by Seth J. Frantzman
Over the last decade, the SDF worked with the US and defeated ISIS in Syria. However, now the SDF is facing major setbacks, and Kurds fear they may be massacred.
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Israel should help the Kurds in Syria as they face attacks by the Syrian government, a Kurdish analyst has told The Jerusalem Post.
The analyst asked not to be named because of concerns over his safety and that of his family, as some countries in the region ban people from speaking to Israeli media. Nevertheless, he had a message for Israelis and Jews: “This is the Kurds’ October 7 moment.”
Over the last week, the Syrian transitional government’s forces have swept across a swath of Syria, pushing back the Syrian Democratic Forces. The SDF is led by Kurds, and it has its origins in the Kurdish forces who fought ISIS and prevented it from taking over Kurdish cities such as Kobanî in 2014.
SDF defeated ISIS in Syria
Over the last decade, the SDF worked with the US and defeated ISIS in Syria. However, now the SDF is facing major setbacks, and Kurds fear they may be massacred. Kurds have reached out and said they believe the government in Damascus is dominated by “jihadists.”
The Kurdish analyst with extensive experience on Kurdish politics, who closely follows developments affecting Kurds in Syria, said, “What is currently happening in northeastern Syria is a war of extermination against the Kurdish people.”
He said Kurdish people across the region “are calling on the Israeli government and Jewish people all over the world to intervene on their side, militarily, diplomatically, and in any realm they can.”
Kurds have been protesting in Syria, Turkey, and Iraq. In the Kurdistan region of Iraq, some demonstrators went to the new US consulate. Others in Turkey have gone to the border with Syria.
“It would be in Israel’s long-term strategic interests to do so, even if Israel is going to receive some heat and criticism in the short run for making such an intervention,” the analyst said. “On a strategic level, Jerusalem has a clear interest in ensuring that the jihadi government of Ahmed al-Sharaa and his backers in Ankara are not able to assert full control over Syria. Such an outcome would have three major adverse consequences for Israel in the short, medium, and long run.”
The analyst said that if Damascus feels it has had a victory over the Kurds, it may soon set its sights on the Druze in southern Syria. Israel has vowed to protect the Druze, and many Israeli officials have also expressed support for the Kurds.
Attacking the Druze could be the first in several steps Damascus might take.
“By crushing the Kurds, Sharaa’s government would be able to redirect its energy toward countering the Israeli presence in Syria – certainly diplomatically, but in the long run possibly through other means as well,” he argued.
“Sharaa, backed by Turkey, would use unchallenged territorial domination over Syria (minus Sweida, for now) to engineer the exodus of minorities (particularly those with their historical territory such as the Kurds, Alawites and Druze), increasing the proportion of Sunni Arabs in the country.”
The analyst noted that Sunnis have been involved in “Arab nationalism and Islamism, including Salafi-jihadi movements. The government in Israel has rightly assessed the threat posed by Sharaa and his Islamist-oriented or Islamist-supporting allies in Turkey and the Gulf.”
This means that a victory by Damascus might embolden Israel’s enemies, he said.
“They will certainly be emboldened to exert more pressure in Gaza after having secured Sharaa’s victory over Kurds and other minorities in Syria.”
Given these reasons, Israel has a strategic imperative to intervene, he argued.
“To achieve this, at this stage, selective Israeli aerial strikes against certain military and tribal gatherings on the front lines with the Kurds, as well as strikes against other Syrian government targets in other parts of the country, would send a clear message to Damascus and Ankara that they cannot continue this campaign against the Kurds.”
He said that “Kurds are also appealing to Israel to use its full diplomatic weight in the United States and across the Western world to push for a cessation of the war being waged against them by Sharaa and [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan.”
The analyst also said that there is a moral reason to support the Kurds.
“Today the Kurdish people are facing the prospect of an ethnic-cleansing campaign akin to October 7 but with greater proportions.”
He pointed to videos coming out of Syria that show supporters of Damascus harming Kurds.
“This is not simply a fight between two warring armies. This is a war of extermination against the Kurdish people, carried out by Sharaa’s forces. This is the Kurds’ October 7 moment.”
The analyst also noted that the forces being used by Damascus consist of official army units as well as “tribally mobilized militias with strong kinship ties to former jihadi groups such as ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, and others. For them, war is about revenge, looting, and pillage. They are not bound by any civilized rules of warfare.”
The evidence for the fear that Kurds have now is that many are fleeing their villages.
“There are Kurds who did not flee their homes or villages during 15 years of war in northeast Syria – not when Assad’s forces were nearby, not when ISIS controlled neighboring areas, and not when they were relentlessly bombarded by Turkey.
“But now they are evacuating their homes and fleeing because they are facing what they see, quite literally, as a horde of barbarians. They fear being beheaded, and they fear their female family members being raped and taken into sexual slavery – just as is still happening to Alawite women in western Syria,” he said.
The expert pointed to the shared history of Jews and Kurds in the region.
“Both peoples have been oppressed for centuries, yet both have emerged resilient, with an indomitable spirit. Today, in this dire moment of need, the Kurdish people of Syria – and Kurds across the region and beyond – are calling on their Jewish sisters and brothers, and on the State of Israel, to intervene and help save them. Please heed their plea.”
He argued for building a Jewish-Kurdish alliance in the region.
Seth J. Frantzman
Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-884059
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