The other day Jeffrey Goldberg at the Atlantic championed the Kurds against Turkey, a post headlined, "Turkey Kills Dozens of Kurds, World Shrugs." Goldberg wrote, "I'd organize a flotilla in support of the Kurds, but I'm afraid no one would join."
I would never suggest that Goldberg's positions are orchestrated--no, the majorettes cut their own moves--but isn't it interesting that according to this Asia Times' analysis by former Indian ambassador M K Bhadrakumar, Israel is trying to pressure its former ally Turkey, which now supports the Palestinian statehood initiative, by making common cause with two populations Turkey has oppressed, Cypriotes and Kurds! Here's some of the Kurd analysis (thanks to Mark Wauck):
Leading Israeli defense specialist David Eshel commented in August about the upsurge of Kurdish insurgency in Turkey's eastern provinces:
"The entire Kurdish people could take advantage of the ongoing Arab Spring and prepare the ground for a long-anticipated Kurdistan, linking up with Iraq's ongoing autonomy, the Iranian Kurdish enclave and perhaps even the Syrian Kurdish minorities ... With the Arab world in total turmoil, lacking any orderly leadership, the Kurds could finally achieve their sacred goal for independence, after decades, if not centuries of desecration and oppression ... the ongoing 'Arab Spring' could eventually shift into a 'Kurdish Summer'".Israel estimates, however, that the Kurdish problem makes Ankara vulnerable to American and European pressure tactic and an exacerbation of this could politically weaken Erdogan and bring him to his knees.
And here's the Cyprus part:
The two-day visit by the Foreign Minister of Cyprus, Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis, to Tel Aviv, which ended on Thursday, was much more than a routine call. The minister had just assumed charge in Nicosia and headed for Israel as soon as her customary first visit to Athens was out of the way.
Quite obviously, Nicosia and Athens (which has an ancient grudge to settle with Ankara) put their heads together and assessed that Israeli regional policies are on a remake. Cyprus and Greece have had indifferent ties with Israel, but a compelling commonality of interests is sailing into view. ...
The statement issued by Netanyahu's office virtually underscored that Israel has a convergence of interests with Cyprus with regard to Ankara's perceived belligerence. Netanyahu said Israel and Cyprus had "overlapping interests". The statement said Netanyahu discussed with Kozakou-Marcoullis "the possible expansion of energy cooperation given that both countries have been blessed with natural gas reserves in their maritime economic zones".
...The Israelis are pinning their hopes on Cyprus turning out to be a prize catch, being a member of the European Union, which works by consensus and is shortly expected to evolve a common stance apropos the expected Palestinian move at the United Nations General Assembly session in New York in September, seeking recognition for their "state".
This explosive diplomatic issue haunts Tel Aviv (and Washington) and the stance that Cyprus takes at Brussels could be a diplomatic windfall when the mood in Europe is increasingly empathizing with the Palestinian case for statehood.
Oh please. Israel supported the Kurds way before it had these problems with Turkey.
do you ever read the links hophmi?
i’m sure phil is aware of israel’s longstanding support of the kurds but i can’t for the life of me understand what you mean by “way before it had these problems with Turkey”. haven’t kurds been having ‘these problems with turkey’ since before the state of israel was founded?
ps, everybodies well aware the neocon inspired ‘new map’ of the mideast involves chopping off a chunk of turkey (and iran for that matter) for the ‘new kurdistan’. israel all about little bite size ethnic national states. we all know that already. divide and conquer.
Annie, it’s also a matter of the planned rebuilding of the Mosul-Haifa pipeline that goes back to a 2003 US promise for Israel’s help. That pipeline can only happen if the US-Israel plan to cut up Iraq succeeds. The Israeli companies that have been working in Iraq are mostly concentrated in the Kurdish north. Most of the rebuilding that happened there was done by Israelis and they feel very much at home up there so there is nothing that would be surprising in an Israeli plot to mess things up between the Kurds and everyone else.
funny, this is the first i’ve heard about such a neocon map. Why don’t the Kurds deserve their own state? Why does northern Cyprus need to be occupied? If you can’t ask your self these questions, but can ask them in terms of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, they something doesn’t add up.
Why is the oppression of Arabs by other Arabs ignored, but Israelis oppression of them is championed? These are questions you need to be asking yourself.
