Israel and the Kurds

Someone at my work today told me that there was a BBC Newsnight item last night about Israel training Kurds inside Iraq. I've been hearing about Israel and the Kurds for years now so I didn't think too much of it. Now I've received a comment to the post below saying the same thing. So here's the beeb on Israel and the Kurds:

The BBC has obtained evidence that Israelis have been giving military training to Kurds in northern Iraq.

A report on the BBC TV programme Newsnight showed Israeli experts in Kurdish areas of north Iraq, drilling soldiers in shooting techniques.

Kurdish officials have refused to comment on the report and Israel has denied it knows of any involvement.

The revelation is set to cause enormous problems for the Kurds, not only in Iraq but also in the wider region.

Inside Iraq as well as in the wider region Israel is seen as an enemy of Arabs and Muslims.

Ok skip to near the end:

Ever since the US-led invasion of Iraq began over three years ago, Arab journalists have been speaking of Israelis operating inside the autonomous region of Kurdistan.

They said this was evidence that toppling Saddam Hussein was only the first chapter in a wider American-Israeli conspiracy to eliminate threats to their strategic interests and re-draw the map of the Middle East.

Now this is worrying. I'm not saying that Kurds and other non-Arab peoples in the Middle East don't have legitimate grievances and aspirations. They do as surely as Arabs do. But it does worry me how they are exploited by outside forces. In fact this isn't that far from my concerns about Sudan/Darfur. I really don't know where it will all lead. But I think we can look forward to various zionist groups calling for the break-up of Iraq. This of course will upset Iran. Who cares about Iran? Well, not the zionist movement. But it might upset Turkey too. Now who cares about Turkey? The zionists probably don't care any more about Turkey than they do about Iran but Turkey is an ally of Israel. I'm still not sure where this all leads but Turkey might be a constraint on zionist ambitions in that part of the Middle East. Of course that's without getting into the fact that if the Kurds were to achieve anything with the zionists in tow whatever it is will be resented across the Arab and, presumably, the Muslim world.