The Plight of the Kurds and Israel's Relationship

Nadene Goldfoot                                     

     
The Kurds are people who have the closest DNA to Jews.  We both go back to the time of the scribe, Ezra, when Jews were settlers in what would later be called, Kurdistan.  Remember that it was the Babylonians who captured the Judean Jews in 597-586 BCE and Nebuchadnezzar took them to Babylonia which came under Persian rule by Ezra's day.  

"The Battle of Chaldiran of 1514 is an important turning point in Kurdish history, marking the alliance of Kurds with the Ottomans."
" The Sharafnameh of 1597 is the first account of Kurdish history.  Kurdish history in the 20th century is marked by a rising sense of Kurdish nationhood focused on the goal of an independent Kurdistan as scheduled by the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920."                                                                             

Kurdistan was a mountainous region now divided since the 1920s between Turkey or the Ottoman Empire into Iran and Iraq as well as the country of Turkey.
                                                                               

 
 Ezra existed in the 5th Century BCE.  Ezra had been a scribe in the Persian (Iran) government.  In 458 BCE, it was he who was given permission by Artaxerxes I of Persia to return to Jerusalem with 1,754 returning Jewish exiles from Babylonia.  There, they rebuilt their destroyed Temple with the Persian government blessings. " Even after the 2nd Temple was rebuilt in 349 BCE, the level of holiness of the 1st Temple era did not return."   This is all documented in his book, The Book of Ezra, by Ezra himself, in the TANACH, or Old Testament.  In the Tanach, it is in the end of the book, just before chronicles and is titled, Ezra-Nehemiah.                                                                           

So we Jews lived in the same lands that Kurds have been living in.  Our DNA has been studied as well. "Genetic analysis has shown that the Kurdish people are closely related to the Azeri, Armenian, Georgian, and Jewish peoples, descending from some common ancestors in the northern Near East region.

Some of the studies cited below have haplogroup frequencies for various populations of Kurds. We can add to that small-scale results from Family Tree DNA's "Kurdish DNA Project"; at present the following Y-DNA (paternal DNA) haplogroups were found among its grouped members: G2a, G2a3b1, I1, J1, R1a1a1, R1b1a2a1a1b4i, and one instance of Q1b1a.   My father's Jewish haplogroup is Q1b, now upgraded to be called QBZ67.  These are haplogroups passed on from father to son.

Women pass on their mtDNA to their daughters.  The  mtDNA haplogroup HV1b2 is found among a Yezidi Kurd as well as Ashkenazi Jews. The Ashkenazim are tested through Family Tree DNA's "HV1b - MtDNA Match Mates" project.

Language is an important marker as well.  "The Kurds speak an Iranian language. Their traditional homeland, known as Kurdistan, includes some regions in the present-day nations of Turkey (southeastern quadrant), Syria (northeastern corner), Iraq (northern areas), and Iran (western areas) and small numbers have lived in parts of Armenia and Azerbaijan. 

Kurds were promised an independent nation in 1920 by the Treaty of Sèvres but never got one. The Kurds' identity — even their use of the Kurdish language — was widely suppressed in Turkey and Syria. In Iraq beginning in the 1990s the Kurds managed to assert their political autonomy but they are still part of that country and since the fall of Saddam Hussein they've reintegrated into the countrywide Iraqi political system.
                                                                           

Kurdish Leaders meeting about Peshmerga forces winning against ISIS,
 on all fronts along a 1050-kilometer border, but they also stressed that the forces needed better arms and political support.

Peshmerga are the military forces of the federal region of Iraqi Kurdistan. Because the Iraqi Army is forbidden by Iraqi law from entering Iraqi Kurdistan, the peshmerga, along with their security subsidiaries, are responsible for the security of the regions in Iraqi Kurdistan.

February 22, 2015 - ISIS releases a video that appears to show at least 21 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in cages carried down Iraqi streets.

November 13, 2015 - After a two-day battle, the Peshmerga Iraqi Kurdish military force declares victory in liberating the Iraqi town of Sinjar from ISIS. The battle was backed by the US coalition air power.

October 17, 2016 - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi makes a televised statement announcing the start of the mission to retake the key city of Mosul, the last remaining ISIS stronghold. He says a coalition of about 100,000 troops will play a role in the operation, though some will have a holding role behind the front lines or other support roles. The force includes about 54,000 members of the Iraqi Security Forces, 40,000 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, 14,000 members of paramilitary units - 9,000 Sunni fighters and 5,000 from other minorities including Christians, Turkmen and Yazidis - and approximately 500 US service members who will serve mainly in a logistical capacity. US military officials have estimated up to 5,000 ISIS fighters are in Mosul, but the terror group's supporters say there are 7,000.

The Kurds have been living together with other Kurds in 4 different areas, in Eastern, Western, northern and Southern Kurdistan that lie in northern  Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey.  It is the Northern sector who has been the most vocal in leading the drive toward independence.  They all feel they have been betrayed during the past 100 years by Baghdad.  Now, they were not thrown out of their own land, but lost their right to administer themselves as before and want and deserve independence.
They feel as the Americans had felt towards England who had to fight for their independence from her in 1776, yet the USA is not backing the Kurds in this endeavor.  However, Israel is.
                                                                             

Kurdish leader in exile, Dr. Jawad Mella surrounded by his bodyguards
born in Damascus, Syria 1946

Dr. Mella says, " I established Kurdistan National Congress in 1985. I wanted it to be an umbrella organisation to unite all Kurdish parties and to sit down to chart a united strategy for Kurdish problem and rights. We organised several meetings but we faced many difficulties because some parties would attend the meeting and other won’t. The next meetings it would vice versa. That’s why so far they have not been successful to unite all the parties. I will continue struggle to unite the Kurds on one table because the only way to gain freedom is the unity of the Kurds, without unity it impossible to have freedom."

