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Why Israel is in love with Kurdistan - At
least they are not Arabs
2.7.2014
By Pepe Escobar
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TV-Novosti |
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July 2, 2014
The “Middle East” invented by British and French
colonial powers almost a century ago is fast
dissolving as ISIS carves a vast piece of real
estate from the suburbs of Aleppo to Tikrit and from
Mosul to the Jordanian/Iraqi border.
Artificial geography, established in the midst of
World War I, via the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement, is
at risk; and it’s no accident the Islamic State of
Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) itself, although dreaming of
a Caliphate, is also graphically emphasizing the
point. Those states carved out of the fragmented
Ottoman Empire are all at risk. In this geopolitical
vortex the ultimate free electron is definitely the
notion of a Greater Kurdistan.
“Iraq is breaking up before our eyes and it would
appear that the creation of an independent Kurdish
state is a foregone conclusion.” The analysis might
have come straight from ISIS – but in fact came from
none other than former bouncer and unreformed
Zionist, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
What the invariably truculent Lieberman told US
Secretary of State John Kerry this week pertained
mostly to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in
Iraq, an autonomous region that - quite handily – is
also exporting oil to Israel (the KRG angrily denies
it.)
By all practical purposes, Kurdish Peshmergas are
now also in control of heavily disputed, oil-rich
Kirkuk – after the ignominious withdrawal of
Baghdad’s predominantly Shi’ite army as ISIS was
advancing. The wily KRG president Massoud Barzani
has been adamant; “We will bring all of our forces
to preserve Kirkuk.”
Talk about being handed over The Big Prize on a
plate; the KRG has been trying to control Kirkuk by
all means necessary since the 2003 Shock and Awe. In
any future scenario Kirkuk would be the absolutely
fabulous gas station fueling the wealth of a
prosperous Kurdish nation. Baghdad is confronted
with yet another quagmire.
It’s no secret in the “Middle East” that Tel Aviv
and the Kurds have had a fruitful working
relationship – in military, intel and business terms
- since the 1960s. It’s a no brainer Israel would
instantly recognize a possible new Kurdish
nation-state. No wonder Israeli President Shimon
Peres, also this week, told US President Barack
Obama, “the Kurds have, de facto, created their own
state, which is democratic. One of the signs of a
democracy is the granting of equality to women.”
At least they are not Arabs
So why this sudden interest in the welfare of
Kurdish women? Something fishy is afoot. Rupert
Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal is heavily peddling
Kurdish independence. What is Tel Aviv really up to
here?
The consensus narrative in Israeli media is that
Kurdish independence is “good for Israel” because
Kurds, well, they are not Arabs, Persians or Turks.
Kurdistan – at least Iraqi Kurdistan – is seen by
Tel Aviv as a “non-hostile entity” that, crucially,
is not exactly touched by the plight of the
Palestinians.
From a strictly Israeli point of view, Kurds are
regarded as moderate, secular Muslims who have been
victims – and that’s the key operative notion – of
Arab chauvinism, be it on nationalist or hardcore
Islamist terms. At least in theory, Kurds won’t
antagonize the notion of “Jewish
self-determination.”
And even more crucially, projecting ahead, a Greater
Kurdistan would be the ideal buffer state acting in
tandem with larger Israeli strategic interests; in
one go, it would simultaneously amputate Turkey,
Iran, Iraq and Syria.
Even an independent Iraqi Kurdistan would be not
only the proverbial “friend of Israel” but also a
viable, prosperous state; Irbil, for instance, even
though it is not Arab, wants to market itself as the
Arab Capital of Tourism. And all this in a region
Tel Aviv regards – paranoia included – as a basket
case of failed states. What’s not to like?
Ankara’s double game
So expect from now on all sorts of made-in-the-shade
moves by Israel to advance the Balkanization of Iraq
into a Sunni state, a Shiite state and an Iraqi
Kurdistan. There’s no question the KRG has been for
all practical purposes independent since the First
Gulf War in 1991 – boasting its own military (the
Peshmerga) and now its own (Baghdad-contested) oil
exports.
Yet the whole saga is also overloaded with myth –
such as the supposedly irreconcilable gulf between
Arabs and Kurds in Iraq. For nearly 10 years there
has not been a single credible poll stating that the
majority of Iraqi Kurdswww.Ekurd.net
want independence. As much as there’s a yearning
for independence, Kurds are also part of the
government in Baghdad.
True, the KRG has brokered an uneasy truce between
the Turkish government and the Kurdistan Workers’
Party (PKK). But the Kurdish question in both Syria
and Turkey is way more complex. Syrian Kurds have
been enjoying a much larger degree of autonomy after
a deal with Damascus – although they have refrained,
for the moment, from demanding an independent state
in Syria. Iraqi Kurds are busy helping them – from
experience – in their autonomous ways.
The Kurdish question has become increasingly
explosive as the Empire of Chaos preferred Divide
and Rule strategy of pitting Sunnis against Shi’ites
has metamorphosed into the ISIS blitzkrieg.
Disaffected young Kurds in Turkey – incited by Saudi
religious rhetoric, weaponizing and cash – have been
particularly attracted to the Syrian jihad. Funerals
in predominant Kurdish areas across Anatolia for
ISIS jihadis always draw large crowds – and are the
perfect recruiting opportunity for ISIS operatives.
This is only happening because – as many Kurds
insist – the AKP is looking the other way. Picture
the scene of a jihadi free flow in the
Turkish-Syrian border at a minimum tolerated by
Ankara (because it is anti-Assad) – but with the
added complicating factor that ISIS in Syria is also
fighting Syrian Kurds. And a lot of ISIS weaponizing
also comes straight from Turkey.
The Holy Grail for Ankara is to prevent by all means
necessary Turkish Kurd demands for autonomy. Their
only plan so far has been to blame Syrian Kurds for
their links with the PKK.
All this happens within a booming trade scenario;
over 70 percent of the annual, $12 billion trade
between Iraq and Turkey circulates via Iraqi
Kurdistan, where over 1,500 Turkish firms are in
business. It’s a contradiction pile up: Ankara in
theory supports the KRG, but would never dream of
supporting more autonomous Syrian and Turkish Kurds.
What’s certain is that wishful thinking – from Tel
Aviv to Washington – will keep permeating
calculations about the Kurdish question, as in
assuming Turkey will be allowed accession to the EU
(it won’t) and thus Kurdistan will be the EU’s de
facto eastern border. Bordering what? A Sunnistan
across the Levant? Over the Pentagon’s collective
dead body, of course.
What Big Oil in the US – and also Israel – sees,
most of all, is the mirage of a Western-friendly
major oil exporter in the long run. That’s why
Balkanization sounds so juicy. This has nothing to
do with the welfare of the historically wronged
Kurdish people. It’s hardcore business. And yet
another Divide and Rule power play. Expect plenty of
hardcore moves ahead.
Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for
Asia Times/Hong Kong, an analyst for RT and
TomDispatch, and a frequent contributor to websites
and radio shows ranging from the US to East Asia.
Born in Brazil, he's been a foreign correspondent
since 1985, and has lived in London, Paris, Milan,
Los Angeles, Washington, Bangkok and Hong Kong.
The views expressed in this article are the
author's own and do not necessarily reflect
Ekurd.net's editorial policy.
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