Kurdistan was once home to an ancient and vibrant Jewish community with its own unique dialect of Aramaic. But in the 20th century, forced conversion on the one hand and emigration to Israel on the other caused the community to shrink dramatically. Now the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Iraqi Kurds’ quasi-autonomous entity, is trying to encourage a Jewish revival. In April, the KRG even sponsored a Yom Hashoah event. Julie Lenarz writes:

The Jewish Remembrance Day for Victims of the Holocaust in Kurdistan was organized by the Office of the Jewish Representative, a special department within the Kurdistan Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs, as part of a wider push by the KRG to foster a climate of peaceful coexistence among people of different religious backgrounds. . . . Last year, the government . . . appointed official representatives for all [its] religious communities, . . . including Jews, Mandaeans, Baha’is, Kaka’is, Shiite Muslims, and Zoroastrians. . . . This is an unprecedented initiative by a Muslim-majority government in the modern Middle East, where minorities are often systematically persecuted or worse. . . .

Sherzad Omar Mamsani, the KRG’s first Jewish representative, has been tasked with a monumental challenge—the revival of Kurdistan’s ancient Jewish history and culture, which was suppressed 70 years ago. . . .

Mamsani is more than a token appointment. . . . “Unlike [Iran], we see Israel and Kurdistan as the two countries in the Middle East where people of all religions and identities can come together and coexist peacefully,” Mamsani told me. “Religious freedom in the region is severely restricted, and nowhere in the Islamic world do religious minorities enjoy the same rights they enjoy in Israel and Kurdistan.”

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.