Why the blanket term ‘Arab’ when you mean Muslim? Arab peoples are so because they *speak* Arabic. This is not true of Turks, Kurds or Iranians. And of course, not all native Arabic speakers are Muslim. Your question is as daft as asking why Europeans went to war with each other, or oppressed minorities among their peoples. Each case had its own separate, messy history.
Seeing as Kurds are not stateless but citizens of whatever state they reside in, why do they need one?
Why does East Jerusalem and the West Bank? BTW. The is no ethnic cleansing, home demolitions, evictions or mass murder taking place in Cyprus.
What makes you think it’s being ignored, other than the hallucinogenic drugs you’re addicted to? This blog has been closely following the Arab spring and supporting it.
These question you need to be asking yourself is “why am I here” and why an I such an idiot?
“Why don’t the Kurds deserve their own state?”
No group deserves a state. Every individual should be a full and equal citizen of the state into which s/he is born, or the state to which s/he has freely migrated.
This principle should apply to the Kurds as well. Discrimination against them is wrong and should be condemned. But they should, in turn, take up the responsibilites of being citizens of the state, to the extent of learning the national language and refraining from telling themselves stories about how they are a “different people”.
“Why does northern Cyprus need to be occupied?”
The Greek-speaking Cypriots wanted to make Cyprus part of Greece, regardless of the wishes of the Turkish-speaking Cypriots. The Turkish government prevented this, and set up Northern Cyprus. The Turkish Cypriots have been trying to find a resolution, but the 2004 Annan plan was rejected by the Greek Cypriots.
The Turkish Cypriots do not regard the presence of the Turkish Army as an occupation. Most of the rest of the world does.
The Turkish Cypriots do not regard the presence of the Turkish Army as an occupation. Most of the rest of the world does.
LOL, because all of the Greek Cypriots were ethnically cleansed from the north.
Why don’t the Kurds deserve their own state?
Try reading the Declaration On Principles Of International Law Friendly Relations And Co-Operation Among States In Accordance With The Charter Of The United Nations. If Kurdistan can’t be established without violating the rights of others, then the Kurds can still exercise their right of self-determination through incorporation and representation in an existing state or states where they live. The problem with respect to the Palestinians is that the Zionists have driven them into exile; are refusing to give the Palestinians citizenship in Israel; and are preventing the creation of a Palestinian state.
link to hku.edu
FYI, if Israel can’t exist without imposing an apartheid regime, then it has no inherent right to exist.
walid, i have never heard of the Mosul-Haifa pipeline but that doesn’t surprise me in the least. oh! it even has it’s own wiki page. and look at this! U.S. checking possibility of pumping oil from northern Iraq to Haifa, via Jordan . check out the framing
and of course the administration complied. yeah, we should reward israel for supporting us in iraq. wonders never cease.
Why don’t you offer some answers? I’d love to know why you think that is. Me? I don’t need to ask myself these questions.
stevieb, this is a long thread and it’s not clear who you are addressing. could you elaborate on your meaning?
walid, i have never heard of the Mosul-Haifa pipeline but that doesn’t surprise me in the least.
Here is brief comment on the background and a long comment about it and the Group (Red Line) Agreement between private American and European oil companies, July 31, 1928. The latter was spawned as a result of all the wheeling and dealing. It was the first international oil cartel. The Mosul oil and pipeline deal were the real subject of the San Remo Conference of April 1920 and the 1925 PCIJ case between the government of Turkey and the UK over Article 3, Paragraph 2, of the Treaty of Lausanne (Frontier between Turkey and Iraq).
Using an Arab state or confederation of Arab states under an Arab suzerain to protect the pipelines from Mesopotamia, through the interior, and on to the British enclave at Haifa was part and parcel of the Sykes-Picot Agreement. The British never had the military manpower to garrison that much territory. They planned on outsourcing the guard-duty for the pipeline and pumping stations to the Hashemites in Amman and Baghdad, using an Arab Legion. So, Churchill’s recommendations in that regard after the Cairo Conference were really a foregone conclusion.
Phil, why are you not saying anything at all about what he actually writes about, the decades of slaughter of the Kurds by the Turks. You had more than enough to say about Israel killing 9 Turks aboard the Turkish vessel. Why are there no protests worldwide about the Kurds?
Because the world hates Jews?
That has to be it, kapok.
We all know that every Gentile is born ready to hate Jews as soon as s/he finds out what a Jew is.
No reason for it, of course.
That’s just the way it is.
