Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has received global admiration for adopting a strong stance against the murderous regime that rules Israel today.

The Turkish prime minister severely criticized thuggish Israeli politicians for ordering the murder of international peace activists at Freedom Flotilla on high seas that was carrying humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza and to break the three-year-long illegal siege imposed by the Israelis over the Gaza Strip. His message was blunt: “A bloody regime, now in power in Israel, must be surely punished. Even pirates and bandits do not touch unarmed people, children, elders, and they did it. And these people try without shame to justify themselves.”
Under the blockade, people of Gaza have been grappling with deteriorating economic and social situation and the Strip badly needs humanitarian aid. More than 80 percent of the Gaza Strip's 1.5 million population lives under poverty line. The unemployment rate of the coastal enclave hit 41.3 percent in 2008. According to the United Nations' World Food Program, some 70 percent of Gaza's population is facing food insecurity and a vast majority is dependant on assistance from the United Nations.
According to the World Health Organization, 98 percent industrial units in Gaza have been shut down and there is acute shortage of fuel, money, cooking gas and other basic supplies due to Israel's relentless blockade of the enclave since June 2007.
Israel's military offensive in Gaza in winter 2008-09 led to the destruction of more than 7,500 Palestinian homes and some 3,500 families displaced.  Since Israel does not allow building material in the Strip, this has hampered the reconstruction work and thousands of families are still homeless.
According to Gaza-based freelance journalist and photographer Sameh Habeeb, the Israeli forces launched a massive attack on Gaza's infrastructure in June 2006 after an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, was allegedly captured by Hamas resistance fighters. Shalit is the only Israeli prisoner in the Palestinian territories while Israel has imprisoned 7,383 Palestinians, 340 of them are Children.
Habeeb reported that the key bridge linking the southern and northern areas of Gaza was totally destroyed during the Israeli assault. The sole power plant of the Gaza Strip was also destroyed after the Israeli military raided the city with F-16 bombers. The only key road of Gaza, Salah El-Din was another vital construction in Gaza which the Israeli forces destroyed completely. Although the Japanese government proposed a plan to reconstruct this road but Israel never allowed the reconstruction work.
So far, all the international efforts to reconstruct Gaza houses and renovate its dilapidated civic infrastructure have been stalled by Israel. The majority of Gazans are deprived of sanitation, electricity, proper education, clean water and sufficient foodstuff.
The Turkish prime minister many times complained that Israel did not allow the entry of construction materials in the Gaza Strip to accelerate the reconstruction work.
“This construction is still not allowed (by Israel). Turkey is not allowed to build schools, houses, hospitals. The Israelis allow food and medicine to pass, but not the rest,” Erdogan told the Philadelphia Inquirer in a 2009 interview.
As an architect of political transformation and ideological revolution in Turkey, Erdogan made serious efforts over many years to champion the cause of Palestinian people. He has become an outspoken critic of the Israeli regime and lambasted Tel Aviv officials at various different occasions. In 2009, he received global admiration when he walked out of a television debate with Israeli President Shimon Peres on the sidelines of the 2009 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
After the murder of Gaza peace activists, Erdogan stated in the Turkish parliament, “The bloody massacre of Israel, committed against ships bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza, is a massacre deserving every kind of curse and condemnation.”
Erdogan added, “Turkey's friendship is valuable; on the other hand, its enmity is violent. No one should test Turkey's patience. The Turkish nation has always been in a historical friendship and collaboration with Jewish people. Here Jewish people understands who is the true culprit of these events.”
Turkey cancelled its scheduled joint military exercises with Israel and the Turkish parliamentarians called on the government to take practical steps to downgrade its ties with the Zionist regime.
Erdogan’s popularity has risen in the world and particularly in the Muslim World for taking a bold and principled stand against the bloody gang of Tel Aviv. British news agency Reuters published a report on June 2 titled as “Israel tension boosts Turkey's popularity with Arabs” in which the rising popularity of Turkish Prime Minister has been discussed. The report reads: “Already popular for championing the Palestinian cause, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has further enhanced his status through calls for Israel to be punished for the sea raid.” 
Photo: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses lawmakers at the parliament in Ankara on June 1, 2010. (AP photo)