Progressive unity
Attitudes toward a Kurdish-Jewish alliance
Kamal Artin
September 17, 2004
iranian.com
Reactions to a potential Kurdish-Jewish alliance
[Sweet
sin] have been interesting. While some argue that there
is an ethnic linkage between the two
and therefore both should strive for a much closer unity to survive
among their common opponents, others insist that the Kurds are
better off to keep status quo and not create new enemies!
Some
from the left might argue that such an alliance is inconsistent
with the decades of progressive Kurdish movement for self determination
of all oppressed people and therefore reactionary. Some from
the right might emphasize that such an alliance is inconsistent
with
religious norm and therefore sinful. It seems that both type
of opponents are extreme and base their arguments on non-adoptive
values.
The idea of ethnic linkage might be progressive or reactionary.
The extreme left is preoccupied with the conflict of oppressed
and oppressor and rightfully oppose any oppression at least theoretically.
The left sees that supremacists are grandiose and believe they
are of a better race and should unite to dominate others.
To counteract
such a tendency, the left often supports those with a lack of confidence
who might consider themselves as deserving victims of social Darwinism
and find solutions only in uniting oppressed ethnic groups against
the oppressor ones.
In contrary to them, the confident advocates
of equality, who might be or not be from the left, might highlight
that all races and ethnic groups have a common origin, that the
social Darwinism does not apply to the more developed homo sapiens,
and that no domination is justified.
Having said that, if an alliance
between Kurds and Jews is neither based on arrogance to dominate
and impose ones language, culture and values on the other, nor
based on the lack of confidence to ignore values that defines one’s
identity, it is nothing but a progressive unity.
The extreme religious right is preoccupied with self-centered
values. With all due respect to all of those who find inner peace
in a private matter such as religious praying and consider religious
institutions only as places to serve humanity, obviously the behavior
of many religious extremists has harmed humanity tremendously.
Either because of arrogance or lack of confidence in their own
values, some religious groups insist that their values are nobler,
that the strangers are infidels, less worthy, and deserve to
be eliminated. The fanatics would push to assure that their religious
norm becomes the law for everybody; they would even push the
state to have a religious identifying name such as Islamic Republic
of
something. They likely cannot imagine what the world would look
like if we had Confucius, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, and Jewish
Republics of something.
If the Kurds and Jews are able to put
their religious values aside and focus on building a unity based
on humanistic
values common to all mankind, again their alliance is nothing
but a progressive unity.
Despite all challenges a Kurdistan-Israel alliance might face,
its development seems inevitable. Hopefully it will stimulate other
peaceful alliances in the Middle East and in the world.
About
Kamal Artin, MD, Kurdish-American Education Society, Orange
County, CA.
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