By John Tures

Political science professor at LaGrange College

As President Donald Trump ordered America’s military to retreat from the Kurdish-held areas in Syria, where the two sides had worked together to battle ISIS, there’s another Middle Eastern nation who watched the stunning betrayal with incredible alarm: the Jewish Nation.

As the Reuters reported, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his conservative cabinet reacted with shock as America’s allies in the war on terrorism became the victims of an onslaught ordered by Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a man who once spoke favorably of Adolf Hitler, before an international outcry made him claim he was misquoted.

Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke out in favor of the Kurds, allies of the Israelis.

Reuters reported “Israel strongly condemns the Turkish invasion of the Kurdish areas in Syria and warns against the ethnic cleansing of the Kurds by Turkey and its proxies,” Netanyahu wrote. “Israel is prepared to extend humanitarian assistance to the gallant Kurdish people.”

The Israelis are not so inexperienced in foreign affairs or history. They know the truth about our new “friend” Erdogan, who helped run Israel’s arms embargo to help Hamas, even leading to a fight that led to killings aboard a ship trying to supply arms to Palestinian terrorists.

Attorney Rudy Giuliani has worked to help Turks who have circumvented Iranian sanctions, with evidence showing that they did so upon Erdogan’s orders.

The phony “cease fire” we agreed to and dropped our fig leaf sanctions (a small increase on tariffs on Turkish steel) wasn’t well enforced by Turkey’s Defense Ministry, of course. Nor did it apply to the Free Syrian Army of Arabs backed by Turks, which include an al-Qaeda affiliate, which continued the slaughter of the Kurds that stood with us against ISIS. Murders of Kurdish men, women and children sadly continue, by the way.

I’ve seen postings, and received a few, which try to demonize the Kurds, claiming they are Marxists and not our true friends.

It’s reminiscent of Anti-Semitic propaganda Nazis used to justify the massacre of Jews. It’s only a matter of time.

Most Democrats and many Republicans voted to condemn Trump’s policy. Guess who refused to back the measure? It’s Ilhan Omar, the Minnesota congresswoman. Conservative sites have photos of her sitting side by side with Erdogan. Who knew she and Trump would be aligned?

It’s not just Kurds who are facing the ethnic cleansing. Syriac Christians are being oppressed as well. Kurds had been protecting them in Syria, but can’t anymore.

A number of American evangelicals, who know religion and history better, are taking the side of the Kurds. “An invasion by Turkey into NE Syria would pose a grave threat to the region’s Kurds and Christians, endangering the prospects of true religious freedom in the Middle East,” wrote Tony Perkins of the conservative Family Research Council. “I believe…the president of the United States is in danger of losing the mandate of heaven if he permits this to happen,” said Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) founder Pat Robertson.

In the Middle East, it’ll be like that old saying in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. First they’ll come for the Kurds. Jews and Christians know that if they don’t speak up against such atrocities, they’ll soon find themselves next on the list to be purged in the name of political expediency and appeasement of authoritarians.