens beyond resolutions and iron dome funding.

Excellent article but it is missing the fact that the Obama Administration gave financial support to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood government of Morsi. Hamas is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Obama supports Hamas with more than $400 million a year, now that is part of the unity government with the Palestinian Authority. Israel laughed at Kerry when he suggested using Qatar and Turkey to mediate the conflict, since both nations support Hamas as indicated in the article. Obama has allowed the Muslim Brotherhood to infiltrate his government. I discussed all of this in my book AMERICA IN DECLINE (2014) which can be obtained in Amazon. Frank de Varona

The Jewish religion preceded Christianity which in turn preceded Islam. Islamic countries do not acknowledge or discuss the fact that many Jews and Christians in the Middle East were forced to convert to Islam in the name of Jihad (similar to what ISIS is doing in Iraq and Boko Haram in Nigeria) and as a result many Muslim-Palestinians have Jewish and Christian ancestry.

Palestine was a name of a small region, not a state nor country, which the Muslim-Palestinians have come to claim as their own despite the fact that the area was predominately inhabited by pagan Arabs and Jewish and Christian Palestinians prior to Islam. The nation of Israel predates Islam and the Jewish people re-established a state in 1948 after being forced to live in diaspora for centuries. Between 1948-1967, when Egypt ruled Gaza and Jordan ruled the West Bank, the Muslim-Palestinians never made any claim for theses territories, as is reflected in the Palestine National Charter of 1964 that states, " Article 24: This Organization does not exercise any territorial sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on the Gaza Strip or in the Himmah Area". It was only after Israel's 1967 victory in the Six Day War that the Palestinian leaders, with the support and encouragement from the Arab League, decided to actively pursue statehood in Gaza and West Bank.

Israel never occupied the land of Muslim-Palestinians since there were no Muslim-Palestinians in pre-Islamic Palestine but rather Israel has legitimately reclaimed a small portion of its ancestral homeland dating back to its ancient capital of Jerusalem. When Muslims eventually occupied Jerusalem they built Al Aqsa mosque right on top of the ruins of the Jewish Temple, known as the holiest site for the Jews.

However, due to the demographic population growth of the Muslim-Palestinians in Israel, a two state solution is inevitable and if those looking at this conflict only from the Muslim-Palestinian point of view attempt to learn the full history of the region then perhaps they would stop their animosity of Jews, Christians and other religions and start living together in peace and harmony.

Sec. of Defense Hagel has announced the Obama administration has agreed to sell Qatar 11 Billion dollars of sophisticated US arms and missiles and helicopters.
These will ultimately be targeting Israel via Hamas.
This sale must be halted !!!

Bravo Alan -- this is a clear-cut well written expose. Well done!

Yes, Turkey denied us a route to Iraq all the way back now in 2001. And Qatar co-opts all with its money -- which would be fine if it wasn't utterly on the side of fanatical Islam.

Both these "reevaluations" as you refer to them are past due. However until our current president leaves, I think nothing will change, other, that is than potentially increased invective emanating form our illustrious State Department spokespersons regarding this or that "unallowable" or "unforgivable" or "untenable" or ... oh yes, their favorite: "unacceptable" -- I mean what does "unacceptable" actually mean in a normal everyday sense anyway!? It's so laden with a pretentious arrogance I don't know why our government continues to use the phrase(!)

The population of Qatar is 300,000. Yes, I repeat 300,000

Why should we sell 11 BILLION dollars of military hardware to this country?
We have sold them Patriot anti-aircraft missiles, Apache helicopters, and other hardware.

Let us NOT FORGET that QATAR is the main financial sponsor of HAMAS.
What's going on?

When the Obama administration is gone, then we can have a top to bottom re-appraisal of our security and defense situation, and these grievous errors corrected. Until then, we are just now getting a clear view of the damage willful incompetence can cause to America, not to mention our allies.

Thanks to Professor Dershowitz for laying this out so well. We need to convey this clearly to our top policymakers, including the President and Secretary of State. I would only change the word "becoming" to "being" in the last sentence. These countries along with Iran are responsible for global death and destruction.

Kerry is weak and showing bad judgement by appeasing the evil terrorists. He offered Hamas money and was willing to meet their demands. He was strengthening Hamas' hands. He seems ignorant of Israel's security needs. All his interventions have not been helpful to Israel and embolden evil in our world. Qatar and Turkey also are the face of evil. Kerry looked foolish.

Erdogan must be prosecuted for crimes against humanity!

Seems Erdogan is testing world for next Flotilla... I wold advise all Jews to leave Turkey ASAP before they realize it's too late. He's a smart politician who knows how to create an environment for the helpless Jewish community to condemn Israel. He's quick learner of the Soviet era!

I must regretfully say that even advocates for freedom and justice have become just as those who behave like wolves in sheep's clothing. Their minds are only focused on domination. Their first noble attitude has given way to lies, greed and undermining others. We saw that in Iraq, we saw this in Afghanistan, we saw it in Libya and Egypt. Should I continue with the list?
But do not forget: vanity and greed comes before a fall.

Alan Dershowitz has overlooked the fact that, in Secretary Kerry's meetings with Turkish and Qatari representatives in Paris, to which he refers, and for which he "does not fault Secretary Kerry," neither Israel, nor the Palestinian Authority, nor Egypt were represented, the outcome of which was predictably to forward the demands of Hamas.

It seems to me that Mr. Kerry, as he has done in his "negotiations" with Israel and the Palestinian Authority, with Iran over its nuclear weapons program, and with Russia and Ukraine over their mutual move toward open belligerence, has been proven incompetent, should be removed from office, and now replaced, for bettor or worse, by Ms. Susan Rice, initially designated for the role.

It is interesting that the US has just contracted to sell Apache helicopters and Javelin air defense systems to Qatar in an $11 billion deal.

Excellent article showing what erdogan is : a MADMAN, a clown similar to Hitler who would surely take on Israel if he could. Fortunately turkey is not much of a power even if that madman is trying to renew the ottoman empire which could prevail over the byzantine empire only because the latter was decadent and even dyeing. Turkey should be boycotted by tourists and importers and people buying turkish goods.

Qatar is not to be trusted, it is spending millions throughout the West in funding the building of 'mega mosques'. They are not the only ones, Saudi Arabia is as bad, importing its Wahabi Islamist poisons into the West whilst pretending to be pro-Western, they should not be trusted either.
As for Turkey, under the lunatic Erdogan the country is being shunted towards an Islamist state, and he has the support of the millions of 'religiously conservative/ignorant' poor people from Anatolia and the slums of Istanbul.

I am amazed that no one has commented on the signing of selling planes and missiles to Qatar. Why would Congress allow that? Why does a country of 700,000 people need $11 billion dollars of weapons? Why is our president so eager to make this tiny country and Turkey his best friends?