The Kurds, Israel, and the Future of Syria
By Joseph Puder
FrontPageMagazine.com | Friday, June 27, 2008
Israel has a longstanding relationship with the Kurdish people. In the early 1960?s, Mustafa Barzani and his Peshmerga fighters received training and support in the Jewish State. David Ben Gurion, then Israel?s Prime Minister, possessed an acute vision and understanding of the regional geopolitics ? so lacking in today?s realities. He reasoned that Arab hostility encircling Israel necessitated alliances with the leadership and people of non-Arab states like Iran, Turkey and the Kurds (understanding that the Kurdish connection needed to be somewhat secretive, as it continues to be today for fear of upsetting the Turks.)
Israel?s military and diplomatic establishment is heavily invested in Turkey and trade relations are of growing significance. Turkey represents, as far as Israel and the U.S. are concerned, a model for a ?secular? Islamic democracy. It is the Turkish mod |
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