Roj Bash Kurdistan

I am from the Middle East, but I do not celebrate the recent uprisings and regime changes. It is good to see Arabs topple their dictators, but I worry that their revolution today may harm an existing democracy that is Israel tomorrow. If Arab demonstrations can add new democracies to the region I will welcome it, but I feel that some of them want to overthrow their regimes in order to get a free hand to wage a war against Israel at some point.

People may wonder why I care about Israel, and my reply is because we have a lot in common with the people of that country. I am a Kurd from Iraqi Kurdistan, and as far back as I can remember, we have been repressed, tortured, killed, bombed and gassed by the same countries that vow to destroy Israel. In just one day, Saddam Hussein’s army killed five thousand innocent men, women and children in my town, Halabja, with chemical bombs in 1988. The Syrian regime denies the existence of hundreds of thousands of Kurds in Syria, and for the past three decades there hasn’t been a day in which the Islamic regime in Iran hasn’t executed a Kurdish man or woman.

Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, and for us, the Kurds, who do not have our own state, Israel is a source of inspiration. We genuinely believe the Jewish people deserve a state of their own, and I would want our state, if we one day have one, modeled after Israel than any of our neighbors.

Our neighbors are police states where citizens are detained, tortured and killed with impunity. Their dictators can give and take away life as they wish, and any voice of dissent is mercilessly silenced. But when I look at Israel and see a country where politicians, no matter how high-ranking are brought to court for any wrongdoing, where people can criticize their government without fear, where the press is free, I can’t help worrying about its future.

I cannot celebrate the fall of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak or Tunisia’s Zine El Abidine Ben Ali when I see protesters hailing resentful remarks at Israel as if it was Israel that repressed and jailed them. It may skip the attention of many westerners, but if you know Arabic and see the protesters’ banners, you will be surprised to find out how much of these demonstrations are about Israel.

I believe that Israel’s friendly relations with some of its neighbors, such as Egypt and Jordan, has always been fragile. Most people in those two countries dream about the demise of the Jewish state. Every Arab state, not only Egypt or Jordan -- could have peace treaty with Israel, but as long as their peoples are hostile towards the Jewish entity, it would be nothing but fragile peace.

Turkey is another example. The alliance between Israel and Turkey has unfortunately, and rightly so, estranged millions of Kurds in Turkey. Turkey is a deeply religious country, and its good relations with the Jewish state for so many years only came about because secular military generals used to run that country. Now with an Islamic party in charge, no other country in the region has shown more animosity towards Israel in the past few years than Turkey.

The Kurds, on the other hand, are extremely friendly towards Israel. Unlike Arab countries whose leaders sign treaties with Israel while their people seethe with anger, in Kurdistan, people and government alike have deep respect for the Jewish people and their faith. In Kurdistan, people speak nostalgically, with tearful eyes and sorrowful hearts, about their old Jewish neighbors. In Europe or America it may be the law that stops the expression of anti-Jewish sentiment, but in Kurdistan, it is genuine sympathy that makes almost everyone friendly towards Israel.

In any Muslim country, you would find people who would happily volunteer to an army that may one day invade Israel, but in Kurdistan, you would find many people who wouldn’t hesitate to join the Israeli army to repel any such attack. Kurds are victims of genocide, centuries of persecution and displacement. That’s why we understand and relate to the Jewish cause better than anybody else.

I was walking one day in a market in Kurdistan with a Palestinian colleague who lives in Europe. At one point, we stopped to buy some dried figs and nuts, and when the shopkeeper learned that my colleague was a Palestinian, he turned to her and said, “Please leave Israel alone. Stop firing rockets at them.”

Once I was traveling from Baghdad to Kurdistan and the passenger next to me in the taxi was an old Kurdish man. He had been enlisted in the Iraqi army in 1956 and sent to the Israeli front in Jordan. He said his fellow Arab soldiers used to castigate him for not wanting to shoot at the Israelis. He would say to them, “It is not my war. I have nothing against the Jews.”

This kinship between the Kurds and the Jews is not new. Only recently did I see in the Dead Sea Scrolls the story of Tobit, who advises his sons to pack up and go to Media because they would be safe there. And guess what? The third line of the Kurdish national anthem says, “We are the children of the Media.”


The Middle East is an island on which the Jews and Kurds are stranded. In order to survive, we have to stay together. The direction our region is heading draws us closer to each other. No matter how bleak the future of the region may look, Kurdistan and the Jewish state will survive by holding on to each other.

talsor wrote:There is not such thing a friendship on the international stage , Just mutual interests .

