Last Update: 2019-12-12 00:00:00- Source: Iraq News
The Kurds are fond of saying that they have no friends but the mountains. Yet one country has steadfastly stood by them, sometimes alone, over many decades: Israel.
In a rare show of public dissent with U.S. President Donald Trump in October, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered humanitarian aid to the “gallant Kurdish people,” saying they faced possible “ethnic cleansing” by Turkey and its affiliates. This after Trump had agreed to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s request to withdraw U.S. troops from northeastern Syria to allow for a Turkish military operation to drive the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces away from its border and establish a “safe zone” there.
About a month after Netanyahu’s statement, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely told the Knesset that the offer had been accepted. “We identify with the deep distress of the Kurds, and we are assisting them through a range of channels,” she said. However, top Kurdish official Ilham Ahmed, a co-chair of the Syrian Democratic Council (the political arm of the SDF), tells Haaretz that she has “no information on that.”
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“No, really, I am not aware of any kind of help from them,” she insists, visibly surprised by the question. In fairness, though, it was always unlikely that any Kurdish leader would publicly acknowledge receiving assistance from Israel at a time when they are engaged in negotiations with the Syrian regime, which considers the Jewish state a sworn enemy, and which had redeployed troops to the region for the first time since 2012.
While there is no sign of the military operation ending, despite Ankara pledging to suspend the military operation after a deal brokered with Moscow in October effectively ceded part of SDF-held territory to Turkey, there is evidence on the ground of Israeli aid reaching the Kurds.
Kurdish official Ilham Ahmed, a co-chair of the Syrian Democratic Council, photographed in London, November 2019.HENRY NICHOLLS/REUTERS
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The first clues emerged when photos surfaced online in early November of a container full of humanitarian aid, with Israeli flags clearly visible in the images.
“We provided them with some support about two months ago — coats for children and babies, as well as medicine,” Gal Lusky, a founder and CEO of the relief organization Israeli Flying Aid, tells Haaretz. Her nonprofit focuses on countries that lack diplomatic relations with Israel, and it has been providing covert support to Syrian refugees and internally displaced persons since 2011.
An unverified image of Israeli aid seemingly reaching Kurds in Rojava
“It’s not the first time we provided help to the Kurds, and more aid delivery is planned,” she says. “It doesn’t matter if they are Kurds or not, though. The whole alliance between Israel and [the Kurds] is irrelevant to us. We also provided aid to civilians in regime- and rebel-held parts of the country,” Lusky adds, emphasizing that her work is independent of the government and not part of the “range of channels” Hotovely mentioned last month.
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Beyond statements from Israeli officials, messages of support have also been echoed from segments of the Israeli public, with small marches being organized in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
“Following the latest Turkish operation in northern Syria, you did see genuine manifestations of solidarity among the Israeli public — even though traditionally Israel had almost no contact with Syrian Kurds,” says Gallia Lindenstrauss, a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies. “These manifestations stem from the longtime sympathy toward Iraqi Kurds and from anti-Erdogan feelings.”
“Ever since the normalization agreement of 2016 [between Israel and Turkey], we have seen a tit-for-tat approach,” she adds. “If Turkey criticizes Israel on the Palestinians, Israel criticizes Turkey on the issue of the Armenians or its treatment of the Kurds. In terms of concrete help Israel currently sends, it is probably very limited and will have no significant effect.”
Still, even the slightest form of aid could be critical, as most nongovernmental organizations active in northern Syria had to temporarily shutter operations and evacuate their international staff following Turkey’s Operation Peace Spring and the redeployment of the Syrian regime.
Counterweight to Tehran
Israel’s vocal and (alleged) material support to the Kurds should come as no surprise since it views the ethnic group — which is spread across Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran — as a counterweight to its regional adversaries, especially Tehran.
Iraqi Kurds protesting the Turkish offensive against Syria during a demonstration outside the United Nations building in Erbil, Iraq, October 12, 2019. AZAD LASHKARI/ REUTERS
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“The possible collapse of the Kurdish hold in north Syria is a negative and dangerous scenario as far as Israel is concerned. It is absolutely clear that such an event would bring about a bolstering of negative elements in the area, headed by Iran,” Hotovely was quoted as saying last month.
It is reportedly also to counter Iranian influence that the United States partially backtracked on its decision to leave Syria, eventually opting to retain about 500 troops in the country (at Israel and Jordan’s request, according to Trump).
They fear that the vacuum left by the Americans’ absence would be filled by Iran establishing a land corridor snaking from Tehran to the Syrian coastline — a possibility that is worrisome for both Washington and Jerusalem. However, Kurdish leaders have previously said they have little appetite to be used as an antagonist against a powerful neighbor.
“We are not going to take on a country on behalf of another country. What we are at the moment is isolated, and entering a confrontation with Iran is not on our agenda,” Ahmed says.
A boy carrying a Kurdish flag on top of a vehicle as a car with the faces of Kurdish President Masoud Barzani and his son Masrour passes by in the disputed city of Kirkuk, September 25, 2017.Bram Janssen / AP
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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, meeting with Masoud Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Erbil, Iraq, January 9, 2019.Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AP
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Syrian Kurds protesting the Turkish offensive during a demonstration in Erbil, Iraq, October 10, 2019. One participant is holding a flag with jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan's face on it.AZAD LASHKARI/REUTERS
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As early as June 2004, The New Yorker reported that Israeli military and intelligence operatives were providing training for Kurdish commando units and, most important from Israel’s perspective, running covert operations inside Kurdish areas of Iran and Syria.