RE: [casi] The New York Times: a proposal for ethnic cleansing in Iraq

[pjw8 <Philippa.Winkler@DELETETHISNAU.EDU>]

>
Re  article below:
"they were surprised to find a
       closer genetic connection between the Jews and the populations of the
       fertile crescent ..."
This is pure nonsense. Of the total individual DNA, maybe about
3 percent is a variable, the other 97% is more or less the
same for everyone, and of the 3% you  find
variables among people of the same (socially designated)
"race" or ethnic group. These researchers are pushing the idea of
the biological construction of ethnic and racialised groups--
it is highly divisive and scientifically unsustainable.
For one thing, migration and inter-marriage change the DNA picture
constantly, Philippa Winkler


===== Original Message From as-ilas <as-ilas@gmx.de> =====
>Dear Nels,
>
>Yep.
>
>Here a little and easily extendable synopsis of additional material
>(including items I posted earlier on CASI).
>
>Best
>
>Andreas
>---------------------
>
>1) Study: close genetic connection between Jews, Kurds
>
>2a)  BREAK UP IRAQ NOW!
>2b) Letters: DIVIDE AND CONQUER - A WISE RECIPE FOR IRAQ
>
>3)  Turkey responds to activities of Jewish backed Kurdish Credit Bank with
>Ziraat Bank
>
>4) Three Iraqs, not one
>
>---------------------------------------
>
>1)
>http://www.kerkuk-kurdistan.com/nuceyek.asp?ser=4&cep=1&nnimre=2857
>
>
>Study: close genetic "con"nection between Jews, Kurds
>
>      Published: 2003-09-20 14:36
>
>      Study finds close genetic connection between Jews, Kurds
>      By Tamara Traubman
>
>      Source: www.haaretz.com
>      -----------------------
>
>      [ISRAEL, 20/9 2003] - The people closest to the Jews from a genetic
>point of view may be the Kurds, according to results of a new study at the
>Hebrew University.
>
>      Scientists who participated in the research said the findings seem to
>indicate both peoples had common ancestors who lived in the northern half of
>the fertile crescent, where northern Iraq and Turkey are today. Some of
>them, it is assumed, wandered south in pre-historic times and settled on the
>eastern shores of the Mediterranean.
>
>      Professor Ariella Oppenheim and Dr. Marina Feirman, who carried out
>the research at the Hebrew University, said they were surprised to find a
>closer genetic connection between the Jews and the populations of the
>fertile crescent than between the Jews and their Arab neighbors. Oppenheim
>pointed out that previous research of DNA of Jews, including her own work,
>had revealed great genetic similarity between Jews and Arabs, particularly
>Palestinians from Israel and the territories.
>
>      The present study, however, involved more detailed and thorough
>examinations than previous research. In addition, this was the first
>comparison of the DNA of Jews and Kurds.
>
>      Genetic similarity between peoples is measured by comparing the
>frequency of genetic mutations among them. This information makes it
>possible to reconstruct their paths of migration and to discover their
>unwritten history. The present study, however, reveals only part of the
>story, since it is based on mutations of the Y chromosome. Since this
>chromosome, which determines male gender, is passed only from father to son,
>it does not contain information about the mothers' contributions to the
>genetic reservoir under study.
>
>      The study's findings are published in the current issue of The
>American Journal of Human Genetics.
>
>      The researchers used the DNA of 1,847 Jewish men of Ashkenazi,
>Sephardi and Kurdish descent; Muslims and Christians of Kurdish, Turkish and
>Armenian descent; various Arab populations; and Russians, Poles and
>residents of Belarus.
>
>-----------------
>
>2a)
>
>http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/169.htm
>
>
>BREAK UP IRAQ NOW!
>
>By RALPH PETERS
>
>July 10, 2003 -- PRESIDENT Bush consistently has done the right thing by
>ignoring the nay- sayers before, during and after Operation Iraqi Freedom.
>Yet he's in danger of making the same mistake his father did at the end of
>Desert Storm - doing only half the job.
>Just as the failure to press on to Baghdad in 1991 left Iraq and the entire
>region with cancerous problems, today's failure to recognize the artificial,
>unjust nature of the Iraqi state promises enduring discontent.
>
>Will American troops need to return to Iraq a third time, in another decade?
>
>Speaking of Iraq as a single, integrated country is a form of lying. Its
>borders were drawn by grasping European diplomats almost a century ago, with
>no regard for the wishes - or rivalries - of the local populations.
