Tag Archive for Kurds

| November 7, 2019
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Israel assisting Syrian Kurds, financially, militarily & diplomatically

Since the 1960s, Israel has discreetly maintained intelligence, military and business cooperation with the Kurds, whose indigenous population is spread out between Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Iran – as a shared buffer against common adversaries.

By Reuters

 

Israel is assisting Syrian Kurds battered by a month-old Turkish incursion, seeing them as a counterweight to Iranian influence and advocating for them in talks with the United States, the deputy Israeli foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Kurdish population is spread out between Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Iran

Ankara launched its assault targeting the Kurdish YPG militia after the abrupt withdrawal of 1,000 U.S. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| October 24, 2019
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Under threat of personal safety, Kurdish parents bring child to Israeli hospital

Coming from Iraqi Kurdistan, a Kurdish mom says they were “not hostages in the hospital,” and they ventured out to see the country, including touring Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and even going to pray on the Temple Mount.

B7 MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN

 

After being bombed and attacked by both the Turkish Army and its allied Free Syrian Army Forces in Afrin last year, Aram (name changed for security reasons) and her family – Kurds who were native to northern Syria – were forced to flee to Iraqi Kurdistan, much like the hundreds of thousands of Syrians who have recently become refugees due to the Turkish military operation. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , , , ,
| October 21, 2017
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Israel’s Prime Minister lobbies world leaders to support Iraqi Kurds

Hoping to prevent further setbacks to Iraqi Kurds’ lands from being controlled by Iraqi forces, Israeli PM Netanyahu is lobbying world powers to back a Kurdish bid for independence.

By Reuters

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is lobbying world powers to prevent further setbacks to Iraqi Kurds as they lose ground to Baghdad’s army, Israeli officials say.

Israel has been the only major power to endorse statehood for the Kurds, partly, say analysts, because it sees the ethnic group—whose population is split among Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran—as a buffer against shared adversaries.

Kurdistan’s futire border would be the area of their red, white & green national flag

Iraqi armed forces retook the oil-rich Kirkuk region this week, following a Sept. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , , ,
| October 1, 2017
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Erdogan threatens Israel, accusing Mossad behind Kurdish independence vote

Because many Kurds waved Israeli flags during their referendum for independence, Turkey’s strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses the Mossad security service as being responsible for the Kurd’s seeking independence and their subsequent vote last week.

By Chana Roberts

 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday evening blamed Israel’s Mossad for Iraqi Kurdistan’s decision to become independent.

Iraqi Kurds on Tuesday night declared victory in the independence referendum held Monday.

Kurdistan’s futire border would be the area of their red, white & green national flag

According to Erdogan, the fact that the Kurds flew Israeli flags during their celebrations is proof of Israeli involvement. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , , ,
| August 14, 2017
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Israel’s Prime Minister Tells U.S. Congressmen: It’s time the Kurds received independence

Although, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu rarely addresses the Kurdish issue, he told a visiting delegation of 33 American congressmen last week that he is in favor of an independent Kurdish state since they are a “brave, pro-Western people who share our values” and could curtail Iran’s expansion in their region.

By HERB KEINON

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a delegation of 33 Republican congressmen last week that he is in favor of an independent Kurdish state in parts of Iraq, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

According to a source who took part in the discussion on Thursday, Netanyahu expressed his “positive attitude” toward a Kurdish state in the Kurdish areas of Iraq, saying the Kurds are a “brave, pro-Western people who share our values.” Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| March 7, 2016
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How could a genocide happen in the 21st century while the world is watching?

 

Kurdish and Yazidi delegation in Jerusalem visits Yad Vashem and sees the horrible parallels with persecution by ISIS.

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN

 

The black-and-white images at one display at Yad Vashem’s Holocaust museum in Jerusalem show women survivors of the Volary death march who married and raised families.

The guide emphasized the desire to continue living that survivors had in the wake of the Nazi genocide, even as they lived crammed into displaced persons’ camps after the war.

Some of the members of the Yazidi and Kurdish delegation at Yad Vashem -photo: SETH J. FRANTZMAN

Some of the members of the Yazidi and Kurdish delegation at Yad Vashem on Sunday unfurl a Kurdish flag at the entrance.

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Category: Israel News | Tags: , , , ,
| August 25, 2015
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Jewish State ‘very interested’ in assisting the Kurds

 

Mid-East Analyst : Crude oil purchases act as covert way for Israel to provide aid to Iraqi Kurds.

By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON

 

News published in theFinancial Times on Sunday that Israel imports most of its oil from Iraq’s Kurdish areas came as no shock to those following the secretive Israel-Kurd relationship.

