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Iran Kidnaps Pro-Israeli Kurd
27.6.2012
By Abe Greenwald - Commentary Magazine |
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Editor-in-Chief of the Israel-Kurd magazine Mawloud
Afand, who has been missing since June 8, 2012. •
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June 27, 2012
There is some horrible news out of Kurdistan today.
Ekurd.net reports that Mawloud Afand, editor of an
Israel-Kurdish magazine called Israel Kurd “disappeared
ten days ago in [the] Kurdistan region of Iraq.”
Israeli news sources say he was
kidnapped by Iranian intelligence in
the city of Sulaimaniyah. Ekurd.net claims that Iran
had told the Kurdish government to shut Israel Kurd
down and it refused.
The Kurds have long been accused of Zionist
collaboration owing to their mostly cooperative
relationship with Israelis. In fact, one popular
argument against a safe and autonomous Kurdistan is
that it would be a “second Israel” in the region.
There are obvious commonalities between the Middle
East’s Kurds and Jews. Both are overwhelmingly
pro-American (the Kurds rightly credit the U.S. with
saving them from Saddam), largely inclined toward
democracy, and have histories as persecuted
minorities. Afand’s interest in an Israeli-Kurdish
connection is representative of a not-so-quiet sense
of Kurdish solidarity with Jews. He also, from what
I can gather, has some Jewish family. There are
Jewish Kurds, some of whom claim that Abraham of the
Hebrew Bible was Kurdish.
The current Kurdish relationship with Iran is
tricky. As the American presence in Iraq dwindled
and then disappeared, Iran took the opportunity to
increase its political influence both in Baghdad and
with the Kurdish Regional Government in northern
Iraq. Among the Kurds, this manifests in day-to-day
commercial ties and an increased oil trade with
Iran. While the Kurds would be far happier to deal
with Americans on both a commercial and political
level, their precarious status leaves them few
options about whom to accept as business partners.
Many political decisions for the Kurds are a matter
of survival, not prosperity (something else they
share with Israelis). Iraqi President Jalal Talabani
is Kurdish and there are reports that Tehran is
pressuring him to save the Shiite Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki from a no-confidence vote. The idea
that Iraq is now an Iranian satrapy is way over the
top but there’s no question that Iran has a
troubling amount of influence on Iraqi affairs.
If Afand was kidnapped by Iran it stands as yet
another tragic consequence of the United States’
failure to maintain a presence in post-war Iraq and
especially to build up our relationship with our
most eager and appreciative Muslim allies. It also
highlights the singular bravery and decency of the
Kurds that they make mortal enemies of the fanatical
Iranian thugs to whose will they refuse fully to
bend. Last, it’s another reminder of the Iranian
regime’s implacable and ever more brazen savagery in
a world abandoned by the leadership of the American
superpower.
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