An Ancient Tie May Change the Middle East.

6/30/2014

Israeli leader calls for

independent Kurdistan

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Seizing on the mayhem in Iraq, Israel’s prime minister on Sunday called for the establishment of an independent Kurdistan as part of a broader alliance with moderate forces across the region, and asserted that Israel would have to maintain a long-term military presence in…

Israeli officials have said that the state will quickly recognize a Kurdish state when that becomes official in Iraq.

ORIGINAL POST:

This is not news. Israel and the Kurds of Iraq have had military, intelligence and business ties since the time of Sadaam Hussein when Israel provided military and commercial contacts to the Kurds under cover of the  Nato no fly zone. Now, the Peshmerga, the Kurdish military, in response to the ISIS invasion, has liberated  Kirkuk.  Kirkuk, a traditional Kurdish city had been colonized by Sunnis under Hussein because the city sits on vast oil deposits .   Beyond Iraq, There are some 30 million Kurds live on a contiguous swath of land from Syria and Turkey to western Iran and parts of the former Soviet Union. Iraq’s Kurds have hesitated to declare independence because of opposition from these neighboring states and concern that an independent Kurdish state would encourage secession movements.

Turkey’s role in independence is critical.  Creation of a Kurdish Republic on Turkey’s borders has been a major issue for Turkey where the Kurdish minority has been suppressed and reacted by creating its own terrorist movement.  However, in recent times Turkey has become open to supporting the Kurdish identity within Turkish society and recently has begun shipping oil from Iraq’s Kurds to Israel.  Commercial ties between Israel, Turkey and Kurdistan represent a great opportunity for  statecraft, especially given Iran’s own issue with suppressing its Kurdish minority and a way to balance the merging power of Iran if that country is successful in getting out of the corner created by nuclear sanctions. This is especially important in providing a cordon to isolate the mess created  in Syria by the competition between Iran’s support for Assad and Saudi Arabia’s support for ISIS and its ilk.

Several sources in Israel show the Jewish states eagerness to recognize a Kurdish Republic.

Israel’s hardline foreign affairs cabinet member, Avigdor Lieberman, said.  “Iraq is breaking up before our eyes and it would appear that the creation of an independent Kurdish state is a foregone conclusion,”

Outgoing Israeli President Shimon Peres told  reporters that he he had told Obama “The Kurds have, de facto, created their own state, which is democratic. One of the signs of a democracy is the granting of equality to women,”

Israeli defence official Amos Gilad, speaking on Israel’s Army Radio,  noted the strength of the Israeli-Kurdish partnership in the past and said: “One can look at history and draw conclusions about the future.”

Israeli intelligence veterans say that cooperation took the form of military training for Kurds in northern Iraq, in return for their help in smuggling out Jews as well as in spying on Saddam Hussein’s regime in Baghdad and, more recently, on Iran.