RoHa being snarky without realizing how much truth there is to his statement. In Japan, where there are almost no Jews, a book similar to the Protocols can be a best seller. Poland, a country almost Judenrein still has extremely strong anti-semitism. In fact, I just heard from Israeli friends who are from Poland initially, and just returned from a visit, that it’s common to have a good luck/ good fortune talisman in many Polish households. A picture of a Hasidic Jew with a pile of money next to him.
On this site wecsee examples of that all the time.
If that represents a good luck/ good fortune talisman, then it could be described as a stereotype, but it’s certainly not anti semtic.
“In Japan, where there are almost no Jews, a book similar to the Protocols can be a best seller.”
Given the obvious power that American Jews in particular have, is it so surprising that people would look at books that purport to explain it? Why is that a sign of hatred for Jews?
Incidentally, while I lived in Japan I saw a book titled (approximately) “The Japanese and the Jews – the two most misunderstood people”. Shared whining.
But if you really think everyone hates Jews, do you ever ask why?
(And reject “envy” as an answer?)
“In Japan, where there are almost no Jews, a book similar to the Protocols can be a best seller”
Can be? It is or it isn’t! You can’t just hypothesise and use uncertain terms. This is quackery.
“On this site wecsee examples of that all the time.”
What on earth are you talking about? Where on this site do you see what you have described ? Give examples or fade away..With a name like yours, I would!
“Because the world hates Jews?”
I love it!
Why are there no protests worldwide about the Kurds?
Why were there no protests worldwide about the israel trained pesmerga acting as the numero uno militia used to topple saddam and throw iraq into a genocidal nightmare? the same kurds making a hell out of mosel? trying to chop Kirkuk from iraq? all this stuff has been going on a long time and is complicated. so where were the howls in 06 when turkey was bombing the pkk?
and then there’s this
that was in may 08. what else happened then?
this is geopolitical. just like the occupation is geopolitical. so why is it goldberg ‘cares’ about the kurds? the neocons care about the kurds for geopolitical reasons. same timing: Sadr City death toll: 400 killed in three weeks, “and everyone is silent” . it is selective outrage over civilian deaths lli.
Back in the 90′s the US supported Turkey as it bombed the Kurds (with US weapons), while the US supported the Kurds in Iraq who were oppressed by Saddam. There’s always been this hypocrisy with the Kurds as far as the US is concerned. I don’t know much about Israel’s connection, but they were friendly with Turkey and of course Saddam’s enemy, so I imagine their attitude towards the Kurds was similar to ours. Very few Americans wrote about the plight of the Kurds in Turkey in those days, with a handful of exceptions. And tens of thousands of Kurds were killed in Turkey back then. Chomsky wrote about this and maybe a few others.
Now that relations between Israel and Turkey have become tense I think we can expect to see more coverage of the plight of the Kurds in Turkey. There should be coverage, but it’s obvious what drives it in some cases.
Seymour Hersh on Israeli operatives in Kurdistan circa 04
there’s a lot more at the link. kurdistan is in a very strategic location. the ‘new map’ has it extending all the way up to the black sea, almost the size of turkey dwarfing iraq and syria. beholden to..who?
Which mirrors the U.S stance of supporting Israel with bombs money and rhetoric while claiming to support Palestinian ‘self-determination’, in their own land, I should add. That’s the dog-and-pony show; the same crap we see with Turkey and the Kurds. And now, with Israel needing some ideological soul-mates, suddenly Zionist extremists notice Kurdish deaths. Not that they were saying anything before.
Nothing new there.
Organize one, LLI.
RE: “Jeffrey Goldberg at the Atlantic championed the Kurds against Turkey” ~ Weiss
SEE: The Prophecy of Oded Yinon: Is the US Waging Israel’s Wars? ~ By Linda S. Heard, Counterpunch, 04/25/06
SOURCE – link to counterpunch.org
* Oded Yinon’s “A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties” – link to informationclearinghouse.info
P.S. ALSO SEE: Small Homogeneous States Only Solution for Middle East, By Mordechai Kedar, Bar-Ilan Univ., 4/01/11
ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to imra.org.il
Phil,
What is wrong with Israel using diplomatic means to advance its interests? Are all countries allowed to do that except Israel??? And what is wrong exactly with the Kurds, Cypriots or Greeks that you find objectionable? Turkey makes diplomatic moves and thinks Israel will not counter? Were they born yesterday? Israel is a regional power and will use that to its advantage.
are those just a bunch of strawmans or are you going to connect them to something phil said in the post?
