When the Kurds Raise the Zionist Flag

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

I am one of the Arab political writers who defended Kurdish rights over long years, even though I was fully aware of Mustafa Barzani’s relationship with the Zionist entity.

The Zionist entity has continued viewing the Kurdish problem from two angles: the angle of keeping the region’s states, Iraq especially, occupied with armed conflicts against the Kurds, and the angle of establishing a substitute Israel in northern Iraq to serve as an aid against the Arab states if the need arises.

For this reason, the Zionists provided the required military aid to the Kurds during their revolt, which began in 1958 in Iraq, providing them combat expertise and financial assistance. Kurdish leaders were not slow to receive assistance and request more, establishing a cultural and educational program bringing Kurds closer to the Zionists and pushing them toward normalization with them.

We have never once been absent from the Iraqi stage, nor from Kurdish politicians’ meddling in the Iraqi arena. We are not absent from history, but we grew accustomed to believing the Kurds had become more aware over time, understanding now the complexities of the Arab-Islamic region, and would think a hundred times before responding to Zionist incitement operations and appealing to the Zionist entity for help.

We used to believe the Kurds would one day decide to live in the region as a natural part of it, experiencing life’s sweetness and bitterness together with Arabs, Iranians, and Turks. But it does not seem our beliefs were correct. It is clear the Kurds do not see themselves as part of the region, and are prepared to cooperate with the region’s enemies for their own immediate, temporary interests.

They still cooperate with the Zionist entity, and with the United States of America, in Syria especially. They do not see themselves through the eyes of the region, but through the eyes of the region’s enemies, the Zionists and Americans foremost among them.

Media outlets carried live images of Kurdish demonstrations in Erbil and other Iraqi Kurdish cities, with the Zionist flag raised by Kurdish demonstrators in the utmost joy and delight. Raising it was striking in its brazenness, displayed before the media, and it became understood that those raising the flag intended to provoke Arabs and Iranians, defy them, and drag them into future confrontations. The Zionist flag defies Iraq, Iran, and part of the Palestinian people, who still suffer greatly from Zionist aggression represented by the usurpation of the homeland and the displacement of the people, and those who raised it call on all Arabs zealous for the sacred Palestinian homeland and for the Arab homeland to hold a grudge against the Kurds and take every harsh measure against them.

As for whoever claims raising the Zionist flag was a personal initiative without any partisan or official assignment, they are simply treating people as fools. An act of this kind could not have happened without prior approval from official and partisan bodies, because it carries many repercussions inflicting harm on the Kurds more than on others.

It is true Kurdish-Zionist relations will be harmful to the region, but the price the Kurds will pay is far greater than the price Iraq will pay. Whoever did this or incited it is marked by stupidity and by spite and hatred toward the region’s various ethnicities. Kurdish security is part of Arab, Iranian, and Turkish security, not part of Zionist security.

The Kurds’ relationship with the Zionist entity endangers Iraq’s security, because it allows the Zionists to establish military bases and warplane airfields to obstruct the Iraqi army’s actions when national interests require this army’s help — an army constituting a source of pride and honor for Arabs. There will be, in Kurdistan, a little Israel affiliated with the Zionist entity on Palestinian land. At the same time, it endangers Iran’s national security, especially at a time when Israel continues searching for ways and methods to strike at Iran and its military, scientific, and technical capabilities.

The Zionist entity works diligently to find outlets for warplanes near Iran. The Zionist entity works diligently to employ Gulf Arab airfields in the service of its air forces, and works to build military airfields in Kurdistan so it can carry out swift, successful air raids against Iranian installations. This means the Kurds are working to put the entire region at risk of destructive wars that will spare the Kurds neither suffering nor sorrow.

The Kurds also threaten Arab and Iranian national security through their cooperation with the United States. America sharpens its weapons against Iran, always eager to increase its military bases in the region to facilitate any military action it might take against Iran. And if Kurdistan is to embrace the Zionist entity, it will certainly embrace America too. We now see Kurdish cooperation with America in Syria, and how American military bases have arisen in the Kurdish areas of northern Syria. We are well aware that the American presence in northern Syria severely threatens Syrian and Iraqi security. The Americans have previously bombed the Syrian army several times, killing a large number of Syrian soldiers.

The continuation of Kurdish cooperation with the Americans in Syria places them in a corner of hostility whose results will not be good for either Arabs or Kurds. In the end, the Kurds must be reminded that it is America and its allies who created the Kurdish problem, in order to keep a problem alive occupying the region’s states and draining their energies. The colonialists used the Kurds when dividing the region, to keep them a thorn in everyone’s throat.

The greatest loser, in the end, is the Kurds. The Zionist entity was the greatest beneficiary of the region’s colonial partition, and the Zionists are the ones who supported that partition, which gave the Kurds no share, in order to win Palestine. Now the Kurds forget the Zionists’ conspiracy against them, so they can continue polluting the entire region.

For this reason, I no longer see any usefulness in supporting the Kurds’ right to self-determination. They do not deserve support. The hope was that they would understand that the region’s peoples look forward to living together, cooperating and coordinating for the interest of the region as a whole, not for igniting hatred, animosity, and grudges.

The Kurds do not want to coexist with others or live with them, and they must bear the responsibility. So does the Iraqi government have justification for its actions against Iraqi Kurdistan? Yes, it has its justification, avoiding strife, wars, and bloodshed. Iran has a clear right to defend its national security and prevent Zionist infiltration into the northwest of its territory. Syria has every right to preserve the unity of its territory and its sovereignty, and to preserve its people’s security. And whoever establishes relations with the Zionists, whether Arab, Kurdish, or Turkish, does not deserve sympathy and support, and must bear the consequences, which could be devastating and ruinous.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “عندما يرفع الكرد علم الصهاينة” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.