Kurds and the Israel-Iran clash: New openings or old dangers?

A sad common denominator across all the states ruling over the Kurds—from Iraq and Iran to Turkey and Syria—as well as among many intellectual and media elites of the dominant ethnic and religious groups monopolizing power in those states, is the relentless fear mongering against Kurds. Instead of engaging in such behavior and tossing out accusations of separatism and partition, these actors ought to look in the mirror. They should ask themselves what they continue to do wrong that might push Kurds to consider seeking external alliances or to seize on shifting regional dynamics created by war to challenge a repressive and exclusionary status quo.