Pretences with often disastrous results

Politics is a deadly game with no rules. Players bluff, lie, cheat and pretend there are solutions for problems and remedies for crises where there are none. The use of pretence, in particular, often has disastrous results.

US president George W. Bush and British prime minister Tony Blair pretended Iraq possessed “weapons of mass destruction” with the aim of waging a war on that country. That war precipitated never-ending conflict in Iraq and neighbouring Syria, and created a deep rift between Sunnis and Shiites.

Bush and Blair pretended they wanted to bring democracy to Iraq but, instead, planted a sectarian Shiite fundamentalist regime that persecuted Sunnis and led to the rise of taqfiri movements that carved out statelets in Iraq and Syria, and carry out bomb attacks in these countries and Europe.

Western and some Arab powers pretended the Iraqi regime, headed by Sunni Saddam Hussein was Sunni, although it was firmly secular and included senior Shiite and Christian ministers who did not engage in ethno-sectarian politics as does the current US-imposed regime.

These same powers pretend Syria is ruled by a Shiite regime, although the government and administration are secular. 

While President Bashar Assad is an Alawite, said by non-Shiites (but not Shiites) to be a Shiite offshoot, the country is largely run by Sunnis operating in a non-sectarian environment.

The US, Britain and other Western powers pretend there are “moderate” fighters in Syria seeking to overthrow the government headed by Assad. In reality, there are no muscular “moderates” capable of accomplishing this task. Instead, there are taqfiris who regard anyone not subscribing to their ideology as “kafirs”, or unbelievers.

The taqfiris’ main aim is to take and hold territory, recruit fighters to expand, and rule with an iron fist. 

There are no taqfiri “moderates”. 

Amnesty International accused Al Nusra and its taqfiri allies of kidnapping, torture, carrying out summary executions and other atrocities in areas under its control.

Former British prime minister David Cameron even claimed, falsely, that there were 70,000 “moderates” fighting in Syria. He never explained where he got that figure.

“Moderates” certainly did not exist between 2011-2012, before Al Nusra and Daesh entered Syria. 

From time to time, Washington trains and equips a few dozen “moderates” who are almost instantly routed, wiped out or recruited by taqfiris.

One of the most egregious pretences involves the so-called “two-state solution” to the Palestine-Israel conflict. 

There is no room in Palestine for two states. Israel has systematically implemented a 120-year-old Zionist policy of colonising Palestinian land. 

Israel builds scores of colonies — it calls them “settlements” — and encourages Israelis to move into these colonies by providing financial and other incentives. 

Nothing and no one has halted this drive, rendering the “two-state solution” impossible. 

Nevertheless, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to call for negotiations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

What can they negotiate about?

Israel has planted 371,000 colonists in the West Bank and 212,000 in East Jerusalem, conquered in 1967. 

All these colonists are considered illegal in international law, which prohibits an occupying power from transferring its citizens into occupied territory. But Israel is not called to account.

Since conflicts erupted in the Arab world, following the 2011 Arab Spring, Israel has had an even freer hand than before in the occupied Palestinian territories because the world’s leading powers and the Arabs have been preoccupied with the wars in Syria, Libya, Yemen and with the rise of Daesh and Al Qaeda’s Jabhat Al Nusra.

Apropos Israelis and Palestinians, Israel pretends the majority between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River is Jewish Israeli — 6.3 million — while, in fact, Palestinians, at 6.3 million plus, have overtaken Jewish Israelis and the gap between the two populations can only grow in coming years due to a higher birth rate among Palestinians.

The demographics have tipped in favour of the Palestinians, but no one takes notice, not even the Palestinian Authority.

Turkey pretends to crackdown on Daesh, but continues to permit fighters, weapons and supplies to reach Daesh in its self-proclaimed capital Raqqa, in north central Syria.

Turkey is highly selective in how it deals with Daesh while boosting its support for Al Nusra and its allies.

Without Turkey’s intervention in Syria, there would have been no war, no Daesh, no Al Nusra and no spillover into Iraq.

Turkey also hosts members of the outlawed Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood as well as various Egyptian taqfiri groups, subsidises them and provides them with broadcasting facilities with the aim of overthrowing the Egyptian government.

The European Union pretends to negotiate with Ankara over the country’s entry into the bloc although both Europeans and Turks know full well that Turkey will never gain membership. 

Germany, Holland and France will, ultimately, veto Turkish admission. Turkey’s champion, Britain recently said it would not back Turkish membership.

Nevertheless, these powers have tried to lay the blame on little Cyprus, which cannot accept Turkey as a member of the European club as long as Turkish troops and colonists occupy 36 per cent of the island.

The reason for this pretence — which fools no one who bothers to think about it — is that European powers seek to keep strategic Turkey sweet and in NATO.

Finally, the UN, the Western powers and others contend a “solution” to the “Cyprus problem” is near.

Talks have gone on forever between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, and are said to be progressing. 

While the Greek Cypriot majority republic in the south is a European Union member and recognised as the government of the whole island by the bloc, Turkish Cypriots live in a unilaterally proclaimed statelet recognised only by Turkey.

Ankara keeps 30-40,000 troops in the occupied north and dominates its politics.

Turks, rather than Turkish Cypriots, should be at the table negotiating with the republic, but Ankara insists that Turkish Cypriots should be involved in the negotiations, perpetuating the fiction of Turkish Cypriot independence. 

It is unlikely that ongoing talks will reunite the divided island. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not ready to relinquish Turkish control over northern Cyprus and Greek Cypriots will not accept a deal unless he does.