>
>Today, the Iraq we're trying to herd back together consists of three
>distinct nations caged under a single, bloodstained flag. Our problems are
>with only one of those nations, the Sunni Arab minority west and north of
>Baghdad.
>
>Favored by the British, the Sunni Arabs took power at Iraq's formation and
>maintained it through massacre, torture and imprisonment. Saddam Hussein was
>the ultimate expression of Sunni Arab tyranny over Iraq's Kurds and
>Shi'ites.
>
>By holding Iraq together with U.S. troops, we merely encourage the Sunni
>Arabs - who remain hostile to our presence, whose extremists attack our
>soldiers and who still intend to recapture control of the entire country.
>
>
>
>We are punishing our friends, rewarding our enemies and alienating the
>neutral. President Bush needs to perform radical surgery on Iraq now, while
>the world remains in a funk over our success. We still have a window through
>which we can thrust major reforms. But the window is closing. Defending the
>status quo is deadly folly.
>
>The break-up of Iraq should proceed in two stages.
>
>First, we should provisionally divide the country into a federation of three
>states, giving the Sunni Arabs one last chance to embrace reform.
>
>* One state would encompass the Shi'ite region in the south, encompassing
>all of the southern oil fields.
>
>* The second would be an expanded Kurdistan, including historically Kurdish
>Kirkuk and Mosul, as well as Iraq's northern oil fields.
>
>* The third would be a rump Sunni Arab state sandwiched between the other
>two.
>
>* Baghdad would become an autonomous district.
>
>Stop worrying about Shi'ite extremism. If we mean what we say about
>democracy, the Shi'ites should be free to choose whomever they want as their
>leaders - even fundamentalists. Although the odds of theocratic rule
>emerging or enduring in southern Iraq are lower than the media imply, the
>Shi'ites, who long have been oppressed and persecuted, should be free to
>determine their own future.
>
>Democracy means letting people make their own mistakes. We've made a few
>ourselves. The only thing upon which we should insist is strict supervision
>to ensure an honest vote.
>
>We must, however, make it clear to Iran that meddling will not be tolerated.
>
>As this column consistently points out, the Kurds deserve freedom and a
>state of their own. After the Jews and Armenians, they have been the most
>persecuted ethnic group of the last hundred years, always denied an
>independent homeland, shot, gassed, driven from their homes - and even
>victimized for the use of their native dialects. The world's willingness to
>look away from the long tragedy of the Kurdish people is inexcusable.
>
>And consider how strategically helpful a Kurdish state, reliant on U.S.
>military guarantees, might be. If the Kurdish people agreed to host our
>forces, we could abandon our bases in Turkey, the use of which has been
>restricted almost to worthlessness. New airbases amid a welcoming population
>would be quite a change in the region. Even the Saudis and the Gulf Arabs
>would be on notice.
>
>And what about Turkey? Our "long-time ally"?
>
>I have no personal grudge against Turkey. On the contrary, I've visited the
>country many times and even took my wife there on our honeymoon. Istanbul
>remains one of my favorite cities. I've argued for years that Turkey was a
>vital ally.
>
>But times change. Turkish treachery on the eve of our recent war cannot be
>overlooked.
>
>Startled by the swiftness of our victory, the Turks immediately assured us
>that it was all a minor misunderstanding, that Turkey wished to remain the
>best of friends. Yet Turkey is again becoming the "sick man of Europe,"
>plagued by ineradicable corruption, growing Islamic radicalism and a
>self-destructive military.
>
>The result of our renewed friendship? Last week, U.S. forces had to break up
>a secret Turkish military operation in northern Iraq, arresting a dozen of
>Ankara's special operations troops. The Turkish mission? To assassinate the
>senior Kurdish leader in Kirkuk. His crime? Cooperating with the Americans.
>
>The Turkish chief of staff, Gen. Ozkok, threw a public tantrum, insisting
>that we had created a grave crisis by busting his assassins. Sorry, pal. You
>created the crisis. And you just blew any chance you and your government had
>of rebuilding bridges to Washington that will bear any real weight.
>
>The Turkish military's scheme to undercut our occupation underscores the
>need for the Bush administration to stop thinking small when it comes to
>nation-building. Instead of just changing the oil in the old jalopy, it's
>time for a fleet of new cars. An independent Kurdistan should roll off the
>assembly line first.