What is the purpose of this post if not to chastise Israel for its new found alliance?
Is Phil highlighting them to say:
1) Look how smart Israel’s foreign policy is
or
2) Look how cynical and bad Israel’s foreign policy is?
have you read the links? if you want to know the purpose of the post why not look at the question in the subject line and apply it to the text. have you tried that?
eee,
This is a critique. It is not a question of whether Israel has the ‘right’ to be cynical.
It is cynical.
The Israeli official mentioned in the report couldn’t care less about democracy for Arabs in any moral capacity. I think Zionists want the Arab world to become more fragmented and divided – just as they work to fragment and divide the Palestinians.
Divide and conquer.
What exactly are you whining about? This is an Israel-Palestine blog. Why do YOU keep pressuring Phil to function as a one-man Amnesty International? Talking about every single conflict in the world?
Your arguments are total hypocritical nonsense.
I don’t know why you waste your time with a fanatical racist. eee is a sadistic goon.
He dismisses Palestinian deaths as consequence of war while trumpeting Israeli deaths as consequence of Palestinian’s “murderous” society.
This while, Israel is the occupier and colonizer. This while, Palestinians are the second-class citizens in Israel and under apartheid in the OT.
You have a LOT of free time on your hand annie?
Annie,
Come on, Phil does not cover all the news. He highlights things that help his cause. So he is not engaging in this question for academic purposes. Why is he asking this question and discussing this issue unless it is to chastise Israel and its supporters?
don’t give me this ‘come on’ business. you feigned you didn’t know the purpose of the post when it’s sitting right in front of you. “why is israel a champion of the kurds?” well for one friggin thing the peshmerga has the responsibility on it’s hands of being the army of the neocons for one thing. here’s more. after setting up a massive pr campaign telling everyone nd their brother ‘AQ’ was in mosel expecting this huge showdown designed to get every revolutionary and their brother to run to mosel it all fell flat because guess what? there was no army of ‘AQ’ in mosel. the ‘unrest’ there was designed to wall up the city just like we walled up most cities in iraq, israel style, because apparently that’s the way arabs are supposed to live in the modern day new map of the middle east. so guess what:
everybody takes sides and the citizens suffer. we fund the kurds to agitate the very borders we want to erase for our geopolitical goals and then moan about the backlash and pretend the agitators are victims. if goldberg were so interested in civilian casualties why isn’t he concerned w/palestinians? becasue team israel is the one killing them that’s why. big duh. and phil answers his own question like this
Israel is trying to pressure its former ally Turkey, which now supports the Palestinian statehood initiative, by making common cause with two populations Turkey has oppressed, Cypriotes and Kurds!
so how does an israel supporter like goldberg pressure turkey? by moaning about kurds. it isn’t because goldberg has some hankering for kurds it’s because he’s being a good israel advocate and wants to pressure turkey.
Phil does not cover all the news. He highlights things that help his cause.
and goldberg? like he isn’t highlighting his ’cause’. or do you posit goldberg just really really likes kurds as opposed to other civilians being massacred in the WOT we started?
Why is he asking this question and discussing this issue unless it is to chastise Israel and its supporters?
there’s no reason for phil to treat israel’s supporters w/kid gloves. the UN vote is coming up. it’s always about syria or the kurds or anything something over there isn’t it? anything to take the heat off israel’s intransigence. tell me how concerned you are about the kurds eee, just spill your guts out for us so we can really see how much you love them. because i’m so sure there’s a special place in your heart for their militias riding roughshod over iraqis no doubt.
If Norman Finkelstein likes Hezbollah, why can’t I like the Pesh Merga?
Israel is a little country in a troubled world. If we demanded perfection from our allies, we would have none. In a perfect world, I wouldn’t be their ally, but the world is not perfect.
you can like them eee. it’s just hypocritical to attack phil for suggesting why goldberg likes them. had goldberg said ‘i like them because israel is a little country in a troubled world’ it would have been a least a little more honest.
Israel is a little country with the strongest military in the region, with the total support of the world’s only superpower.
Israel is a little country, that causes big problems. Israel is a settler-colonial State.
It STEALS land and resources from the Palestinians and it’s neighbors.
