Netanyahu Says Independent Kurdistan, Strengthened Jordan Key to Boxing In ISIS

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu expressed public support this week for an independent Kurdish state as part of a “bookends doctrine” he speaks about privately, whereby an independent Kurdistan in northeastern Iraq and a strong Jordan to the west serve to contain the Shi’ite and Sunni extremists operating in Iraq and Syria.

Though Netanyahu’s statement in support of an independent Kurdistan in Iraq was the first time he or any senior Israeli official has made such comments publicly, The Jerusalem Post has learned that the prime minister has for months been urging world leaders to strengthen and support the Kurds and the Jordanians, who are both pro-Western and moderate, as a way of preventing the chaos inside Syria and Iraq from spreading elsewhere. He argues in private meetings that the Jordanians and Kurds are both forces for regional stability, not anarchy.