July 2, 2014 | Quote
What Kurdish Independence Would Mean
…
The issue, however, is that a KRG state would be fundamentally weak since it would have to take into account bigger and more important powers like Turkey and Iran. This may have serious implications for Jerusalem, given its current relations with an adversarial Tehran and an often hostile Ankara. In short, it’s not clear then how an alliance with an independent KRG enhances Israel strategically.
Tony Badran, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, notes that there are echoes of another alliance the Israelis made more than 30 years ago with Lebanon’s Christian Maronite community. “After the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, the Israelis felt betrayed by the Maronites, but this community had to worry about powerful regional actors, like Syria and Saudi Arabia,” Badran said. Israel paid for that strategic gaffe with an 18-year war that concluded with Iran’s virtual takeover of Lebanon through its long arm on the eastern Mediterranean, Hezbollah.
…