MIRROR ON THE MID EAST WALL

The leftovers from the poorly carved up Ottoman Empire continue to haunt. The parallel lines between the Turkish PPK war and the Israeli Palestinian war are so clear, they could be seen from the recently launched space shuttle. First, these are tribal groups left within the confines of other sovereign states. In the Kurdish case its people are dispersed between Iraq, Iran and Turkey. The Palestinians roam through the former Trans Jordan, Egypt and the new comer Israel. As there was never a real recognized country called Kurdistan there was never a real recognized country called Palestine. Both were imaginary places whose people were condemned to live with their feet in one country their arms in another and their head in a third.

When the West mapped out the post Ottoman Empire mid east in 1918 they probably imagined that these secondary, semi -nomadic peoples would either be subsumed their host country or that the borders of Trans-Jordan and Egypt in the Palestinian case and Iraq, Iran and Turkey in the Kurd’s case would prove accommodating to daily life. Tribal autonomy was made easier when communications between villages took days when central governments were weak and when the balance of arms was a single shot rifle against similar rifles, sabers against daggers. The West never anticipated that modern statecraft would embolden the Kurds and the Palestinians to assume a national identity.

"Kurds or Gazans?"

Fast forward 89 years and the Kurds and the Palestinians are reacting the same way to the same set of new circumstances. As in Gaza and Kurdistan the hated oppressors have left. Defeated, as in the case of Saddam or just tired as in the case of Sharon. For the first time both groups have the power to shape their destiny, to build a better life for their people and earn their future in the modern world. They can concentrate on improving their economy and foreign relations, while building a successful state for their enterprising people.

But no, in both cases they have used their newfound freedom to turn on their neighbors and engage in futile struggle that can only mean death and destruction. The PPK now have eight Gilad Shalits in captivity. They are now going to cynically play these human cards in a game of raised hopes and dashed realities. Their plan is to ambush and kill soldiers in cross border raids that beg for retaliation if not outright invasion. Like the Hamas Gazans do with Islamic Jihad, the KRG (Kurdish regional government) pretends that the guerillas attacking Turkey are not in their control, while doing nothing to stop their depredations.

The feeling of Schadenfreude in Tel Aviv at the Turk’s dilemma must be palpable. Turkey cannot understand why the United States policy dithers in its response to attacks on sovereign soil. Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan actually asked why we had, “bad and good terrorists” as if we supported these Kurdish thugs. Turning to the Europeans, one could ask if Oslo is going to rush in and recognize these Kurdish terrorists as they did the Gazan ones? What is Turkey or for that matter Iran going to do in the face of these armed incursions?

They seem to be taking a page out of the Israeli Defense Force manual. They are threatening aerial bombardment and a massive ground invasion. The Turks are pounding the PPK lairs with heavy artillery (where are the French cameraman to film where these shells fall?) that will inevitably land on a village, killing civilians. The Turks are outraged by their Iraqi neighbors behavior and the world powers that are enabling them.









"Kurds or Gazans?"

The actual Turkish response should be very carefully studied by the Israelis for there are two windows of opportunity here. First, the IDF could use any major Turkish incursion into Kurdistan as cover for the planned Gaza invasion. The world will be distracted and the Al Jazeera screen split in two. Both operations will appear as one big mopping up of violent ingrates who do not deserve the freedom they were given. Using this cover will also either silence or expose the hypocrisy of those who are silent on the Kurds and vocal about the Gazans. How can the Europeans support Turkey’s war on terror and denounce Israel’s? The world of Israel condemners will be twisted into knots trying to undo this conundrum. Who knows, perhaps there could be shared intelligence and tactics between Israel and Turkey, there was in the recent past.

The bones of the old Ottoman Empire need to be laid to rest. The legacy borders are not perfect; they do not reflect the cultural, tribal and religious facts on the ground. The answer however is not in war. The answer is not in futile kidnappings and bombings and pointless rocket attacks. The answer is to move on. Both the citizens of Gaza and the Kurds have been given something very precious, a place to call their own. They were given that with the express hope that they would make something of it, a place both peaceful and prosperous. If they both insist on using their place as a base to bring blood and death to their neighbor they will find it taken away from them.


Top:Gazans
Bottom:Kurds