It’s About the Jews Stupid!

Turkey occupies parts of northern Syria including what was the predominantly Kurdish Afrin (Kurdish: Efrin) region. The Kurdish population was largely expelled and much of their olive trees have been cut down. Turkey as the aggressor and occupying power operates a settlement program funded by Gulf states to Arabize the region and settle it with ethnically Arab Syrian refugees originating elsewhere in Syria. Interestingly enough, no one appears to have any problem with organized settlement activity in territories considered occupied there or elsewhere (i.e. Northern Cyprus and West Sahara although I personally recognize West Sahara as part of Morocco.) It is when the Jews return to their indigenous Judea that there is an international uproar. If an Israeli Jew lives in Hebron (the second most sacred city in Judaism with the oldest Jewish community in the world) he is branded a “settler” but if an Israeli of another religion (Muslim, Christian or Druze) resides in Hebron he is not considered a settler by anyone. There is no question that the term settler in a contemporary context has become a synonym and slur for Jew. We should all be grateful that nearly half a million Jews live in Judea and Samaria or else it would be the Jews in internationally recognized Israel who would be universally stereotyped as “settlers”, an indigenous people that have the chutzpah to return to their own indigenous homeland.