[Ha'aretz] Zvi Bar'el - "Do you want an answer on the record or a real answer?" asked a senior member of the Kurdistan Regional Government. I said I wanted both. "On the record, I will tell you that the political conditions today do not make it possible to maintain independent relations with Israel. Iraq is one country, which includes Kurdistan, and the decision must come from Baghdad." The real answer was: "We would like very much to develop relations with you, but not publicly." The ties between Israel and the Kurds were severed in the mid-1970s, but not the memories. In northern Iraq, everywhere I could say I was from Israel, the response was a thumbs-up, sometimes with both thumbs, or the word "brothers," spoken in English. At every opportunity, someone spoke longingly about a Jewish friend or neighbor who had emigrated to Israel. Israel now fears that renewing ties with the Kurds will harm its strategic relations with Turkey, which, as a matter of fact, is doing very good business with Kurdistan. Hundreds of Turkish commercial firms have investments there.
2007-08-17 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive