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Israel and the Kurds. Seymour Hersh reports this week on Israel's development of a "Plan B" after concluding that the US had lost the post-war in Iraq: building up a covert alliance with the Kurds in northern Iraq, and with Kurdish groups in Iran and Syria as well. For what strategic purpose? To counter the strength of Iraq's Shiite majority and a potentially nuclear armed Iran in the near future.
Hersh reports:
In a series of interviews in Europe, the Middle East, and the United States, officials told me that by the end of last year Israel had concluded that the Bush Administration would not be able to bring stability or democracy to Iraq, and that Israel needed other options. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government decided, I was told, to minimize the damage that the war was causing to Israel’s strategic position by expanding its long-standing relationship with Iraq’s Kurds and establishing a significant presence on the ground in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan...
Israeli intelligence and military operatives are now quietly at work in Kurdistan, providing training for Kurdish commando units and, most important in Israel’s view, running covert operations inside Kurdish areas of Iran and Syria. Israel feels particularly threatened by Iran, whose position in the region has been strengthened by the war.
The former Israeli intelligence officer acknowledged that since late last year Israel has been training Kurdish commando units to operate in the same manner and with the same effectiveness as Israel’s most secretive commando units, the Mistaravim. The initial goal of the Israeli assistance to the Kurds, the former officer said, was to allow them to do what American commando units had been unable to do—penetrate, gather intelligence on, and then kill off the leadership of the Shiite and Sunni insurgencies in Iraq. (I was unable to learn whether any such mission had yet taken place.) “The feeling was that this was a more effective way to get at the insurgency,” the former officer said. “But the growing Kurdish-Israeli relationship began upsetting the Turks no end. Their issue is that the very same Kurdish commandos trained for Iraq could infiltrate and attack in Turkey.”
The Kurdish-Israeli collaboration inevitably expanded, the Israeli said. Some Israeli operatives have crossed the border into Iran, accompanied by Kurdish commandos, to install sensors and other sensitive devices that primarily target suspected Iranian nuclear facilities. The former officer said, “Look, Israel has always supported the Kurds in a Machiavellian way—as balance against Saddam. It’s Realpolitik.” He added, “By aligning with the Kurds, Israel gains eyes and ears in Iran, Iraq, and Syria.” He went on, “What Israel was doing with the Kurds was not so unacceptable in the Bush Administration.”
Senior German officials told me, with alarm, that their intelligence community also has evidence that Israel is using its new leverage inside Kurdistan, and within the Kurdish communities in Iran and Syria, for intelligence and operational purposes.
But one contrary thought: it is quite clear that a significant part of the pro-Israel professional lobbying community in Washington is among Turkey's greatest supporters in Washington. Is this covert Sharon policy of backing the Kurds even to the point of separatism that is clearly so alienating to Turkey dividing those who count themselves among Israel's greatest supporters?
This leads to another observation which is probably obvious to those who cover Israel in more depth. The alienation of Israel's national security establishment from the Sharon government and Likud foreign policy, very similar to the alienation of the US national security establishment (CIA, State Department, elements of the uniformed military) from neocon policies and Bush foreign policy.
More on this all soon.
[Ed. note: this post has been revised.]