#turkish-cypriot

[henk-heijmans]

A Turkish woman mourns her dead husband, a victim of the Cyprus Civil War between Greek Cypriotes and Turkish Cypriotes, Ghaziveram, Cyprus, 1964 - by Don McCullin (1935), English

[archiveofcyp]

(L-R): Meyrem Okay (born in 1936) and Ayşe Mustafa (born in 1933), taken in 1955 from Galinoporni/Kaleburnu.

The two young women are pictured wearing modern-sleeved dresses and traditional baggy pantaloons. This style of pantaloons was typically found in Karpasia/Karpaz. They are also wearing traditional headscarves (yemeni). This fashion style, a specific mesh of contemporary and traditional clothes, was not carried into the following decades, so this is a rare glimpse into a distinctive timeframe of Cypriot dress.

📸 source: The Aziz Damdelen Collection, Kioneli (Gönneli). Information provided by Euphrosyne Rizopoulou- Egoumenidou and Aziz Damdelen - ‘Turkish Cypriot dress: The Aziz Damdelen Collection’.

Disclaimer: Please note no copyright infringement intended, and I do not own nor claim to own any of the original images or information unless otherwise stated.

[neverlandpixy]

Maronite women in Kormakitis (Kormajitis), Cyprus.

"For centuries, this small community of Maronites have retained a distinct identity rooted in their Catholic faith.

Ancestors of Christians who settled in Cyprus after fleeing what is now Lebanon and Syria in waves from the 8th century onwards, many were forced to move again when Cyprus was divided almost half a century ago.

The hamlet, Kormakitis, is the largest of four communities dispersed after a Turkish invasion, triggered by a brief Athens-inspired coup, divided Cyprus in 1974 among its mainly Orthodox Greek Cypriots and its Sunni Muslim Turkish Cypriots.

Less than 200 of the hamlet’s 2,000 strong community remained after the split, although a Turkish Cypriot relaxation on crossings in 2003, and permission in 2010 for Maronites to resettle there, has now boosted the population to about 250.

Families from the other three villages form part of a small, displaced Maronite minority in the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus.

Cypriot Maronite Arabic, also known as “Sanna,” is unique to Kormakitis and the forced separation of the community, along with assimilation and a focus by Cypriot authorities in the 1960s on teaching Maronites Greek, has eroded its use."

[why-even-ask]

I headcanon J. S. Steinman as a Cypriot. And it works.

Aphrodite's birthplace is in Cyprus and we all know how much Steinman loves Aphrodite. You know, make him a Jewish Cypriot. His family might as well come to Cyprus during the Ottoman period (late 16th century onwards) or even the late 19th century.

It very much works. Look at him. He looks like some Nicosian you'd see in your uncle's kebab shop or something. Just some guy you'd drink zivania and KEO with.

Wanna read more? Click on.

I say he has a mixed family of Turkish Cypriots, Greek Cypriots, and of course his Jewish roots. I mean, Cypriots are kind of chill with religion; for example, the Linobambakis would have both Christian and Muslim traditions and celebrations. Nothing conflicts with anything, you just have a personal relationship with religion over there.

So, here's our favorite Jewish (and Greek and Turkish) Cypriot who worships Aphrodite.

[Using the "There's Something in the Sea" data to build a 'canon' background here.] So, he vanishes from the US around the late 1940s, right? Apparently, he had a friendship with someone for 32 years. Let's say that their friendship started around 1918. Steinman was known for his face reconstruction work at a young age, and it makes sense because it would line up with the First World War. If we say that Steinman took only a few years of education to get to that degree with extraordinary success, it would mean that he was in the US at least by 1914.

It means that, in the game (Bioshock 1 - 1960), Steinman is at least 65 years old.

And, well, building a headcanon here: Let's say that his family left Cyprus because of the British occupation getting stricter with taxes and even hinting at conscription if/when the war broke out.

Now, imagine him.

He still misses home during his studies. He complains about not being able to find zivania (Cypriot drink) to drink. His family sometimes visits Cyprus and sends him some halloumi cheese over. He even visits Cyprus at some point and brings some cattle bones from the empty fields over Nicosia, say, Kythrea. He has them in his student dorm on his shelf.

I mean, don't think of a city when I say Kythrea or something. Think of a village, a very small one. Imagine him growing up there. He steals from the melon fields of the neighbors. He knows which wild weeds to pick to eat. Hell, he even experiments with which herbs are good for healing purposes, as his grandmother is a village elder who people go to for that kind of stuff. He learns that the branch of pharmaceutics exists just for that. Then, though, his focus shifts to medicine. Most importantly, surgeries --face reconstruction and all that. He's around 15 or something, they leave Cyprus.

Now, it's around the 1930s. Steinman is well over 30 at the time. His family had gone back to Cyprus at some point because they couldn't handle the US. His father picks the field up, and his uncle and his mother are running the barns & farm. Sometimes when Steinman visits, his uncle asks him to check the health of the cattle. "I'm not a vet!" doesn't work for Cypriots, you gotta do what you gotta do, lol. He stays there for half a year as a break and thinks about staying and working there as a vet because he really misses home... but the Second World War breaks out. The Brits are trying to draft up people for the Cyprus Regiment to fight in Europe or Northern Africa, especially those who know English being very much preferred... and Steinman has to flee once again. He tries to take his family to come with him as well, but they refuse. They cannot part from Cyprus once again.

Hell, the Brits manage to "convince" his father and uncle to join the Regiment. His mother goes to the US to stay with Steinman because it's hard being so lonely there. Steinman is making good money but you know, his father and uncle are deep in the war already and were as stubborn as mules about not coming to the US.

By the end of the war, his father gets injured, and they get a residency permit for the UK as a "gift" or something. His father decides to live there because he cannot work in the field easily anymore. His mother follows suit. Only his uncle remains in Cyprus. Steinman is alone in the US again.

He also read about Cypriot mythology, by the way. He learnt that Cyprus was Aphrodite's birthplace and now he believes that it's all fate that he is the best face reconstruction surgeon. He believes that he should work with "beauty" as well, and starts worshipping Aphrodite in the private and takes up aesthetic surgery.

He briefly visits Cyprus every once in a while. It's not horrible, but it feels lonely as hell. At least he has his uncle still running the farm, so they hang out and all that. When his uncle dies in the late 40s, though, he permanently goes back to the US.

He's now over 40. He expects to have a feeling of home, right?

The US doesn't feel right, though. There's business, yes, but he wants a home. He wants a place he can belong in. He feels like he needs to erase his name and face off the earth to ever belong somewhere, which feels impossible.

Until... Rapture happens.

Does he miss Cyprus? A bit, of course. But he knows he couldn't have lived there. It's a memory, but quite a strong one. At some point, he manages to convince Fontaine to smuggle him some zivania. For Fontaine's surgery (the Atlas thing, you know), Fontaine brings him soil from the fields, some molohiya (a cookable weed also called Jew's Mallow), and crates full of zivania and a new brand: KEO. When Steinman asks what it is, he tells him that it's the new fad around Cyprus, established in 1949. It's good beer, truly.

And, well, Fontaine had brought him so much zivania and KEO that he doesn't run out of them until his death.

[kyreniacommentator]

Greek Cypriot series “Famagusta” is said to be unrealistic

Greek Cypriot series “Famagusta” is said to be unrealistic Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus regarding the series “Famagusta” The trailer for the Greek Cypriot series “Famagusta”, which was announced to be released on a digital platform on 20 September 2024, contains blood-curdling scenes that portray the events that took place on the Island…

[walkswithmycamera]

Tochni (Greek: Τόχνη; Turkish: Dohni), a quaint village situated in the Larnaca District of Cyprus.

Source - Facebook LittleManTravels photo album

Before the year 1974, Tochni boasted a diverse populace comprising both Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots.

The village centre features the remains of a Latin church, standing above the Orthodox church of St Constantine and Helena. The current church was rebuilt on the original site, connected by a bridge, believed to be established by St Helena upon her return from the Holy Land with a fragment of the True Cross.

And of course, because this is Cyprus - you will always find these, no matter which traditional village you may choose to visit:

More photos of Tochni Village and information about the village itself can be viewed through the Source link.

