I had been wondering if the Christians and the Yazidi would be any better off under the Kurds.
I put that to my friend at Iraqi Christians in Need, and her, strictly personal but very well-informed and considered, reply was, "In the short term, to escape genocide. Long term, NO: they will be used as a pretext to add Nenevah (Mosul+) to Kurdistan."
I put that to my friend at Iraqi Christians in Need, and her, strictly personal but very well-informed and considered, reply was, "In the short term, to escape genocide. Long term, NO: they will be used as a pretext to add Nenevah (Mosul+) to Kurdistan."
But where is "Never Again" Israel? Or Lebanon, the supposed bulwark of the ancient indigenous Christianity of the Middle East? Or Iran, which recognises the Chaldo-Assyrians as a constituent people, complete with reserved parliamentary representation?
Where the hell are they?
Where the hell are they?
You are incomparable.
ReplyDeleteI sincerely hope so.
DeleteThere's no doubt at all they'd be better under the Kurds. They wouldn't be saved from genocide, for a start.
ReplyDeleteWhere are all the "two-state solution" types now the Kurds are fighting for self determination against a brutal occupying power and a theocratic tyranny?
Or do they only support the rights of people's to self determination when they are led by Islamist fundamentalists like Hamas and Israel is their enemy?
I can only hope that that made more sense to you than it did to anyone else.
DeleteOf course, you know better than Iraqi Christians in Need.
Iraqi Christians are not being killed by Kurds, in case that has escaped Lindsay's attention. The Kurds are of course the last bulwark against ISIS.
ReplyDeleteThe Iranian- installed Shia fundamentalist "government" in Baghdad is certainly no kind of bulwark against Islamic fundamentalism- it is simply a rival variant of it.
As I say, where are the "two state solution" types now the Kurds have a chance of their own state?
Funny that when a stateless people in the Middle East can't be used to destabilise Israel, Western liberals aren't so keen on it.
That's why the cause of the long suffering Kurds (who have far more claim to a real historical state than the retrospectively invented "Palestinians") has never got the same airtime as the cause of the Arabs in the West Bank/East Jerusalem.
Bless.
DeleteIraq's Christians are not being killed YET by the Kurds, they would be if they stood in the way of Kurdistan annexing the Nineveh Plains. Two-state solution? We are talking about half a dozen peoples here. They used to have one state called Iraq, but you destroyed it, maybe not you I suspect you were a small child at the time. But the political forces you support.
Delete"Retrospectively invented Palestinians", where to start? Check out the coins with Palestine on them in English, Arabic and Hebrew. The photos of international sports teams with Palestine written across their chests. Even the Americans are now issuing passports giving naturalised citizens' birthplaces as Palestine if before 1948, including those born in "Jerusalem, Palestine", the city and country on their birth certificates.
"The Iranian- installed Shia fundamentalist "government" in Baghdad is certainly no kind of bulwark against Islamic fundamentalism- it is simply a rival variant of it." You need to read today's Peter Hitchens column. You could try reading anything, that would be a start.. "Simply a variant"? How are you allowed out? Keep up the good work, Mr. L.
DeleteWell said.
DeleteDepend upon it, Jack. Depend upon it.
Anon. Sorry to break it to you, dear. It's not nice to have your illusions shattered is it?
ReplyDeleteBut the term Palestinians is entirely a post-60's propaganda invention.
The word derives from a name that means "Philistine" in English and originated in Asia Minor and Greece. The Phiistines were not Arabs or even Semites-they were most closely related to the Greeks-and they didn't even speak Arabic!
The use of the term Palestinian to describe an Arab ethnic group in the West Bank, Gaza etc has no basis in fact and no international or academic credibility before 1967.
The area referred to as "Palestine" was a British colony then a Jordanian/Egyptian colony and now an Israeli one.
Theres never been any such thing as a state called "Palestine" (the Anglo French boundary agreement was drawn up by two colonial powers for purely logistical purposes).
There has, however, been a Kurdistan-before the British destroyed it.
The Kurds are the longest-suffering stateless people's in the Middle East, bitterly oppressed in Iran, Turkey and of course Iraq.
But we never hear anything like as much about their plight from bleating liberals as we do about the plight of the so called "Palestinians".
Ever wondered why?
Oh, well, I suppose that everything is new when it is new to oneself...
DeleteIt is still not true, though.
DeleteQuite.
DeleteIt shouldn't be new to anyone moderately well-informed.
ReplyDeleteBut some contributors here (and apparently the author) really think the word "Palestinian" is anything other than a post-1967 propaganda invention.
The politicisation of the term (by applying it to some Arab grouping in an area previously occupied by Britain, then Egpyt and Jordan) now that the territory is held by Israel, was a completely cynical act of propaganda.
Funny that the truly oppressed stateless people of the region-who genuinely do have their own distinct history, cultural identity and language-have never been celebrated by the Left.
Because the Kurds unfortunately can't be used as a battering ram against Israel, that's why.
Turkey, Iran and Iraq have carried out far greater atrocities against them than anything Israel has never done to the Palestinians, though.
Oh, well, I suppose that everything is new when it is new to oneself...
DeleteFilastin was a newspaper that ceased publication in 1967, it was founded in 1911, you silly little boy. Even the British authorities that once briefly forced it to suspend printing called the country they were governing Palestine. You are so far out of your depth I am surprised Mr. Lindsay can be bothered to put your comments up, he must be mellowing in his old age.
Delete