Turkish Leader Urges Vote for Palestinian Statehood – NYTimes.com
“The Turkish state is in its core a state of freedoms and secularism,” Mr. Erdogan said, explaining Turkey’s support for the Arab revolutions. “The world is changing to a system where the will of the people will rule. Why should the Europeans and Americans be the only ones that live with dignity? Aren’t Egyptians and Somalians also entitled to a life of dignity?”
“As a Turk,” he added, “I didn’t want to be watching this situation from afar as if I was watching a football game.”
He also arrived in Cairo just days after a mob’s invasion of the Israeli Embassy brought relations between Egypt and Israel to a level of tension not seen in the three decades since the Camp David accords.
Mr. Erdogan seemed to present himself as a spokesman for the backlash against Israel unleashed by the revolts across the region.
“Israel is the West’s spoiled child,” he said, “to this day it has never executed a decision by the international community.”
Mr. Erdogan also sought to sign on to the attempts, in anticipation of a statehood bid, to broker a reconciliation between the secular Palestinian Authority, which controls the West Bank and the Islamist militant faction Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. Some reports had suggested that Mr. Erdogan planned to visit Gaza on his tour in a symbolic snub to the Israelis and a boost for Hamas. But in the television interview Mr. Erdogan said he preferred to visit together with Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, and his Hamas counterpart, Ismail Haniya.
“I told Abbas to come with me so that we can all go together, Mahmoud Abbas, Erdogan and Ismail Haniya,” Mr. Erdogan said. “You know what he said? He said, yes I will come with you. I have hope and I am waiting for this visit.”
). Go to our 
I doubt that Abbas can come far enough to satisfy Hamas, so going together isn’t gonna steady nothin’.