Israel’s ongoing criminality is not a product of a ‘troubled world’ – it is a product of Zionism.
another thing eee, where’s the peshmerga been during these operations? have you heard any loud condemnations from the the kurdish government officials? i’m asking because these questions have been asked before you know:
so this was in 08 when we sat by and allowed turkey to invade and plummet kurdish villages. why? what is going on now geopolitically that allows, again, the kurdish villages to get attacked? once again civilians are being used as pawns for political goals of the heavier weights and we are being led down a propaganda road. it is not that i don’t ‘care’ about the kurds it is that people are just to weary of these propaganda efforts to manipulate public opinion when what is really going on is generally just below the surface or around the corner.
so where’s the peshmerga, the peshmerga you like..where are they during these attacks? and announcement from the kurdish gov officials in iraq? i’m curious.
In that outrageous Humanitarian Law Project v. Holder decision in which the Supreme Court approved rendering criminal, as material support of terrorism, even legal assistance meant to direct terrorist groups into peaceful channels, the terrorist groups that the decision was directly about were the Tamil Tigers and the PKK (although the opinion of the court did also mention Hamas in passing).
Israel’s foreign policy is cynical and it is bad. Whatever is your point, eee? Everybody does it? Well, they don’t.
Not on the level of the apartheid regime occupying Palestine…
Killing people and setting off bombs is not usually considered diplomacy, but I can understand why you think that it might be when it comes to Israel.
Israel countering? That’s funny eee. No, the US is doing all the heavy lifting for Israel, but like someone said about Dubya, Israel was born on 3rd base but believes it got there by hitting a home run.
Israel is a regional power and will use that to its advantage.
No eee, Israel is no regional power. It’s a regional brat who’s been given daddy’s credit card and who acts like a bully because Daddy is there to protect it.
Were it not for the US, Israel would be as relevant as Yehem. In the case of Kyrdistan, Israel is simply the local gang that has moved into a lawless neighborhood and picking over the remains.
flotilla payback.
what on earth does it have to do w/the flotilla. These states want to prosper, what is wrong with that Annie?
instead of whining about it like Lebanon, Cyprus (along with Israel and Greece) took the initiative to make something out of it.
It is the same w/ the Egyptians, they are willing to cancel their peace treaty with Israel and sacrifice their own security just because of hatred. It is sick.
I love seeing Isrfael champion Kurdish independence within well-established “countries” whilst denying human rights to Palestinians. Too bad Turkey cannot point at this inconsistency.
But Turkey can recognize Palestine on September 20, and Israel cannot recognize Kurdistan (for which there will be no motion in UNGA or UNSC) (although it CAN promote “terrorism” by Kurds in all their various homelands).
The Israeli attack on the first Freedom Flotilla was preceded two hours earlier by a PKK Kurdish rebel attack on the Turkish naval base in Iskenderun near the Syrian border, which just happens to be the naval base from which any Turkish naval assistance for the flotilla would have had to sail.
Dissent could be more skillful with this, than just to condemn Israel for speaking up.
They (Phil) could play it as a principle, supporting the efforts for Kurds and Cypriots for self-determination, and then declare with consistency that the same applies to Palestinians.
Otherwise, both dissent and Israel get caught up in petty unprincipled games driven entirely by coalitions/alliances.
I’m pretty sure that if you asked Goldberg, if he felt that Palestinians deserve self-determination, he’d say yes.
And, then you could form common cause on the basis of advocacy for self-determination, rather than the litmus test around any sympathy for Israel or Zionism.
Is it just me, has anyone noticed that Witty’s posts are all beginning to sound the sane, mire incoherent, more esoteric, more vague and more disconnected than ever?
Witty, do you oppose the UN granting Palestine its statehood next month?
Most of that that actually made sense, Richard.
Your concepts of “self-determination” are nonsense.
Kurds have no right of self-determination qua Kurds.
Insofar as there are any rights of self-determination, Kurds in Turkey have the same rights of self-determination as other Turks. Kurds in Iraq have the same rights of self-determination as other Iraqis. Kurds in Iran have the same rights of self-determination as other Iranians. Kurds in Syria have the same rights of self-determination as other Syrians.
Exactly.
If Palestinians had the same rights in Israeli-ruled Palestine as Kurds do in Turkish-ruled Kurdistan, Richard’s dreaded one-state solution would be a reality.
Well, to repeat, this is one of those rare occasions where I thought Richard made sense. You have to make allowances for his writing style, but it’s not that murky here–he’s saying we should take consistent stands on principle. He’s right. Richard doesn’t live up to this himself (we all know that), but he’s making a good point nonetheless.
“Otherwise, both dissent and Israel get caught up in petty unprincipled games driven entirely by coalitions/alliances.”
