A moderate Islamist committed to democratic institutions (even if his record on press freedom has been widely criticized) and secularism, whose stewardship has seen his country emerge as the world’s second-fastest growing economy, he might be hailed in the West as the great “moderate Muslim” hope were it not for his habit of tangling with the Israelis. But on that front, the Turkish government sees itself saying the things that most Europeans and Arabs believe, but which their governments are unwilling to say see U.S. coddling as encouraging Israeli policies that are increasingly self-destructive by protecting them from many of the negative consequences of those policies. Unlike Ahmadinejad, Erdogan is not challenging Israel’s right to exist; he’s challenging its actions and insisting on justice for the Palestinians.”Israel will break away from solitude only when it acts as a reasonable, responsible, serious and normal state,” he said, warning that Israel’s government was adopting an increasingly self-destructive course…

But the fact that the newly risen Arab street, particularly the Islamists who remain the largest political element in most of the Arab revolutions, are looking to Turkey and Erdogan’s AKP as a role model should be a source of reassurance and optimism to all those who wish the region well. Turkey’s rising popularity has coincided and with it the principle of Arabs choosing their own leaders and demanding their dignity — an episode that has dramatically dimmed Iran’s appeal as a fetish for real leadership in the Arab world. The “reality-based community” in Washington ought to be encouraged when Islamists empowered by revolution are looking not at Iran but at a Turkish model based on secular democratic political pluralism and growth-oriented economics. Of course they’re going to challenge Israel’s behavior: Bush’s idea of “moderate Arab leaders” embracing Israel on the basis of that country’s current orientation never had any basis in reality to begin with.