Israel has been the Kurdish supporter since the 1960's in northern Iraq and supported their insurgency against Saddam Hussein.  They have been fighters against ISIS.  You'd think for this reason the USA would be also.  Instead, we have told the Kurds to just be patient.  Then they've been told to engage the Baghdadi leaders instead as they did to Kurdish Representative Tanya Gilly in 2006.   Last year as recent as September 14th, 2017, our US special presidential envoy for the global coalition to defeat ISIS told the KRG the same thing in their city of Erbil.  The USA remains their ally, but their dialogue is not always in good faith, I see.   "The USA diplomats in Baghdad also have been critical of demands for too much Kurdish autonomy as it seemed to go against their plans for rebuilding a "unified" Iraq."   I ask, "Why?"

Former President Ahmadinejad of Iran and his threats to bomb Israel with A bombs.
That's why they work so long and hard on their nuclear project.  

                                                                             

                   Kurdish leaders of Iran who are not for change                               
They dare not.  They're in Iran under the Ayatollahs.
Freedom of thought?  Not in Iran

 Iran's influence is growing steadily in Baghdad, and Iran has replaced Saddam's Iraq as the main opposition to an independent Kurdistan once again.  Of course not.  Once a country gets land, they don't intend to lose it.  Russia had  a terrible time after being the USSR.  We see them today trying to regain Ukraine again, which was part of the Pale of Settlement where Jews were allowed to live instead of being allowed into Russia proper.  Of course today there are no Jews in  Ukraine, having been all killed by either the Nazis or their Ukrainian helpers.  I have a feeling that these Kurdish leaders dare not disagree with Iran's  Ayatollahs or else!

Strangely or not, being under 4 dictatorships makes it very hard for the Kurds to unite since they are already on their own soil of Kurdistan.  One of the dangers they had already is behind them.  It was Saddam Hussein who had gassed them!  " The Halabja Massacre or Bloody Friday, was a massacre against the Kurdish people that took place on March 16, 1988, during the closing days of the Iran–Iraq War in the Kurdish city of Halabja in Southern Kurdistan. The attack killed between 3,200 and 5,000 people and injured 7,000 to 10,000 more, most of them civilians.  That's how crazy Saddam was.   The Iraqi High Criminal Court recognized the Halabja massacre as an act of genocide on March 1, 2010, a decision welcomed by the Kurdistan Regional Government. The attack was also condemned as a crime against humanity by the Parliament of Canada.
                                                                      

Kurdish relations with Israel is a close one.  Kurds held up Israeli flags at rallies in Europe and in Kurdish cities of Dohuk and Akre.  Turks were angry after a vote which resulted in pressure on Israel to tone down its public support.  Kurdistan is being painted for this as a 2nd Israel, which may actually be quite true, as they admire Israel.  Former PM of Kurdistan mentioned that he saw on September 17th in the Kurdish regions, SUVs with Israeli flags and many Kurds told him that Israel was the one country they could count on for support.  It is Netanyahu who supports and independent Kurdistan in Turkey while Erdogen supports Hamas.  Turkey has some great people.  I don't know how someone like Erdogen got in.  He's more Iranian-acting than Turkish.  He's all for the newer orthodox Islam of the Ayatollas; far more hateful than his own people.  It must be paying off for him.  

The Kurds, wherever they live; Iran, Iraq, Syria or Turkey, are great fighters and great friends of Israel.  They are our cousins.  

Update: 3/8/2018 11:27am  "Since USA's McMaster’s speech ijn mid-December, Erdo?an of Turkey has invaded Afrin, Syria (a city then controlled by America’s Kurdish allies), massacring women, children and the elderly; promoted the use of child soldiers in his fight against the Kurds; and undermined U.S. sanctions against Iran."

1:32pm:  "The Yazidis, or Yezidis (/jəˈziːdiːz/ ( listen) yə-ZEE-deez) (Kurmanji Kurdish: Êzidî, IPA: [eːzɪˈdiː]), are a Kurdish religious minority indigenous to a region of northern Mesopotamia (known natively as Ezidkhan) who are strictly endogamous.   Beginning in August 2014, the Yazidis were targeted by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in its campaign to rid Iraq and its neighbouring countries of non-Islamic influences."

"The Kurds and Yazidis are not the same.  The Yazidis are a very small group who live in the north of Iraq.  The largest contingent of Kurds outside Turkey rule the northern third of Iraq, as a result of the US invasion and various other factions, post-Hussein.  (They were brutally repressed under Hussein.)"  I have not found any shared customs of Yazidis with Kurds or Jews.  The Yazidis are an ancient Persian people, and their religion is based on Zoroastrianism.

Resource:  http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2016/11/miracles-in-israel-4-return-of-lost.html
http://balochwarna.com/2014/12/05/exile-kurdish-leader-dissatisfied-with-wests-actions-against-isi/
Ezra-Book of Ezra
The Jerusalem Report, magazine,  October 18, 2017, p:  12-17.
Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.meri-k.org/iranian-roundtable/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halabja_chemical_attack
https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/netanyahu-hits-back-at-erdogan-for-supporting-hamas-1.5451118
http://www.khazaria.com/genetics/kurds.html
https://www.cnn.com/2014/08/08/world/isis-fast-facts/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yazidis
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-Yazidis-and-Kurds-Are-they-the-same