Why we can’t compare Kurdistan to Israel!

TODAY’S MESOP OPINION :  An unparalleled comparative

Dr. Dlear Zindrou – ekurd net – 12-7-2014 – From being a long sought dream of all Kurds, independence seems to be closer than ever, but yet far and very difficult achievable task.Surprisingly, the bitter past history of our nation and the recent course of events in the Middle East and the situation on the ground, makes one wonder what outcome are we expecting! Independence after almost a century of hardship endurance by Kurds in all parts of Kurdistan since the end of WWI, and even long before, is the ever greatest national achievement that all Kurds embrace whole heartedly.

One must acknowledge the immense hard work and effort spent in the around the clock process and diplomacy by the southern Kurdistan leadership, politicians of all parties, NGOs and individuals, is to thank for, if the dream comes true. The environment of trust and reliability created, although to a limited extent, at home and internationally has helped to elevate the Kurds reliability and unheralded their capability to govern and finally be master of their own.

May it sound silly and unmodern, leading to partition of countries in the postmodern era, when nations and free states unite and interact on their own will for the best of their citizens, the unequivocal importance of sovereignty for the Kurds elevating their status to that of other free nations is paramount.

While nation building at the end of the 19th and 20th centuries was achieved and differences were settled on the battle ground, with the support from superpowers, it is much objected today and restricted by treaties and international regulations laid down by the same international actors to protect the evil of their creation. While justifying status quo for those monstrous states they fostered whenever served their national interests, even if that cost other nations their entire freedom and existence.   Creating the state of Israel in 1948 in the middle of 20 or so newly created Arab Muslim states, was achieved 3 decades after the Balfour Declaration letter on the 2 November 1917 from the United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Baron Rothschild a leader of the British Jewish community, after a well and lengthy studied plan executed with great sacrifices of the Jewish communities worldwide.

Contrary to the Jewish nation, the Kurds situation is vastly different:

1- Instead of a protector the Kurds seem to be opposed by the mighty ally they once adopted and looked up for as a friend, but were betrayed by repeatedly, and later fought side by side in the liberation war against the evil in Iraq. The Kurds sacrificed their lives for the good of all, among them their torturers whose only aim and intention was annihilation of anything called Kurdish. The same Arab nationals who during the 1963 invasion of Kurdistan stabbed pregnant women opening their womb taking out the foster, and killed them, so they prevent them being born and grown to take revenge! While the returning Jewish communities back to their ancestral land, did not work for the god of all, but their own communities only.

2- Jewish politicians did not work with the back ward societies lived then in Israel, but isolated them. They worked hard to achieve their own national dream, while the Kurds after 2 decades of semi independence harried back to their perpetrators and courted them building their failed nation. Maybe, they were made to do so for the good of preserving the dysfunctional state that never existed in reality, but the creators refused to accept failure and still do so!

3- The Kurds saved and protected those who gassed their nation and raped their women and forgave them. While the Jewish state up to date chasing and prosecuting ailing 90 year old Nazi war criminals, incarcerating them, spending their final days behind bars.

4- The Jewish state repatriated and still does repatriate every single Jewish individual who wish to do so, despite the costs. Israel repatriated over 50 000 individuals from Beta Israel Ethiopian Jews, only because historically they call themselves descendants’ of King Solomon, despite many doubts of their Jewishness. While the Kurdish authorities have flooded Kurdistan with anyone but the Kurds. Thousands of highly educated diaspora Kurdish cadres have shown willingness to return to serve their country, but been denied reemployment and support from the state. While many of the foreign cadres working in Kurdistan only seeking fortune with no intention building the infrastructure of Kurdish nation and contribute to its prosperity. Even many of those foreign cadres shown not to have the training they claim with diplomas bought on the internet!

