Netanyahu’s message to Turkey is that as long as it supports Hamas, it can expect stones to be thrown at its glass house
Analysis Kurdistan independence: One day in September could wreak havoc in the Middle East
“Israel opposes the Kurdistan Workers’ Party [the PKK] and sees it as a terror organization, as opposed to Turkey, which supports the terror organization Hamas. But while Israel opposes terror as such, it supports the legitimate efforts of the Kurdish people to achieve a state of their own,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week.
Perhaps it was no coincidence that his statement came only a few days after a speech by one of his Habayit Hayehudi partner-rivals, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, at the Interdisciplinary Center at Herzliya, in which she touched on Kurdish independence. But she took it even further and said, “The Israeli and American interest is that there should be a Kurdish state, firstly in Iraq. It’s about time that the United States supports this.”
“Firstly in Iraq?” And where after that, Turkey? Iran?
Israel’s support for Kurdish independence is not new; Netanyahu has made similar declarations as far back as 2014. But the timing, less than two weeks before a September 25 referendum slated to be held in Iraqi Kurdistan, makes the Israeli message more than just moral support for the Kurdish people’s desire for an independent state. The statement, the first of its kind to be made by any world leader, is a dagger right in the eyes of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is ideologically and strategically opposed to the establishment of a Kurdish state.
Netanyahu was delivering a double message to Turkey, although not solely to Turkey. As long as Turkey supports Hamas and doesn’t define it as a terror group, it can expect stones to be thrown at the glass house in which it lives. In addition, whoever supports an independent Palestinian state should be prepared for Israel to encourage the establishment of a Kurdish state.
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.812469