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What has been a distinctly particular innovation of the new millennium has been the growing rise of Kurds in both Middle Eastern and international politics. In fact, particularly after the end of the Baathist Regime in Iraq in 2003, despite the international criticism of the war turning Iraq into a ruin and ghost country, one of the very few tolerable and promising outcomes of the Iraq War has been the relief of long-lasting and epidemic suffering of Kurds.

What was maybe the most tragic event in history has been the rise of the Kurds in both regional and international politics as they successfully accomplished a semi-independent, federal, and fairly democratic state in Iraqi Kurdistan. The emergence of Kurds in the Middle East and in the international arena has attracted not only the curiosity but also revitalized a huge amount of criticism, doubt, and even fear because the Kurds--as one of the most ancient people of Mesopotamia--have been subjugated into their non-Kurdish rulers and scattered across a number of Middle Eastern countries including Iraq, Turkey, Iran, and Syria. They either could be a source of nightmare for the Middle East or they could be turned into a very strong democratic and transforming power to change the ethically, politically, and sectarian and military ruined Middle East. Nevertheless, almost all of the Middle Eastern countries have expressed their fear and anxiety as Kurds gained strong momentum for nation-building. By exclaiming their displeasure and fear against Kurds, the neighboring countries have explicitly signaled that a desired peaceful relationship between Kurds and their neighbor is not a feasible and easy thing. However, a short look into the history of Kurds provides amazing facts and also great solution for Kurds to discern. The history of the Kurds eminently shows who the friends were and who the foes were. Living in considerable harmony and peace for many centuries, Kurds and Jews of Kurdistan have not only developed a historic friendship, but recently they have learned to rediscover the broken relationship between these two ancient people of Mesopotamia, giving hope for a far-reaching and modeled relationship in the Middle East while an unjust enmity and fear prevail over Middle Eastern countries toward Kurdish-Israeli relations.

Kurds with bad allies

In March 1975, the American media, especially the "Washington Post," declared that Kurds have trusted a bad ally clearly lamenting on the Iranian regime effort to distance them from backing Kurdish national struggle against their rival Saddam Hussein of Iraq. Truly, the Kurdish national insurgence led by charismatic and indomitable Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani against the Iraqi regime had been covertly backed by the Iranian regime in sake of weaning the Iraqi regime and accomplishing their long-time desire of getting disputed territories between Iran and Iraq. However, this picture dramatically reversed as the Iranian and Iraqi regimes secretly agreed, giving way to the Iraqi regime to inflict one of the most catastrophic campaigns against Kurdish insurgence and leaving Kurds in despair and misery in 1975. Not surprisingly, the Kurdish suffering and misery has never been echoed in Muslim neighboring countries, and both the public and governments of the Middle Eastern neighbors played almost deaf against Kurdish suffering. Conversely, the pressure from the Arab countries including Algeria and Egypt to end the conflict between Iran and Iraq as a way of achieving greater stability in OPEC signaled the upcoming calamity for the Kurds as Iran and Iraq came to agreement on several issues in Algeria in 1975. The Soviet Union also played a great role in Kurdish misery by supplying arms to the Iraqi regime, which had been extensively used to put down the Kurdish insurgence. Having experienced these dramatic and haunting scenes, the "Washington Post" expressed that just about everyone came out ahead except the Kurds, who were mourning their ravaged hopes and their dead (MERIP Reports, No. 38, 1975, p. 25-26).

The policies of the Western imperial powers toward Kurds has been sordidly opportunistic, and heavily subjugated Kurdish national and humanitarian suffering to their despotic and suppressive regimes in the Middle East. In fact, it was not until the 1970s when Saddam Hussein sought an alliance with and support from the Soviet Union, that the Western imperial powers changed their old-fashioned Kurd policy and began to revise their stance on Kurdish by perceiving Kurds as an important potential country to destabilize and weaken the Ba'athist Regime in Iraq. Particularly, Saddam Hussein's imprudence against Western powers had reached a climax when Iraq signed a Friendship Treaty with the Soviet Union by providing the Soviet Union huge incentives and privileges in Iraq's highly acclaimed oil reserves (MERIP Reports, No. 38, 1975, p. 25-26).

A fate rediscovered: A short history of Kurdish-Jewish relationships

The vast and mountainous lands of the Kurds have generally welcomed the Jewish community by providing safety, protection, and peaceful friendship to Jews until the huge influx of the Jewish population of Kurdistan migrated to Israel after 1948. In his famous book "Jewish Subjects and Their Tribal Chieftains in Kurdistan" (2007), Mordechai Zaken elegantly revealed the long-lasting friendship and alliance between the Kurds and the Jews of Kurdistan for more than 16 century. Amazingly, the events and descriptions fully evidenced through the book not only explicitly show the extent of the mutual relationship, hospitality, critical alliance and partnership in the trade as well as the protection of the Jews of Kurdistan by the Kurdish tribe chief and community, it also provides great hope and glimpses into recent developments by providing hope and encouragement to the Kurdish-Israeli people. Not only had Kurds shown great hospitality to the Jewish traders in their stay in Kurdish villages, they also to some extent protected the poor and defenseless Jews from being executed by the local authorities by providing safe and armed protection against the local government. The friendship and protection of the Jewish families by the Kurdish community fleeing the wrongdoing of local authorities is evidently echoed in the book in the story of the famous Jewish family of Moshe Binyamin that migrated from Mergasor to Diana (in Iraqi Kurdistan); it is noted that ''the Kurdish agas and tribe chief gave us respect. They would send their escorts and servants to protect us while traveling on the road to prevent us from being killed.''

