The SCF Altai tanker (R) docks near Israel's Ashkelon port June 20, 2014. Iraqi Kurdistan looked set to unload in Israel a first cargo of disputed crude oil from its new pipeline after weeks of seeking an outlet as Iraq's central government has threatened legal action against any buyer.AMIR COHEN/Reuters
Some of the first oil exported via a controversial new pipeline from the Kurdistan Regional Government arrived, of all places, at the Israeli port of Ashkelon last week, the latest upshot of a long, secret relationship between Israel and the Kurds of northern Iraq.
The oil was transported by pipeline from the KRG to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, a route intended to bypass the main Iraqi pipeline and give Kurds more freedom to export oil independently. Wary of the threat of lawsuits by the central Iraq government, however, and wanting to keep the oil's destination secret, the crude apparently was loaded onto one tanker in Ceyhan, then transferred to a second, the SCF Altai, just off the coast of Malta. The Altai then proceeded to Ashkelon.
It wasn't that Israel needed the oil; the purchase was more the act of one friend helping another. In this case, the KRG needs to establish a market for its export, and Israel was happy to help.
I first learned of Kurds' admiration and affection for Israel in 1992 when I was making my way across Kurdistan to report on the nation's struggle to establish an independent enclave following the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The journey by Land Cruiser from the Turkish border to the mountaintop headquarters of Massoud Barzani, head of the Kurdish Democratic Party, and today's KRG President, was a back-breaking, if eye-opening, experience.
Roads were rough and the danger from Saddam Hussein's forces very real despite U.S. aerial protection over the area. At one point we (my Peshmerga driver, translator and I) had to ford a river on a raft of oil drums because Saddam's men had blown the bridge.
As those two Kurds told me of their pride in fighting to establish an independent homeland, I likened it to the Palestinian struggle for a state. They were aghast. Absolutely not, they said. Their struggle was like that of the Jews who established Israel.
I hadn't dared raise the Israeli comparison for fear what they might do. Speaking well of Israelis in that part of the world, at least in many Arab countries, is apt to get you in trouble. Kurds, I quickly learned, saw Arabs as their oppressors, and admired Israel for standing up to them.
They liked Israelis, they said, because of their success in establishing a state and because of their belief in democracy.
I also soon learned a bit about Israel's military assistance provided to the Kurds over the years.
A British landmines-removal organization (MAG) had a kind of museum in the area. On display were examples of the many kinds of mines MAG had removed from Kurdish soil. There, amidst the Russian, Chinese, American and Italian types, was a mine with Hebrew writing. The man from MAG said they had removed several of these, probably introduced to the area via the Iranians. In earlier times, Iran had supported some of the Kurdish groups in the fight against Saddam and, prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran had gotten its supply of land mines and some other weapons from Israel.
Over the years, there have been a number of reports of Israelis providing military or other security advice to the Kurds, and even hints at shared intelligence.
Jay Garner, the retired U.S. general placed in charge of organizing Iraq's reconstruction after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, was a huge fan of the Kurds and later served them as an adviser. He said there was a virtual non-stop shuttle of people between Tel Aviv and Erbil, the Kurdish capital. The people doing business with both nations were often involved in military, security and intelligence matters and included a number of Israelis who made the trip frequently to Kurdistan.
The so-called "special relationship" between Israel and the Kurds goes back to the substantial number of Kurdish Jews who had lived in the area for generations in relative safety. Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani, father of today's KRG President, was said to be very close to the leading Jewish families. The mutual trust continued even after most of the Kurdish Jews had moved to Israel in the early 1950s.
As the rest of Iraq was collapsing under the weight of sectarian fighting in 2005, the younger Mr. Barzani was contemplating his options and spoke of his relationship with Israel in an interview that year with the Saudi daily al-Hayat. "Establishing relations between the Kurds and Israel is not a crime since many Arab countries have ties with the Jewish state," he said, referring not only to Egypt and Jordan that have treaties with Israel, but also to some Gulf and other Arab countries that maintain secret contact.
This week, Israeli officials, noting the return of sectarian conflict in the rest of Iraq, told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, that Kurdistan's independence as a state is "inevitable," and that Israel will be among the first to recognize it when it happens.