5- The Jewish economy has served the creation, survival, and success of the state of Israel, and is the driving motor behind the western superpowers support and defense for the Israeli state. While Kurdish politician, the economy holder, and those close to the center of power, the first 13 years of Kurdish self-rulewww.Ekurd.net until the liberation of Iraq in 2003, channeled all the billions of US dollars, sent or brought by the diaspora Kurds back to Kurdistan, to the central Iraqi regime exchanged to valueless locally printed the so called “Saddam´s Dinars”. The Jewish state is controlling half of the markets in western European countries, while the Kurdish economy seems lacking sound bases upholding independence and survival of the state. The Kurdish regional government does not seem to have succeeded in establishing a system of self-sufficiency. There seem to be very few industries established in Kurdistan, a part from mushrooming tall buildings with no sound internationally accepted standards. Most of the new buildings in Kurdistan lack basic international standards. I lately learned that licensing for any industry or business is strictly limited to certain strata in the society. The Kurdish region, once the breadbasket of the Middle East is importing every single agricultural product mainly from the regional countries leading to export- import imbalance leading to hard currency flow out of Kurdistan. While the quality of these imported goods is so poor, those by western standards are unreadable. Unfortunately, the prices are often higher than high quality similar goods available in western markets. The examples are too many and not limited only to one item. 

  6- The creation of the state of Israel started with the control of the land, buying and over paying for the land owned by the Arab population driving them out to refugee camps and settlements in the neighboring Arab countries. While, the Kurdish land is being on sale to the highest bidder since the fall of the Dictator Saddam Hussein and the move of the sunning Arabs to Kurdistan. There is no business in Kurdistan not owned by an Arab person with strong economy, often a Baathists who once perpetrated heinous crimes against the Kurdish citizens. The killing of the 182 000 Kurdish Al-Anfal genocide victims were not perpetrated personally by Saddam Hussein, but by those who now residing among us in Kurdistan! Only the last week one of the Saddam´s ex generals, a military commander guilty of the crimes against the Kurds, deceased in his home in Hewlêr [Erbil], the capital of Kurdistan, when both security and authorities denied their knowledge of his residence in Hewlêr.

7- The mountains “our only friend” are now more or less in private ownership instead of state ownership! The few infrastructure projects in Kurdistan are exposed and vulnerable to any outside attack from the sky or by terrorists, instead of being built in purposely built constructions in the mountains where they are protected. Kurdistan has not yet declared independence, but threatened by mighty neighbors like Iran that has been shelling the region for the past 10 years.

8- The compulsory military services in Israel exempts no citizen, and any delay in the service be for the purpose of studying and academic achievement, must be compensated for by the individual paying an annual fee to the state! Every single individual in Israel is military trained and is a reservist that can join defending their country at any moment. While in Kurdistan during the past 2 decades of self-rule, we have utterly failed to build a united national army. Each political party still owns its own loyal army! I read in 2013 that no single Kurdish high school graduate student applied for the scholarship posts advertised for the military pilot training program! No country will ever come to and sustain its existence without its own well trained army. A conscript does not mean time waste for individuals, but a skill gaining in self-defense in a surrounding like Middle East, where the risk of being attacked by the neighbors is imminent at any time. No nation in the world has as many enemies as the Kurds do, therefore, we will ever survive without a well-equipped and trained conscript army. This army must evolve from the national need to self-defense, just like the “Peshmerge” not a private army.

9- The Jewish nation has the very powerful AIPAC lobbying organization and a 7 highly qualified think tank organizations, while the Kurdish administration despite 24 years in self-rule still lack a think tank organization.

The list of differences between the Kurdish and the Israeli people and politicians is long; therefore, I believe it is not possible to outright compare the two communities with each other. Although, the suffering of the two nations are immense and both are surrounded by the same enemy that has no understanding to the principle of the others rights to existence and living in peace, but its own!

Therefore, I urge the Kurdish leadership to urgently reassess its plans, take lessons from the past history of its own relations with the actors in the Middle Eastern complex equation, as well as the experience of other nations like Israel, and take the necessary measures as statesmen concerned with the whole Kurdish nations prosperity and wellbeing, just like the Jewish leadership founded Israel did despite the origin and belonging of the Jews, than leaders of political parties concerned only with their own groups success! Consolidate the democratic institutions and return to the Kurdish nation for all vital national decisions, and strengthen the role of the diaspora cadres who are better educated and reliable better than foreign cadres.

  By Dlear Zindrou, PhD – Dr. Zindrou is a senior Kurdish writer from Hewlêr, Iraqi Kurdistan, a Cardiac and General Surgeon with FRCS and PhD from the Imperial College, London UK.