[wordsmithic]

On this day, 50 years ago, on the 20th of July 1974, Turkey undertook a military invasion of the Republic of Cyprus. Thousands of people were killed and hundreds of thousands lost their homes.

50 years later, and while 37% of the island is still under military occupation, generations of Cypriots are born and grow up in the toxic environment created by Turkish aggression and the uncertainty of the whole situation.

source

[mapsontheweb]

Distribution of Greek and Turkish Cypriots in Cyprus across the years.

[countriesgame]

Please reblog for a bigger sample size!

If you have any fun fact about Cyprus, please tell us and I'll reblog it!

Be respectful in your comments. You can criticize a government without offending its people.

[zvaigzdelasas]

The main two political goals of ASALA were to get Turkey to recognize its culpability for the Armenian Genocide in 1915 and to establish a United Armenia, which would unite nearby regions formerly under Armenian control or with large Armenian populations. Additionally, ASALA stated in a Cypriot newspaper in 1983 that it supported the Soviet Union and aimed to garner support from other Soviet republics toward the cause of eliminating Turkish colonialism.[28] These goals helped shape the following political objectives: - Force an end to Turkish colonialism by using revolutionary violence - Attack institutions and representatives of Turkey and of countries supporting Turkey - Affirm scientific socialism as the main ideology of Armenia[17][...]

ASALA had ties to Palestinian liberation groups such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Marxist militant group in which ASALA founder Hagop Hagopian was rumored to have been a member in his youth.[72] Through his involvement with Palestinian groups, Hagopian earned the nickname "Mujahed," meaning "Warrior."[28] Hagopian's sympathetic connection with Palestinian liberation/separatist movements bolstered ASALA's goals and helped pave the way for ASALA's eventual training with another Palestinian rebel group, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).[73]

[archiveofcyp]

A black-and-white photograph of three Cypriot men taken in the Public Garden in Nicosia. The man on the left is Mehmet Mıstık, who was born in 1896. He wears a fez, a western-style jacket (sakgo/divişli sakgo), traditional vraga trousers, and a sash (hacı şalı guşak), which was likely brought back from pilgrimage to Mecca. The man in the middle standing on the stool has a trimmed moustache, wears a fez, and a western-styled three-piece suit with a kerchief around his neck in place of a tie, a silver or gold cord (sırmalı), and a ring on his left hand. The man on the right is Mustafa Mıstık (1892-1951), who was a butcher. Instead of a fez, he is wearing a headscarf (tsemberi/çember) with ornamental lace. He also wears a sash (hacı şalı guşak), an embroidered shirt (gömlek), black vraga, and detailed carnation (garifallo/garanfil) stockings.

📸 source: Aziz Damdelen Public Garden, Epicho (Abohor), Mesaoria, Nicosia District. Ali Mehter in the The Aziz Damdelen Collection Kioneli (Gönneli). Source information provided by Euphrosyne Rizopoulou-Egoumenidou and Aziz Damdelen - ‘Turkish Cypriot dress: The Aziz Damdelen Collection’. https://moufflon.com.cy/product/turkish-cypriot-dress-the-aziz-damdelen-collection/.

Disclaimer: Please note no copyright infringement intended, and I do not own nor claim to own any of the original images or information unless otherwise stated.

[tentacion3099]

Fight between United Nations Peacekeepers and Turkish Cypriot security forces on Cyprus. UN forces reportedly attempted to stop construction of what they said was an unauthorized road. (August 2023)

[helleniclanguageboy]

Names of the Greeks

Let’s do a deep dive into the different ethnonyms for the Greek people. As a matter of methodology, we will be focusing primarily on Greeks from Greece rather than highlighting individual identities: e.g. Cypriots, Cappadocians, etc. Furthermore, one asterisk equals the term for the language and two for country.

Homeric and Mycenaean

Two main names used: Achaeans and Danaans which are echoed in the Bronze Age accounts of Greeks, but these are not used to represent the whole of Greek people in the modern day. Both terms have possible parallels in two groups of sea peoples recorded by the Egyptians: Danyan and Ekwesh. Achaean also is also potentially paralleled in Hittite sources. 

