Israel, Turkey, and the Kurds
I was 11 years old when my father, a diplomat in Israel’s London embassy, said goodbye. My mom, pregnant with her third child, wouldn’t say where he’d gone to, but he was back several months later, leaner, sporting a new mustache and a deep tan.
I found out the truth gradually, eavesdropping on late-night conversations in the living room. My father was a Mossad operative, sent to northern Iraq in 1966 to make contact with Mullah Mustafa Barazani, who led the Kurdish rebellion against the Iraqi regime, and offer him Israel’s assistance.