Seymour Hersh argues in The New Yorker that Israel’s abiding security fear in the Middle East is Iran and the evidence that it is developing a nuclear weapons program. Since the US invasion of Iraq, Israel has been warning the US to seal the Iraq-Iran border to prevent Iranian incursions to foment continuing Iraqi opposition to the occupation. Given the US bungling of the Iraqi situation, the likely fragmentation of postwar Iraq and the likelihood that Iran will be the real winner of the US war, Israel is developing a presence in Kurdistan — even at the risk of jeopardizing its relationship with Turkey — to have a hand in the region and monitor the Iranian nuclear program. Kurds are being armed and trained for covert operations and intelligence missions in the region.