Danaans - Δαναοί

𓂧𓄿𓇋𓋔𓇋𓅱 (d3iniw) - Medinet Habu

Ἀχαιοί (Ἀχαιϝοί)

𓇋𓀁𓏘𓄿𓍯𓄿𓆷𓄿 (iḳ3w3š3) - Merneptah, Kanak

** 𒄴𒄭𒅀𒉿(Aḫḫiyawa) or 𒄴𒄭𒅀 (Aḫḫiya)

Hellenes

The ancient Greeks would largely refer to themselves as Ἕλλην. Later, under Christianity, this would become synonymous with pagan, so it declined in usage throughout the Roman and Byzantine periods but didn’t disappear. During the revolution from the Ottomans, leaders called for the revival of the term, wanting to emphasize the relationship to Ancient Greeks.

Ἕλλην - Ancient Greek

Έλληνας - Modern Greek

Ελ̣ηνικέ - Tsakonian

Έλλενος - Pontic 

*Ελλενικά - Pontic 

Ελινικάνο - Romani

Greeks 

The term Greek is largely an exonym that stemmed from Latin. The first Greek tribe that the Romans came into contact with was the Γραικοί (Graeci). This would spread into most languages to describe the Greeks. The only modern endonyms coming from this term is from the Southern Italian Greeks. There was an Italian loan present in Smyrniot, but it was one of a few. Kaliarda similarly featured an Italian loan for Greeks. Aromanian features the term as an exonym, but it is spoken in Greece so will be listed. (Sarakatsani does have Γρικιά listed as the word for Greece, but the textbook does not elaborate the usage)

Griko - Salento

Grèko/Grecanico - Calabrian

Γκρέκος - Kaliarda 

Γραικός - Smyrniot

Γκρέκου - Aromanian

Grek - Tsalka Urum

*Grecheski - Tsalka Urum

**Gretsia - Tsalka Urum

Roman

Coming under the Roman empire and gaining citizenship, the Greeks adopted the term Ῥωμαῖος. This maintained the most common ethonym until Greek independence. When Byzantine territory fell, the Turks and Arabs adopted the term Rum for the territory and the Greek Orthodox christians (e.g. Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch (Arabic - بطريركية الروم الأرثوذكس في أنطاكية) or The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate (Turkish - Rum Ortodoks Ekümenik Patrikhanesi). The term survives until the modern day in Eastern Greek populations (Anatolian, Ukrainian, Caucasian, etc). These often distinguish Greeks from Greece from these Eastern Greeks. One derivative, Urum, denotes Turkophone Greeks in Ukraine and the Caucasus. 

