Under Siege: Why the Kurdish Crisis in Syria Matters (or should) to Israel

A growing humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in northeastern Syria, where Kurdish communities are facing sieges, mass displacement, kidnappings, and renewed violence under the country’s new leadership. In a special episode of the Israel Daily News podcast, host Shanna Fuld spoke with Middle East security analyst Elyana Elyan about what she describes as an existential threat to the Kurdish people — and why Israel has a direct stake in what happens next.

Elyana Elyan, an independent political analyst specializing in Kurdish affairs and Kurdish-Israeli relations, sounded the alarm after watching an escalation of violence against Kurds in Syria over the past month. What began as a siege of Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo has rapidly deteriorated into widespread atrocities across Kurdish regions, particularly in Rojava.

A Humanitarian Crisis Escalates

According to Elyan, approximately 150,000 Kurdish civilians have already been displaced. In recent days, reports and video evidence have emerged showing beheadings, kidnappings of women, and sexual enslavement — tactics hauntingly reminiscent of ISIS crimes earlier in the decade.
The city of Kobane, home to more than 400,000 people and a historic symbol of resistance against ISIS, is currently under siege. Electricity has been cut off entirely, while water and food supplies are rapidly dwindling. Kurdish forces are now facing pressure from multiple fronts: fighters loyal to Syria’s new president Ahmad al-Jolani, Turkish-backed militias, and the destabilizing consequences of ISIS prisoners being released or transferred.
“Al-Julani’s forces freed ISIS members as soon as they could,” Elyan explained, noting that thousands of hardened ISIS fighters — including commanders — are now being discussed for transfer to facilities in Iraq.

A ‘New Regime’ With Old Ideologies

While much of the international community has cautiously welcomed Syria’s new leadership as a step toward stability, Elyan strongly rejects that narrative. Al-Jolani, she noted, was until recently a senior figure in al-Qaeda and ISIS and had a multi-million-dollar U.S. bounty on his head.
“Putting on a suit or trimming a beard doesn’t mean someone has changed,” she said. “The atrocities committed against Kurds, Druze, and Alawites show he is exactly who he has always been.”

Elyan argues that Western governments are eager to accept al-Jolani’s legitimacy largely for pragmatic reasons — including the desire to repatriate Syrian refugees and regain influence in a historically ungovernable country. However, this acceptance comes at a devastating cost to minorities on the ground.

The Yazidi Tragedy Continues

One of the darkest chapters discussed in the interview was the ongoing suffering of Yazidi women — Kurdish women who follow the ancient Yazidi faith. During ISIS’s rise, thousands were kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery, with documented price lists that valued infants and young children above adults.

That nightmare, Elyan warned, is not fully in the past.

“Thousands of Yazidi women are still missing. We don’t know what happened to them,” she said, recalling the rescue of a Yazidi woman in Gaza last year who had been held as a sex slave for nearly a decade.

Today, new footage shows Kurdish women once again being abducted, with terrorists openly framing rape as a weapon of war.

Who Are the Kurds — and Why Are They Targeted?

Kurds number between 50 and 60 million people across Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran, making them one of the largest stateless nations in the world. Despite their size, they have endured decades of massacres, forced assimilation, language bans, and denial of citizenship under both secular and Islamist regimes.

In Syrian Kurdistan, known as Rojava, Kurdish governance introduced something unprecedented in the region: full gender equality, co-leadership between men and women, religious freedom for minorities, and democratic self-administration.

“That system is every Islamist’s worst nightmare,” Elyan explained. “Kurds are seen as heretics corrupting the Middle East.”

Why Israel Is Directly Affected

Elyan stressed that this crisis should concern the entire world — but Israel in particular.

“The enemies of the Kurds and the enemies of the Jews are the same,” she said. “We are fighting the same fight.”

Kurds and Jews share a deep historical bond dating back over 2,600 years, when Jews found refuge in Kurdistan after the destruction of the Second Temple. Unlike many other regions in the Middle East, Kurdish communities largely protected Jewish populations, even helping Jews escape Baghdad during the Farhud pogroms of the 1940s and reach Israel.

Today, that solidarity remains visible. While Israeli flags are banned or dangerous in much of the region, they are openly waved in Iraqi Kurdistan — even after October 7, when much of the world turned hostile toward Israel.

Strategically, Elyan warned that Turkey’s neo-Ottoman ambitions pose a growing threat. Ankara’s expanding influence in Syria, its support for Islamist groups, and its increasingly overt ties to Hamas directly impact Israel’s security — particularly along Israel’s northern borders.

Broken Ceasefires and a Dire Present

Although a ceasefire was announced on January 20, it collapsed within 24 hours. Kurdish cities remain under siege, and starvation is becoming a real threat.

Meanwhile, Kurdish leaders are holding emergency meetings with counterparts in Iraqi Kurdistan, the United States, and Israel. Still, Elyan says the prevailing sentiment among Kurds is one of betrayal — particularly by the U.S., which relied heavily on Kurdish fighters to defeat ISIS, at the cost of an estimated 13,000 Kurdish lives.

“They were the bodyguards of the world,” she said. “And now they’re being abandoned.”

A Call for a Guarantor

As Syria consolidates power under al-Jolani, Kurds face the future without a guarantor for their safety, autonomy, or survival. Elyan concluded with a stark warning: without decisive international backing, the Kurdish population in Syria could face genocide.
“Kurds need someone on their side,” she said. “Right now, they are standing alone.”