Just prior to the establishment of the Israeli state in 1948, 187 Kurdish-Jewish communities were established in Kurdistan, including 146 of them in Iraqi Kurdistan, 19 in Iranian Kurdistan, 11 in Turkey Kurdistan, and another 11 in Syrian Kurdistan and other places. Even the exact number of the total Jewish communities is not possible to measure, as the estimate is between 30,000-50,000 Jews of Kurdistan. The Encyclopedia Judaica states that the total number of Jews in Iraqi Kurdistan was approximately over 20,000 just before the establishment of the Israeli state. And the Israeli state attracted a huge influx of Kurdistani Jews. Those Kurdistani Jews were mainly in Mosul province (10,345), Kirkuk (4,024), Erbil province (3,109), Diyala province (2,851), and Suleimaniyah (2,271). However, it is well documented that 1950-51 ended a chapter of history when almost all the Jews of Iraqi Kurdistan were airlifted to Israel due to the worldwide policy of the Israeli state to bring in a huge numbers of Jews to further consolidate their massive nation-building policy ("The Jews of Kurdistan," Brauer& Patai,1993). Unfortunately, the last traces of that kind of friendship and protection left no trace behind when the Jews of Kurdistan recovered their money out of their transaction on credit sales in preparation to migrate to Israel after the establishment of the Israeli state in 1948. Furthermore, despite the rich cultural, economic, and historical existence of the Jews of Kurdistan, their legacies and memories were systematically destroyed without leaving any significant bearers of the century-long Jewish presence and their safe haven in a hard political and social environment where they found peace and respect among Kurds. Following the Jewish relocation, the Iraq Kurdistan that hosted rich Jewish rituals and culture was almost ruined, along with the legacy of the Jewish community. The Jewish legacy of Kurdistan was expunged and no functioning schools or synagogues existed; all the buildings bearing Jewish identity and existence in Kurdistan were demolished until they bore no traces of their former functions ("Trapped Between the Map and Reality: Geography and Perceptions of Kurdistan," O'Shea, 2004, p. 29).

Not only had the deep and trusted alliance of the Jews of Kurdistan provided positive outcomes, but it has been constantly propagandized by the political regimes and rulers of the region to denounce Kurds and Kurdish nationalism. Unfortunately, cooperation and alliance between the Jews and Kurds have frequently been brought to scene to defame the Kurds by their ruling authorities as well as other Muslim communities to denounce the Kurds. According to Professor Joyce Blau, in order to defame the Kurds in the eye of the Muslim countries, Turkey has persistently and covertly circulated the thesis connecting the Kurds and their leaders to Jewish identity. In fact, the Arab countries also elevate the idea of the Jewishness of Kurds as a way to halt the peaceful and cooperative relationship between Kurds and Israel by defaming the idea of Kurdistan by calling it "The Second Israel" or "Yahudistan." Famous Jewish scholar and a zealous advocator of Kurdish-Israeli rapprochement Ofra Bengio states that the permanent enmity of the mainly Arabic Muslim society as well as Turkish society to Israel and Jews also discourages Kurds from seeking a more broad and well-built peaceful and conciliatory relationship with Israel ("Building Regional Peace: Iraq and the Kurds," 2009). Nevertheless, the strong and historical friendship between Kurds and Jews forced Bengio to criticize Israeli government wrongdoings in 1975 when the Iraqi Kurds were deserted to the bloody and traumatic incursion from Saddam Hussein, leaving Kurds in total misery and with a sense of betrayal by international powers, including Israel. For Bengio to overcome this sense of betrayal and to restore faith among the Kurds, Israel must develop strong and wide-ranging relationships by strengthening economic, political, and cultural ties with Kurds as a truly important ally in the Middle East.

The optimism and prospect is very high and positive concerning the Israeli-Kurdish relationship. It would have tremendously productive consequences for Kurdish and Jewish communities in particular, yet it also holds great significance for opening a bright future to the Middle East in general by giving a strong hope and faith for opening channels of dialogue and emancipating the region that has been torn down by enduring and incessant wars, conflicts, political intrigue, and divine power of rulers, dictators, and despotism exerted over the poor and miserable people of the Middle East. Nevertheless, this time Kurds with the strong sense of history have to be aware not to be used as a card of negotiations and dirty politics of the Middle East. Rather, Kurds should have to be the true and active agent in bringing back peace, democracy, and prosperity to the Middle East an ideal that people were forced to forget a long, long time ago.