Ρουμαίος - Sarakatsani

Ρωμανιώτης/רומניוטי - Romaniote Jewish

*Ρωμανιώτικα/רומניוטיקה - Romaniote Jewish

Ρωμιός - Constantinopolitan

Ρουμιός - Lycian

رومیکا - Cappadocian (Rumi)*

Ρωμνός - Axenitic

*Ρωμάικα  - Axenitic

Ρωμνιός -  Aravaniot

Ρωμός - Pharasiot

Ρωμαίος - Pontic

*Ρωμαίικα - Pontic

Румеюс/Ромеюс - Mariupolitan

*Румэку/Румеку - Mariupolitan

Romeyos - Romeyka

**Romeyka - Romeyka

Ρούμ/Οὐρούμ - Karmanlidika

*Ρούμδζε/Οὐρούμδζε  - Karmanlidika

**Ρουμιστάν - Karmanlidika 

Urum - Cypriot Turkish

Урум/Ουρούμ/Urum - Crimean Urum

Urum - Tsalka Urum 

Ουρούμιν - Pomak

Ionian

Similarly to Greek, the term Ionian stems from the Persians first coming into contact with the Ionians or Ἰάϝωνες (𐎹𐎢𐎴 /yauna/). Thus, most Eastern languages will use a derivative of this despite many coming into direct contact with Alexander the Great and later diadochi: Persian/Arabic - یونان (Yunan), Pali - 𑀬𑁄𑀦 (Yona), Sanskrit - यवन (Yavana), and Chinese 大宛 (Dayuan, Great Ionians). While this does not refer to Greeks as a whole, the word Ionian was first attested in the Bronze Age with the Egyptian ‘Great Ionia’ or 𓇌𓅱𓈖𓏭𓉻𓂝𓏛 (ywnj3’) and the Mycenaean word 𐀂𐀊𐀺𐀚(i-ja-wo-ne). As for modern endonyms,  there are two interesting examples: Karamanlidika and Judeo-Greek which use both Roman and Ionian. For Karamanlidika, Γιουνάν refers to Greece rather than its native Greeks (Ρουμιστάν was listed for Greece, but Γιουνανιστάν is the more standard term). Cappadocian Greek and Smyrniot, in term, adopted the Turkish term for Greece (though Smyrniot also had other loans for the word). Judeo-Greek, however, has taken Yevanic to refer to the register to liken it to Ladino and Yiddish. It takes the Hebrew יון (Yevan) meaning Ionian and re-Hellenizing the term to have the -ιτικά ending. 

Γιουνανλής - Smyrniot 

**Γιουνανιστάν/Γιονανιστάν - Cappadocian Greek

Γιουνάν/Γιουνανλή - Karamanlidika

*Γιουνάνδζα - Karamanlidika

**Γιουνανιστάν - Karamanlidika

*Γεβανιτικά/יווניטיקה - Judeo-Greek

Others

Ραγιάς (slave) - Potamiot Cappadocian 

Σ̈κλα (foreigner) - Arvanitika

*Σ̈κλιερίσ̈τικα/Σ̈κλιερίσ̈τε̱ - Arvanitika

Καλαμαράς (squid, coming from mainland Greek scholars using squid bones as pens) - Cypriot Greek

*Καλαμαρίστικα - Cypriot Greek

**Καλαμαρκά - Cypriot Greek

Kalamara - Cypriot Turkish

Χαουτίκ - Cypriot Arabic

[kyreniacommentator]

Turkish Cypriot Mirana nominated for 2024 Hollywood Independent Music Awards

Turkish Cypriot Mirana nominated for 2024 Hollywood Independent Music Awards Turkish Cypriot artist Mirana Faiz has made it to the nomination list for the 2024 Hollywood Independent Music Awards with her piece “Whispers of The Journey.” Continue reading Turkish Cypriot Mirana nominated for 2024 Hollywood Independent Music Awards

[medusa-rpg]

Bensu Soral Baş (born 1991, Türkiye)

Cypriot-Turkish

[mightyflamethrower]

So much for the idea that if women were in charge the world would be a much kinder and less violent place.

Peruse campus literature. Watch clips from university protests. Scan interviews with pro-Hamas protestors. Read the chalk propaganda sketched on campus sidewalks. Talk to raging students in the free speech area. And the one common denominator— besides their arrogance—is their abject ignorance. Take their following tired talking points:

“Refugees” 

We are told that the Palestinians after more than 75 years of residence in the West Bank and Gaza are “refugees.” If that definition were currently true, then, are the 900,000 Jews who were forcibly exiled from Muslim countries in the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia after the 1947, 1956, 1967 wars still “refugees?”

Most fled to Israel. Do they now live in “refugee” camps administrated by the UN? Are they protesting to recover their confiscated homes and wealth in Damascus, Cairo, or Baghdad? Do Jews on Western television dangle their keys to lost homes in Damascus a half-century after they were expelled?

How about the 150,000-200,000 Greek Cypriots who in 1974 were brutally driven out of their ancient homes in Northern Cyprus? Are they today living in “refugee” camps in southern Cyprus? Are Cypriot terrorists blowing themselves up in “occupied” Nicosia to recover what was stolen from them by Turkey?

Turkish president Recep Erdogan lectures the world on Palestinian “refugees,” but does he mention Turkey’s role in the brutal expulsion of 40 percent of the residents of Cyprus?

Are there campus groups organizing against Turkey on behalf of the displaced Cypriots? After being slaughtered and expelled, are the Cypriots a cause celebre in academia? Do the “refugee” cities of southern Cyprus resemble Jenin or Jericho?

