I cannot remember saying anything positive about Netanyahu in the past few decades, but in the case of the Kurds, I must acknowledge that he is finally doing something decent by supporting Kurdish independence. Yes, it may be for the wrong reasons as a NY Times story on Saturday Sept. 23rd suggested when it mentioned the possibility that a Kurdish state on a border with Iran might provide Israel with a military launching place for a future struggle with Iran. But Lincoln might have freed the slaves for bad reasons also. So what? In each case, the outcome is one we support. We’ve long supported Kurdish independence in face of strong repression that Kurds have faced in Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran. The same belief in freedom, democracy and national self-determination that might have provided a foundation for Netanyahu’s support for the Kurds should have led him to support independence for the Palestinian people too, but it doesn’t. But for us, the issues are very similar, and we hope that the Kurds, once having a state of their own, should that happen (not guaranteed just because they vote for it in the upcoming referendum), will pressure Israel to do the same for the Palestinian people even though, according to a report I recently read, the Palestinian leadership is NOT supporting Kurdish independence. Palestinian leadership in the West Bank has been almost as screwed up as Israeli leadership when it comes to human rights and democratic principles–to wit its willingness to punish the population of Gaza, cutting off electricity that it used to pay for, for the sins of the Hamas which rules the Gazans by force. –Rabbi Michael Lerner rabbiLerner.tikkun@gmail.com