The Ash-Sharq newspaper of Qatar carried a report earlier this month of a Zionist settlement project - in northern Iraq. This follows a paranoid obsession fomented by the Iraqi press with alleged land purchases by Jews in the newly liberated Iraq, particularly by expelled Kurdish Jews.
According to an Islamic fundamentalist website, the newspaper quoted "Turkoman sources" in northern Iraq who claimed that Israel has begun to take control of a 200 sq. km. area along the Syrian border and stretching to Iran. This objective, the newspaper's sources say, is to settle more than 150,000 Jews in the area that Kurdish nationalist parties define as Kurdistan.
Playing on the paranoia regarding "the Zionists" and their own fears of a resurgent Kurdish nationalism, the Turkoman sources told the Arabic newspaper that the "Zionist plot" was part of a greater effort to "create a zone of armed strife" among Iraq's various ethnic and religious groups.
An alternative explanation offered in the Ash-Sharq article is that the Israeli land purchases are part of an Israeli plan to buy up Kurdish oil fields in northern Iraq. Last year, the newspaper claimed, Turkey summoned the Israeli ambassador to Ankara to protest such alleged purchases.
According to an Islamic fundamentalist website, the newspaper quoted "Turkoman sources" in northern Iraq who claimed that Israel has begun to take control of a 200 sq. km. area along the Syrian border and stretching to Iran. This objective, the newspaper's sources say, is to settle more than 150,000 Jews in the area that Kurdish nationalist parties define as Kurdistan.
Playing on the paranoia regarding "the Zionists" and their own fears of a resurgent Kurdish nationalism, the Turkoman sources told the Arabic newspaper that the "Zionist plot" was part of a greater effort to "create a zone of armed strife" among Iraq's various ethnic and religious groups.
An alternative explanation offered in the Ash-Sharq article is that the Israeli land purchases are part of an Israeli plan to buy up Kurdish oil fields in northern Iraq. Last year, the newspaper claimed, Turkey summoned the Israeli ambassador to Ankara to protest such alleged purchases.