For that matter, how about the 12 million German civilians who between 1945-50 were expelled, and mostly walked back from, East Prussia and parts of Eastern Europe, some with Prussian roots going back a millennium and more. Perhaps 1 million died during the expulsions.

Are any current survivors still “refugees?” If so, are they organizing for war to get back “occupied”  “Danzig” and “Königsberg” for Germany? So why does the world damn Israel and romanticize the Palestinians in a way it does not with any other “refugee” group?

“Apartheid”

Israel is said to practice “apartheid,” although since 2005-06 Gaza has been autonomous. Mahmoud Abbas runs in his fashion the West Bank. Like the Hamas clique, he held elections one time in 2005, and then after his election, of course, cancelled any free election in the fashion of the one election, one time Middle East. Who forced him to do that? Zionists? Americans?

At any time, Gaza could have taken its vast wealth in annual foreign aid and become completely independent in fuel, food, and energy, without need of any such help form the “Zionist entity.”

Gaza could have capitalized on its strategic location, the world’s eagerness to help, and the natural beauty of its Mediterranean beaches. Instead, it squandered its income on a labyrinth of terrorist tunnels and rockets. Today, it snidely snickers at any mention of following the Singapore model of prosperity–a former colonial city whose World War II death count vastly surpassed that of the various wars over Gaza.

Are the Israeli Arabs—21 percent of the Israeli population—living under apartheid?

If so, it is a funny sort of oppression when they vote, hold office, form parties, and enjoy more freedom and prosperity than almost anywhere else in the Middle East under Arab autocracies. Are those in sympathy with Hamas fleeing from Israel into Gaza or the West Bank or other Arab countries to live with kindred Muslims under an autocratic and theocratic dictatorship, or do they prefer to stay in the “Zionist entity” under “apartheid?”

Where then is real apartheid?

The Uyghurs in China, fellow Muslims to Middle Easterners, who are ignored by Israel’s Islamic enemies, but who reside in China’s segregated work camps to the silence of the usually loud UN, EU, and Muslim world?

How about the Muslim Kurds? Are they second- or third-class citizens in Muslim Turkey? And how about the tens of thousands of foreign workers from India, Pakistan, and other Asian countries who labor under the kafala system in the Arab Muslim Gulf countries, and are subject to apartheid protocols that allow them no free will about how they live, travel, or the conditions of their labor?

Are campuses erupting to champion the Uyghurs, the Kurds, or the subjugated workers of the Gulf?

“Disproportionate”

Israel is now damned as “disproportionally” bombing Gaza. The campus subtext is that because Gaza’s 7,000-8,000 rockets launched at Israeli civilians have not killed enough Jews, then Israel should not retaliate for October 7 by bombing Hamas targets–shielded by impressed civilians— because it is too effective.

Would a “proportionate” response be counting up all the Israelis murdered, categorizing the horrific manner of their deaths, and then sending Israeli commandoes into Gaza during a “pause” in the fighting to murder an equal number of Gazans in the same satanic fashion?

Does the U.S. lecture Ukraine not to use to the full extent its lethal U.S. imported weaponry since the result is often simply too deadly? After all, perhaps twice as many Russians have been killed, wounded, or are missing than Ukrainian casualties. Should Ukraine have been more “proportionate?” Has President Biden ordered President Zelensky to offer the Russian aggressors a “pause” in the fighting to end the “cycle of violence?”

Or did U.S.-supplied artillery, anti-armor weapons, drones, and missiles “disproportionally” kill too many Russians? Or does the U.S. assume that since Russia attacked Ukraine at a time of peace, it deserves such a “disproportionate” response that alone will lose it the war?

For that matter, the U.S. certainly disproportionately paid back Japan for Pearl Harbor, and the Japanese brutal take-over of the Pacific, much of Asia, and China—and the barbarous way the Japanese military slaughtered millions of civilians, executed prisoners, and mass raped women. Should the U.S. have simply done a one-off retaliatory attack on the imperial fleet at Yokohama, declared a “cease-fire,” and thus ended the “cycle of violence?”

Civilian casualties

Campus activists scream that Israel has slaughtered “civilians” and is careless about “collateral damage.” They equate retaliating against mass murderers who use civilians to shield them from injury, while warning any Gazans in the region of the targeted response to leave, as the moral equivalent of deliberately butchering civilians in a surprise attack.