“The news is not so surprising, as it has been going on for some time,” Prof. Ofra Bengio, editor of the book Kurdish Awakening: Nation-Building in a Fragmented Homeland, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

A KURDISH Peshmerga soldier holds a Kurdistan flag during an intensive security deployment after clashes with Islamic State militants.-

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Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , , ,
| August 24, 2015
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UK Report: Israel Imports Over 75% of its Oil from Kurds

 

Financial Times reports much of the Kurdish oil is loaded onto tankers at Ceyhan Turkey, and then shipped to refineries at the Israeli port of Ashkelon.

By Arutz Sheva Staff

 

Israel has imported as much as three-quarters of its oil from Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish north in recent months, The Financial Times reported on Sunday.

The move provides a vital source of funds to the cash-strapped region as it fights Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists, according to the report.

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq – Reuters

The imports highlight the significant inroads that oil from Iraqi Kurdistan is making into world markets, with Italy, France and Greece also emerging as big buyers, the newspaper noted. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| July 29, 2015
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Revealed: Turkey is Financially Supporting ISIS

When US special forces killed ISIS leader in May, retrieved intel revealed NATO-member Turkey was in fact collaborating with the jihadists and is a major buyer of stolen ISIS oil.

By Ari Yashar

 

Damning evidence was found when US special forces killed Islamic State (ISIS) leader Abu Sayyaf in May, revealing that NATO-member Turkey has in fact been collaborating with the brutal jihadists.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan – Photo: Reuters

The British Guardian reported on Sunday that when Abu Sayyaf’s compound was raided in eastern Syria, it was discovered that Turkey is the main buyer of smuggled ISIS oil which was managed by Abu Sayyaf to economically prop up the terror group.
Continue Reading »
Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , ,
| November 14, 2014
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Female IDF Soldier Joins Kurds to Fight ISIS

31 yr-old former IDF warrior becomes 1st Israeli to volunteer to join the Kurds in their desperate war against the Islamic State.

By David Lazarus

 

A female former IDF soldier has become the first Israeli to publicly join Kurdish forces battling against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, the nation learned on Tuesday.

Female IDF combat soldiers – IDF Spokesperson’s Unit

“I’m on the Iraq-Syria border, and we’re currently about 3,000 meters from ISIS,” Gill Rosenberg, 31, told Israel Radio in a telephone interview from the battlefield. “I was given an RPG by the Kurdish army,” she said.

Rosenberg is a civil aviation pilot and served in an Israeli army search-and-rescue unit.

Continue Reading »
Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , ,
| June 29, 2014
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Israel Backs Kurds for Independence

 

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: The Kurds “proved its political commitment… deserves political independence”

By Dan Williams; editing by Ralph Boulton

 

(Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced support for Kurdish statehood on Sunday, taking a position that appeared to clash with the U.S. preference to keep sectarian war-torn Iraq united.

Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference January 21, 2014 – Photo: Menahem Kahana/AFP

Israel has maintained discreet military, intelligence and business ties with the Kurds since the 1960s, seeing in the minority ethnic group a buffer against shared Arab adversaries.

The Kurds have seized on recent sectarian chaos in Iraq to expand their autonomous northern territory to include Kirkuk, which sits on vast oil deposits that could make the independent state many dream of economically viable. Continue Reading »

Category: The Diaspora | Tags: , ,
| June 22, 2014
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The Kurds re-connect with an old ally: Israel

Washington disapproves of the Kurds exporting Iraqi oil in principle, since it diminishes from Iraq’s national unity, but it’s highly unlikely that the U.S. will object to their selling oil to Israel.

By and Avi Bar-Eli

Kurdish oil has been sailing for weeks across the Mediterranean, looking for a buyer. Finally. a country that will take it in has been found, according to a Reuters report out of London.
Reuters

The SCF Altai tanker docks near Israel’s Ashkelon Port, June 20, 2014. – Photo: Reuters

The Liberia-registered tanker Altai docked in Ashkelon on Friday, carrying a million barrels of oil produced in the Kurdish regions of Iraq.

Continue Reading »
Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| June 20, 2014
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Israel Receives First Oil Delivery From Iraqi Kurds via Disputed Kurdish Pipeline

 

Israel officials have been keen to build ties with the Kurds, hoping to broaden options for energy supplies. Israeli refineries have purchased Kurdish crude before, in small volumes, which were trucked to Turkish ports.

By Julia Payne, Reuters

 

LONDON (Reuters) – Iraqi Kurdistan looked set to unload in Israel a first cargo of disputed crude oil from its new pipeline after weeks of seeking an outlet as Iraq’s central government has threatened legal action against any buyer.

The SCF Altai tanker has anchored near Israel's Ashkelon port June 20, 2014 - Photo by REUTERS-Amir Cohen

The SCF Altai tanker has anchored near Israel’s Ashkelon port June 20, 2014 – Photo: REUTERS-Amir Cohen

The SCF Altai tanker was anchored near Israel’s Ashkelon port early on Friday morning, ship tracking and industry sources said. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,