>
>The second stage of the division of Iraq would kick in if the Sunni Arabs
>still refuse to cooperate: We would declare the interim Iraqi Federation
>dissolved, creating three fully independent states in its place, with the
>Kurdish and Shi'ite states meeting along the Iranian border to guarantee the
>Kurds a corridor to the sea for their oil, gas and trade.
>
>Then leave the Sunni Arabs to rot.
>
>Oh, and there just might be a third step down the road, too. We should not
>miss any opportunity to support the longing for freedom of the tens of
>millions of Kurds held hostage behind European-imposed borders in Turkey,
>Syria and Iran. For Americans serious about human rights and freedom,
>Greater Kurdistan must be a long-range goal.
>
>Military operations alone cannot change the Middle East. The European legacy
>of phony borders must be demolished, starting in Iraq. Don't betray our
>troops again by leaving the job unfinished to please our enemies.
>
>Ralph Peters is a retired Army officer and the author of "Beyond Terror:
>Strategy in a Changing World."
>
>-----------------
>
>2b)
>
>http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/letters/37752.htm
>
>DIVIDE AND CONQUER - A WISE RECIPE FOR IRAQ
>
>July 12, 2003 -- Full marks to Ralph Peters ("Break up Iraq now!" Opinion,
>July 10) for his honesty, courage and objectivity - and boldly upholding
>true American values. His recognition of Kurdistan's strategic geopolitical
>importance and the Kurds' time-honored loyalty to friends is no less
>commendable.
>
>It would be sad if President Bush's place in history were to be tarnished by
>his neglect of the Kurds due to irrational reverence for the errors of the
>past and his undeserved loyalty to tyrannical and phony "friends" like the
>Turkish generals.
>
>Eziz Bawermend
>Sydney, Australia
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Trying to hold together coalitions of feuding people who hate each other is
>not a recipe for success.
>
>Democratic values must be fostered before they can trump religious and
>ethnic allegiances.
>
>Turkey should be justly rewarded for its treachery. What it feared most - an
>independent Kurdistan - is what it deserves.
>
>John Erickson
>Henderson, Nev.
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Finally, someone has said what I've been waiting to hear since the fall of
>Baghdad. The problems of the Middle East are in no small part the result of
>the breakup of the colonial empires of Europe after World War I and can only
>be resolved by recognizing the mistakes made at that time.
>
>President Bush has an historic opportunity and, I hope, the resolve to act.
>
>Jeffery Kempf
>Auburn, Alaska
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Ralph Peters' column about the breakup of Iraq is scary. The same argument
>could be made for America.
>
>We could partition Texas, New Mexico and California for the Hispanic
>population. The freed slaves could take over the Deep South. Indian
>reservations could be a new independent nation.
>
>America does have the same problems as Turkey and Iraq. We always seem to be
>able to work them out.
>
>David Bebb
>Palm Springs, Calif.
>
>-----------------------
>
>3)
>http://www.turkishdailynews.com/FrTDN/latest/for.htm#f7
>
>Turkey responds to activities of Jewish backed Kurdish Credit Bank with
>Ziraat Bank
>
>Turkey responds to activities of Jewish backed Kurdish Credit Bank with
>Ziraat Bank
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>ISTANBUL - The Turkish government will take precautions against an increase
>in banking activities and the purchase of land in northern Iraq. The Turkish
>government plans to respond to activities of "Kurdish Credit Bank" which
>grants loans to Kurdish people to purchase land belonging to the Arab and
>Turkmen people in northern Iraq, by opening a branch of the Turkish
>state-owned Ziraat Bank in the region.
>
>The Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITC) Ankara Representative Ahmet Muratli said that
>they have discovered that Israel was behind these banking activities in the
>region. He said he immediately informed the Turkish government about these
>activities several months ago and as a result they persuaded state-owned
>Ziraat Bank to become active in the region.
>
>Muratli said that northern Iraq has great importance in terms of both
>potential commercial and strategic importance and they applied to the
>Turkish Foreign Ministry and Turkish Treasury to establish a branch of the
>Turkish owned bank.
>
>Muratli said, "Everyone wants Ziraat Bank or another Turkish bank in the
>region. Kurdish, Arab and Turkmen businessmen personally conveyed their
>demands to Turkish officials in Ankara."
>
>'Purchasing land in Mosul is encouraged'
>Iraq is an oil rich region and has the second largest oil reserves in the
>world. Northern Iraq produces approximately 70 percent of all Iraqi's oil
>reserves. The Kurdish Credit Bank has subsequently caused worries among the
>Turkmen and Arab people.
>
>Muratli said the Kurdish Credit Bank is centered in the city of Suleymaniya
>in northern Iraq and the Bank was established through the assistance of
>Massoud Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Jalal Talabani,
>head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan Party. Muratli said they discovered
>after exhaustive research that Israel was behind the creation of the Kurdish
>Credit Bank.
>
>Muratli said, "Kurdish groups at first wanted to seize the homes and
>property of Turkmen and Arab people, who form a majority in the Mosul and
>Kerkuk regions, by force. When the Kurdish groups were not successful in
>their efforts, they wanted to purchase these homes and property by paying
>for it. When we talked with Arab tribes, they said that Jewish Kurds and
>Israelis began to purchase property. The Jewish Kurds and Jewish Arabs, who
>have obtained long term and interest-free loans from the Kurdish Credit
>Bank, began to purchase property, which was allegedly their property in the
>past. We are following the developments very closely."
>
>Investment-Development Banking needs specialization and Kurds are not
>specialized in this area
>
>Experts on the Kurds in northern Iraq and the Middle East said that Kurdish
>groups, who do not have experience in banking, are certainly assisted by
>some unidentified groups.
>
>A former Department Head at the Turkish National Intelligence Organization
>(MIT), Mahir Kaynak said, "It is certainly necessary for Kurds in northern
>Iraq to receive asistance from foreign countries. It is necessary to
>establish a bank in the region in order to carry out daily banking
>transactions and Turkey must act urgently in this field."
>
>Kaynak said that investment-development banks have a wide experience in this
>field and Kurdish groups can establish such a bank with the help of Jewish
>businessmen, who are very powerful in world financial markets.
>
>The General Manager and Chief Executive Officer of Ziraat Bank, Can Akin
>Caglar said they were researching the new banking laws of the Iraqi Interim
>Governing Council very closely. He said Ziraat Bank has been continuing
>discussions with Iraqi officials to open a branch in Iraq as a private bank.
>Caglar said, "We will determine in time which path we will follow. We
>continue to be interested in this country and I hope that we have positive
>results."
>
>Cihan News Agency
>
>-------------------
>4)
>http://www.kurdmedia.com/reports.asp?id=1706
>
>Three Iraqs, not one
>
>23 October 2003
>
>Daily Times [Pakistan]
>By Shlomo Avineri
>
>Saddam's regime was merely the most extreme manifestation of the
>harshunderlying fact that Iraq's geography and demography condemned it to
>rule bythe iron fist. Nor has Saddam's fall changed this fact
>
>America's mounting difficulties in setting up a coherent form ofgovernment
>in Iraq, let alone a democratic one, inspire a question that moststatesmen
>consider unthinkable: is it possible that there is no way tore-constitute
>Iraq as one state, and that alternative options must beconsidered,
>unpalatable as they may appear?
>
>Like so many problems in the re-birth of states wounded bydictatorship -
>Eastern Europe is a good example - Iraq's difficulties havedeep historical
>roots. To blame everything on the heavy-handedness of theAmericans is too
>simplistic and shallow, even if their mistakes have,indeed, been legion.
>
>Iraq was established in the 1920s by the British, who occupied theregion
>after the Ottoman Empire disintegrated at the end of WWI. Theirpolicies were
>dictated by British imperial interests, and gave noconsideration to the
>wishes, interests, or characteristics of the localpopulation.
>
>What British imperial planners did was to stitch together threedisparate
>provinces of the old Ottoman Empire and put at their head a princefrom Hijaz
>(now a part of Saudi Arabia). The three provinces - Mosul,Baghdad, and
>Basra - each had very distinct characters and very differentpopulation
>structures.
>
>Mosul had a Kurdish majority, with significant Assyrian-Christian
>andTurkoman minorities; Baghdad was mainly Sunni; and Basra was
>predominantlyShi'ite. Throwing such disparate groups into one body politic
>doomed thenewly invented country to decades of strife and repression.
>
>The old Ottoman Empire ruled these three provinces - as it ruled allof its
>imperial possessions - through its historically autocratic means.
>Thechallenge facing the new Iraqi state was to try to create a
>non-despotic,relatively representative form of government in which all
>sectors of thepopulation would find an expression of their political will.
>This turned outto be an impossible mission. For this reason Iraq - even
>before SaddamHussein - always suffered the most repressive regime of any
>Arab state.
