Comparing Israel with Cyprus

Submitted by Michael S. (United States), Jul 22, 2014 at 02:58

Ameer,

You conveniently ignore the fact that the Cypriot people overwhelmingly favored enosis, since the entire island has been Greek-speaking since prehistoric times.

The recent history is Cyprus resembles that of Israel so closely, it is ridiculous. After WWI, it was controlled by the British, as was what is now Israel. Later, the British quit the island (except for the bases), as they quit Israel in 1948. Neighboring Islamic countries proceeded to attack and invade both: The Turks invaded Cyprus; whereas the Saudis, Egyptians, Lebanese, Syrians, Iraqis and Jordanians attacked Israel. Parts of Israel then became Jordanian- and Egyptian-occupied territory, as part of Cyprus became Turkish-occupied. While they were in control, the Jordanians, Egyptians and Turks all ethnically cleansed non-Arabs and non-Turks from the occupied territories.

The big difference between the two, is that the Israelis liberated their occupied areas in 1967, restoring to the Jewish people lands that had been lost for most of the past 2000 years. The Greeks of Cyprus have yet to do this.

Despite the terms "occupied", "ethnically cleansed", etc., which have taken on absurdly pious meanings in modern diplomatic parlance, I am not inclined to engage in moralistic accusations. The Jews have the land they have, because they won it in battle. The same can be said of the Turks. To the victor belongs the spoils. That is the end of the story, as far as I'm concerned, in both cases.

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