Israel Backs Kurdish Independence

You learn something new every day. Binyamin Netanyahu claims creation of Kurdish state would aid in formation of alliance of moderate powers in Middle East. From 29 June 2014:

The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has voiced support for Kurdish statehood, taking a position that appears to clash with the US preference to keep sectarian war-torn Iraq united.

Pointing to the mayhem in Iraq, Netanyahu on Sunday called for the establishment of an independent Kurdistan as part of a broader alliance with moderate forces across the region, adding that Israel would have to maintain a long-term military presence in the West Bank even after any future peace agreement with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu laid out his positions in a policy speech that marked his most detailed response to the gains made by Sunni extremists fighting in Iraq. His endorsement of Kurdish independence, as well as his tough position on the West Bank, put him at odds with prevailing international opinion.

In a speech to a Tel Aviv thinktank, Netanyahu said that the rise of both al-Qaida-backed Sunni extremists, as well as Iranian-backed Shia forces, had created the opportunity for “enhanced regional cooperation”. He said Jordan, which is facing a growing threat of spillover from conflict in neighboring Iraq and Syria, and the Kurds, who control an oil-rich autonomous region of northern Iraq, should be bolstered.

Well this should complicate foreign policies all over the Middle East and around the world.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has chimed in.

An independent Kurdish state is “a foregone conclusion”, according to Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman – and Israeli experts say the Jewish state would be one of the first to recognize Kurdistan should it declare its independence.

Liberman’s comments came at a meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry, during which Liberman also offered to help Arab states combat Islamist extremists, particularly from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), whose successes in Iraq and Syria are being viewed in surrounding states with considerable alarm.

Western nations have also looked on with unease as modern post-colonial state borders rapidly evaporate in the face of sectarian tensions, exacerbated by ISIS’s ambitions for an Islamic mega-state.

But for the Kurds, the crisis has been a once-in-a-generation opportunity to strengthen their own position, in a region which more often than not has dealt them a bad hand. Kurdish militias in Syria have managed to mobilize and seize control of parts of the country’s north, and more recently the Peshmerga fighters of the Kurdish Regional Government in northern Iraq rushed to fill the vacuum left by fleeing Iraqi security forces in regions such as Kirkuk.

So where is President Obama in all this?

Shortly after U.S. bombs started to fall in Iraq last week, President Obama made clear what his model for the country’s future was.

“The Kurdish region is functional in the way we would like to see,” he said in a speech. “It is tolerant of other sects and other religions in a way that we would like to see elsewhere. So we do think it is important to make sure that that space is protected.”

So far Obama has supported the Kurds with bombing and the delivery of light weapons. The Kurds are asking for heavy weapons to counter ISIS.

The below picture is from a blog by Michael Totten.

Kurdistan-American-and-Israeli-Flags

This image is from Kurd.net.

Kurdish and Israeli flags

What is interesting in all this is that although the Kurds follow a lot of religions, Islam is the predominant one.


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