So did protestors mass in the second term of Barrack Obama when he focused on Predator drone missions inside Somalia, Pakistan, and Yemen to go after Islamic terrorists who deliberately target civilians?

At the time, the hard-left New York Times found the ensuing “collateral damage” in civilian deaths merely “troubling.” No matter—Obama persisted, insisting as he put it, “Let’s kill the people who are trying to kill us.” Note Obama did not expressly say the terrorists in Pakistan or Yemen were killing Americans, but “trying” to kill Americans. For him, that was, quite properly, enough reason “to kill” the potential assassins of Americans.

What would the Harvard President today say of Benjamin Netanyahu saying just that about Hamas?

We have no idea how many women, children, and elderly were in the general vicinity of a targeted terrorist in Pakistan or Yemen when an American drone missile struck. Then CIA Director John Brennan later admitted that he had lied under oath (with zero repercussions), when he testified to Congress that there was no collateral damage in drone targeted assassinations.

Obama was proud of his preemptive assassination program. Indeed, in lighthearted fashion he joked at the White House Correspondence Dinner about his preference for lethal drone missions, when he “warned” celebrities not to date his daughters: “But boys, don’t get any ideas. I have two words for you, ‘predator drones.’ You will never see it coming. You think I’m joking.”

Did the campuses erupt and scream “Not in my name” when their president laughed about his assassination program? After all, Obama had also admitted, “There is no doubt that civilians were killed who shouldn’t have been.” Did he then stop the targeted killings due to collateral damage—as critics now demand a cease fire from Israel?

“Genocide”

Genocide is now the most popular charge in the general damnation of Israel, a false smear aimed at calling off the Israeli response to Hamas, burrowed beneath civilians in Gaza City.

But how strange a charge! Pro-Hamas demonstrators the world over chant “From the River to the Sea,” unambiguously calling for the utter destruction of Israel and its 9 million population. Are the Hamas supporters then “genocidal?”

Is genocide the aim of Hamas that launched over 7,000 rockets into Israeli cities without warning? What is the purpose of the purportedly 120,000 rockets in the hands of Hezbollah if not to target Israeli noncombatants? Is all that a genocidal impulse?

Do Hamas and Hezbollah drop leaflets to civilians, as does Israel, to flee the area of a planned missile attack—or is that against their respective charters?

Hamas leaders in Qatar and Beirut continue to give interviews bragging about their October 7 surprise mass murdering of civilians. They even promise more such missions that likewise will be aimed at beheading, torturing, executing, incinerating, and desecrating the bodies of hundreds of Jewish civilians, perhaps again in the early morning during a holiday and a time of peace.

Is that planned continuation of mass killing genocidal? Does the amoral UN recall any other mass murdering spree when the killers beheaded infants, cooked them in ovens, and raped the dead?

Perhaps students at Harvard, Yale, Cornell, and Stanford will protest the real genocide in Darfur where some half-million black African Sudanese have been slaughtered by mostly Muslim Arab Sudanese. Did the Cornell professor who claimed he was “exhilarated” on news of beheaded Jewish babies protest the slaughter of the Sudanese? Did the current campus protestors ever assemble to scream about the Islamists who slaughtered the indigenous Africans of Sudan?

Are professors at Stanford organizing to refuse all grants and donations that originate from communist China? Remember, the Chinese communist Party has never apologized for the party’s genocidal murder of some 60-80 millions of its own during the Maoist Cultural Revolution, much less its systematic efforts to eliminate the Uyghur Muslim population?

These examples could easily be expanded. But they suffice to remind us that the Middle-East and Western leftist attacks on Israel for responding to the October 7 mass murdering are neither based on any consistent moral logic nor similarly extended to other nations who really do practice apartheid, genocide, and kill without much worry about collateral damage.

So why does the world apply a special standard to Israel?

To the leftist and Islamist, Israel is guilty of being: 1) Too Jewish; 2) Too prosperous, secure, and free; 3) Sufficiently Western to meet the boilerplate smears of colonialist, imperialist, and blah, blah, blah.