Kurdistano wrote:The Question should rather be, "Are the Israelis Friends of the Kurds?" Kurds have no problems with anyone who have no problems with us.

KurdishSoccer92 wrote:kurds are friends of israile people but not friends of israele state .

thearabchildren wrote:

KurdishSoccer92 wrote:kurds are friends of israile people but not friends of israele state .

Last time I checked, you hated Jews, all Jews, and specifically stated you respected all religions except Judaism.

thearabchildren wrote:That aside though, your illiterate statements do occasionally deserve commentary, because although you are not particularly bright and are quite repulsive on a personal level, you comment on important issues:.

thearabchildren wrote:1. Kurds should not be "friends" of "Israeli" people simply because "Israeli" people do not care about Kurds (except to bring them up as examples of how bad Arabs, and more recently, Turks, are) In other words, so-called "friendship" between "nations" is really an exercise in populist manœuvring by the state. Kurds, like all people, should oppose all states and judge all people on an individual level (obviously with respect for the identity-based context which defines them).
2. If an independent Kurdish state is declared (which seems likely and logical given the relevant historical context), its first concern ought to be the means through which such a state will be declared and a calculation of how much bloodshed is desirable for how much gain. Are the residents of such a state willing to fight to the last man for specific villages or will they take whatever they can get?
3. Once UN recognition is granted to the Republic of Kurdistan (or whatever name it chooses for itself) AND relative peace and stability exists INTERNALLY, is it more important (to its residents) for it to have the strong support of the United States or "Israel" or Saudi Arabia or the People's Republic of China or Russia or whatever other state with which it does not share borders, or strong relations with its immediate neighbours? If the former is more important, it will obviously become a client state of other states, which will further estrange it from its immediate state neighbours in times of diplomatic conflict with the United States or whoever, and provide "evidence" for the non-Kurdish populaces within those states of the treacherous nature of the Kurds (which, even if it does not concern the Kurds living in this Kurdish state, will have negative effects on the remaining Kurdish communities in those neighbour states). If the latter is more important, one has to be extremely careful of the terms. Of course, one desires strong and mutually supportive ties, but it is quite likely that this Kurdish state might end up as no more than a "vassal state" to Iran or Turkey.

İnönü Cumhuriyeti konusunda, Türkçe konuşanlar için, bence bu eğlenceli: http://www.eksisozluk.com/show.asp?t=alt%C4%B1+bok

Peace,
You-Know-Who

talsor wrote:I can not recall her posting that

but everyone is entitled to their views

and I'm sure you have your share of hate , love and like and dislike towards other nationalities , religions or individuals for a valid reason .

Frankly I do not understand all this fuzz about Kurds and Israel , are we friends ? , are we enemies? . Who cares ? Israel certainly does not and I think Kurds should not too .

Do you enjoy insulting other members or do you think everyone is beyond you level ?.

Your arrogance and constant disregard and disrespect to anyone who opposes you or disagrees with you is disproportionate to your ideology . You are acting like a bully and no one will listen if you actually have a message here .

thearabchildren wrote:

talsor wrote:I can not recall her posting that

Remember that when I came back, KurdishSoccer92 expressed displeasure at my return in the same language used before under the name KurdishAryanSoccer or whatever it was, also coming from Dortmund, you can look up what he said.

but everyone is entitled to their views

Which is why I don't constantly beg for him to be banned, unlike what he has been doing since I came back. Talk to him if you have a problem with people having a problem with people's views.

and I'm sure you have your share of hate , love and like and dislike towards other nationalities , religions or individuals for a valid reason .

I try not to, and if I do I expect to be criticised for it, although here I am criticised by people like KurdishSoccer for hating Kurds despite a complete lack of evidence for that.

Frankly I do not understand all this fuzz about Kurds and Israel , are we friends ? , are we enemies? . Who cares ? Israel certainly does not and I think Kurds should not too .

100% agreed.

Do you enjoy insulting other members or do you think everyone is beyond you level ?.

No, just those members who are openly hostile to me to the point of irrationality. Most people here are perfectly respectful, I can think of two exceptions, and one of those is even quite well behaved.

Your arrogance and constant disregard and disrespect to anyone who opposes you or disagrees with you is disproportionate to your ideology . You are acting like a bully and no one will listen if you actually have a message here .

Actually, this describes at present only ONE interaction of mine here: The one with KurdishSoccer92. He has recently threatened to leave over my lack of banning, so you will notice that stops being a problem if he is a man of his word. If not, I promise to tone it down.