>
>In a country where Shi'ites form the majority, the Sunnis -traditionally the
>hegemonic group in all Arab countries - were totallyunwilling to allow any
>democratic process to jeopardize their rule. A Shi'ite insurrection was
>brutally put down in the 1920s (with the help of theBritish Royal Air
>Force).
>
>Similarly, Kurdish attempts at autonomy before WWII were drowned inbloody
>massacres of tens of thousands of innocent civilians, and even theAssyrian
>Christian minority - a relatively small group, with no politicalambitions -
>was exposed to murderous assaults in the 1930s.
>
>Under these conditions, with the Sunni ruling minority constantlyfeeling
>threatened, it was no accident that the only attempt in any Arabcountry to
>establish something like a pro-Nazi fascist regime occurred inIraq in the
>early 1940's under Rashid Ali al-Khailani. The Britishsuppressed this
>misadventure, but not before hundreds of Jews in Baghdadwere murdered in a
>wild farhood (pogrom) instigated by the short-livedpro-Nazi government.
>
>Saddam's regime was merely the most extreme manifestation of the
>harshunderlying fact that Iraq's geography and demography condemned it to
>rule bythe iron fist. Nor has Saddam's fall changed this fact: anti-US
>violence isnot only an expression of anger at foreign occupation; it is also
>a Sunniattempt to abort the establishment of a democratic order that would
>putthem - the historical masters - in a subordinate position.
>
>Similarly, one cannot see the Kurds in the north submitting willinglyto a
>Baghdad-dominated Arab regime, let alone a Shi'ite one (most Kurds
>areSunnis). There is little understanding in the West of how deep the
>Sunni/Shi'ite divide runs. Put yourself in pre-1648 Europe, a time when
>Protestantsand Catholics slaughtered each other with abandon, and you'll
>understand theenmity immediately.
>
>So what can be done? Yugoslavia's example shows that in multi-ethnicand
>multi-religious countries deeply riven by conflict, partition andseparation
>may be the only way to ensure stability and democratisation.There is no
>doubt today that Croatia and Serbia - despite theirdifficulties - stand a
>better chance of becoming more or less stabledemocracies than if they were
>still fighting for mastery among themselveswithin the Procrustean bed of the
>former Yugoslavia.
>
>Nor is federation an alternative - as the terms of the federationitself
>become the bones of contention (see Bosnia or Cyprus). Even thepacific
>Czechs and Slovaks found it easier to develop their respectivedemocratic
>structures through a velvet divorce rather than be joined in anunworkable
>marriage.
>
>The time has come to think the unthinkable, about creating a Kurdishstate in
>the north, an Arab Sunni one in the centre around Baghdad, and anArab
>Shi'ite state in the south around Basra. Repeating mantras aboutterritorial
>integrity - the conventional wisdom of international relations -is
>productive only as long as it ensures stability and averts chaos. Again,as
>Yugoslavia - and the Soviet Union - showed, once strife replacesstability,
>territorial integrity loses its strategic meaning and legitimacy.
>
>This is not a universal prescription for ethnically homogenous states.The
>point is simply that there are moments in history when democratisationand
>nation building coincide, and that in deeply divided societies theminimum
>consensus needed for both to succeed simultaneously is difficult toachieve.
>All this may run contrary to conventional wisdom, but who thoughtthat the
>USSR would disintegrate? Creative and innovative thinking is neededabout
>Iraq; otherwise today's mayhem will continue - and worsen. -
>Shlomo Avineri is Professor of Political Science at the HebrewUniversity of
>Jerusalem.
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "nels bacon" <nelsbacon@earthlink.net>
>To: "as-ilas" <as-ilas@gmx.de>; "casi" <casi-discuss@lists.casi.org.uk>
>Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2003 10:11 AM
>Subject: Re: [casi] The New York Times: a proposal for ethnic cleansing in
>Iraq
>
>
>Partitioning Iraq - as proposed by Gelb in the NY Times article
>posted below-  was described in Israel's Hebrew press over a decade
>ago asa primary goal of the Israeli government.  I wondered
>at the time how long it would take for an influential American Israel
>Supporter to "propose" it in the US national media.  The partitioning plan
>was partially implemented by the US immediately after their first Gulf
>War when they established the illegal "No Fly Zones" over Iraq on the
>pretense that they were to protect the Kurds in the North and the Sunnis
>in the South from Saddam Hussein.
>nels
>
>
>
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