New top diplomat Sa’ar calls for boosting Kurdish ties, admits failures in Amsterdam response

Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

Gideon Sa'ar speaks at the Foreign Ministry on November 10, 2024. (Haim Zach/GPO)
Gideon Sa'ar speaks at the Foreign Ministry on November 10, 2024. (Haim Zach/GPO)

Incoming Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar presents a vision of alliances with Kurdish and Druze communities in the Middle East, saying minorities in the region will need to stick together, at a ceremony marking the handover from outgoing minister Israel Katz.

“The Kurdish people are a great nation, one of the great nations without political independence,” says Sa’ar. “They are our natural ally.”

Calling the Kurds victims of Iranian and Turkish oppression, Sa’ar says Israel “must reach out and strengthen our ties with them.”

“This has both political and security aspects,” says Sa’ar.

The autonomous Kurdistan Region in Iraq is strategically situated along Iran’s and Turkey’s borders, which makes it a strategically potent potential ally for Israel. In the 1960s and 70s, the IDF and Mossad supported Kurdish rebels against the Iraqi government, in cooperation with Iran.

Sa’ar also points out the Druze minorities in Syria and Lebanon as possible partners.

“Understand that in a region where we will always be a minority – natural alliances will be with other minorities,” he says.

These alliances, he says, should take form alongside agreements with Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, which will be easier to accomplish after the wars on Hamas and Hezbollah.

“Israel’s firm stance over the past year and its achievements in the war against the Iranian axis make it an even more important regional and international player than it was,” argues Sa’ar.

Sa’ar says the Foreign Ministry failed Israelis in Amsterdam on Thursday night, as the volume of calls overwhelmed the ministry situation room: “I ordered a comprehensive investigation to draw lessons so that this does not happen again. When there are faults – you don’t need to cover them. They need to be solved.”

He says that a “straight line” runs between the attacks on Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam and investigations into Israel in the international courts in The Hague. Both cities are in the Netherlands.

“The purpose of the various proceedings at the ICJ and the ICC is to deny Israel the right of self-defense,” says Sa’ar. “Who are they asking to deny this right that exists for every country? From the most attacked country in the world.”

He argues that the “translation of the delegitimization of Israel is dehumanization and delegitimization for every Israeli and every Jew. We all saw this in the most shocking way imaginable.”

Defending his demand for NIS 545 million for new public diplomacy efforts in the ministry, Sa’ar says the war for international legitimacy is just as important as the fight on the battlefield.

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