He’s being a little unfair to “dissent” here, but there’s a smidgeon of truth to this. Governments play unprincipled games, but we ought to be careful to remember what is important when discussing this. It’s more important that Turkey is and has been mistreating Kurds than it is that Israel apologists use this for propaganda points. It’s okay to point out the latter, but I don’t want to get caught up in the same sort of game myself. I remember last year when Israel killed the people on the flotilla there were people here who seemed to lionize Turkey. Well, Turkey may be on the right side with respect to the Palestinians, but they don’t exactly have a stellar human rights record themselves. They can object to Israeli cruelty to Palestinians (and their own citizens) and be right, and still not face up to their own crimes .
Anyway, the Kurds have been fodder for hypocrites for decades now. The US feigned concern for Kurds in Iraq and betrayed them more than once. We supplied the arms to Turkey that they used to bomb Kurdish villages back in the 90′s.
a) The situations of the Turkish Kurds and the Palestinians are not even remotely comparable.
The former are Turkish citizens who belong to an ethnic minority which has been severely oppressed in the past and still faces discrimination.
The latter are subjugated colonial subjects without any civil rights whatsoever.
b) The situation of the Turkish Kurds is generally improving thanks to political reform efforts in Turkey. The situation of the Palestinians gets worse with every settlement, wall segment and house demolition.
Generally, the Turkish Kurds are more aptly compared to the Basques in Spain. It should also be noted that, according to polls, the majority of Turkish Kurds are interested in having their status as an ethnic minority inside Turkey respected, rather than form their own state.
“The situations of the Turkish Kurds and the Palestinians are not even remotely comparable.”
The torture, extrajudicial executions, and air strikes that both have suffered from are comparable, though arguably Turkey has killed more people than Israel has since the 1982 Lebanon invasion. In the 90′s there were around 30,000 deaths and massive destruction of Kurdish villages by the Turkish military. Things still aren’t exactly perfect–
link
There is no reason why one can’t condemn Israel’s brutal treatment of the Palestinians and Turkey’s brutal treatment of the Kurds. Yes, Turkey isn’t as bad as it used to be, but they were damn close to Saddam Hussein levels of repression against the Kurds during the 90′s (and of course Israel and the US were Turkey’s allies), so improvement started from a very low level. When some Zionist comes along and points out that Turkey or the US or some other country has a rotten human rights record, very often the correct response is to agree with them. It doesn’t let Israel off the hook.
Yes, the Turkey-PKK conflict in the 80s and 90s was a much larger, bloodier and intense one than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was at the time.
That goes for both sides, by the way. Turkish forces also suffer casualties that dwarf whatever the IDF has to deal with.
It is still an ugly situation, no doubt about it, and Turkey’s methods are and should be open to criticism. But harsh as this sounds: The violence is not the main problem in Palestine. The subjugation and total lack of rights and freedoms is. In this regard, the Kurds are in a much, much better situation than the Palestinians are. There still is considerable need for necessary improvements (and I am cautiously optimistic these will continue to trickle down as Turkey modernizes), especially as far as respecting their ethnic minority rights goes, but the bottom line is that Kurds do have civil rights in their country. Palestinians don’t.
What is amusing about these stories is that Israel is trading its alliance or understanding or whatever it was with Turkey (while at the same time losing Eygypt) for some vague alliance with Cyprus, Greece and the Kurds. In the world of international diplomacy that is like trading Manhatten Island for 75 glass trinkets.
Israel must be getting really desperate to proclaim these accomplishments as some kind of victory. They are becoming more and more isolated and creating an international climate for BDS. Yes this will help BDS since it is well understood psychological fact that as a bully weakens and is perceived to weaken, more and more people sitting on the fence will join in on the feeding frenzy. Sometimes I almost feel sorry for what Israel is doing to itself.
You know, a few years down the road, someone writing a history paper about the Kurdish plight is going to have one whopper of a thesis, comparing Israel’s supposed support for the Kurds now, with their pretty much eventual involvement in the “anti-terrorist” apparatus that will eventually be turned on the Kurds.
Believe me, I feel bad for the Kurdish people. It sucks to see people like Benjamin Netanyahu and Bill O’Reilly use them as political cannon fodder, when we all know they’ll drop them like a stone into the ocean as soon as the hand of the free market points to profit in the other direction.
Don’t forget Chris Hitchens. He is a big supporter of Kurdish independence. He still wears that hackneyed pin I believe.