(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah - The 35 million Kurds live a tragedy: they are dispersed throughout Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq, unable to secure their right of self-determination. Their inability to unite has been the cause of their political weakness. Sometimes rival factions would prefer to cooperate with the local power rather than accepting a compromise with the other Kurdish faction. The Kurds in Iraq suffered from a chronic struggle between the two main tribes - the Barzanis and the Talabani. While the Barzanis favored independence, the Talabanis were more inclined toward a united Iraq. In 2017, Iraqi troops rolled into Kurdish territory with the active assistance of the Talabanis to crush the Kurdish autonomy and retake possession of the oil fields. According to the Iraqi Constitution, the president of Iraq must be a Kurd. The Barzanis founded the KDP while the Talibanis established the PUK. When the KDP announced that their candidate for president of Iraq would be Fuad Hussein, a prominent Talabani claimed that Hussein was married to a Jewish woman. Jewish wives/mothers have always been a source of defamation in the Arab imagination. In fact, Hussein's wife was a Protestant of Dutch origin. The writer, a special analyst for the Middle East at the Jerusalem Center, was Deputy Head for Assessment of Israeli Military Intelligence.
2018-10-03 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive