As Tensions In Israel Flare, Israel Continues Arming The Muslim Country Of Azerbaijan Against Christian Armenia

By Theodore Shoebat

As tensions rise in Israel over the West Bank and Gaza, Israel continues its relationship with Azerbaijan. On May 14th, the day that the US moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and when mass demonstrations were being done by Palestinians, senior officials from Azerbaijan were in Israel for a three day delegation visit to strengthen economic ties between Israel and Azerbaijan.

While Israel provides Azerbaijan with advanced agricultural technology,  it also provides tremendous military technology. In 2016, during Netanyahu’s visit to Azerbaijan capital city of Baku, Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev, revealed that Israel had given billions of dollars worth of weapons to his country. As we read in one report from Haaretz:

Israel also sells a great deal of arms to Baku, which is delicately positioned between Russia, Turkey and Iran. During Netanyahu’s visit to Baku in 2016, President Ilham Aliyev revealed that his country had purchased from Israel about $5 billion worth of armaments. Or more precisely, $4.85 billion. Most of the contracts had been executed already, Aliyev said.

Israel sides with the traditionally Muslim country of Azerbaijan against Christian Armenians. For example, there is a conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenian over a territory called Nagorno-Karabakh which, although it lies in Azeri territory, is inhabited by Christian Armenians. The Azeris and the Armenians have been contending other over this territory for decades, with tensions escalating to a war back in the late eighties and continuing into the 1990s. Israel sides with Azerbaijan in this conflict against Armenia. Going back to the report from Haaretz:

According to other foreign reports, an Israeli Harop “suicide drone”made by the Israel Aerospace Industries was observed attacking in the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan has been feuding with Armenia over the control of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is in Azeri territory but is peopled mainly by Christian Armenians.

Israel sells the weapons despite the international position that the flames should be lowered in the Aremnian-Azeri conflict. This prompted Jerusalem lawyer Etay Mack to write in 2014 to the supervisory department of military exports, demanding that export licenses to Azerbaijan be voided because of the tension between Azerbaijan and Armenia. During fighting between Azeri and Armenian forces in the enclave, Zehava Galon, a Knesset member at the time, urged that Israel stop supplying arms.

There are prudent voices in Israel calling for the cessation of the arms flow to Azerbaijan. But it looks like Israel is following the demands of the lobbyists of the American military industrial complex. Michael Rubin, who works for the American Enterprise Institute, and is on the Advisory Board for Frank Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy, is an agent who pushes American policy for dangerous causes. In one interview that was published by the American Enterprise Institute, Michael Rubin says that Israel should give weapons to Azerbaijan to attack Armenia, since Armenia has a stronger relationship with Iran than it does with the US. Michael Rubin says:

“The Armenians receive assistance from Iran, and so it would make sense if Azerbaijan could access Israeli weaponry and training. Clearly, neither Armenia nor Russia are sincere about ending the occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh. Turkey is occupied elsewhere, and so it makes perfect sense for Azerbaijan to reach out to friends to right a wrong that Azerbaijan has suffered for two decades.” 

Israel’s siding with Azerbaijan against Armenia is reminiscent to how Theodor Herzl, one of the fathers of the Zionist movement, sided with the Turks against the Christian Armenians.

At the peak of the Ottoman Empire, when the Ottoman Muslims were trying to exterminate the Armenians, the valiant and brave Armenian Christians put up a resistance against the Islamic enemy, fighting for their Faith and their survival. The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Abdul Hamid II, went to a very famous Jewish activist named Theodor Herzl, and requested that he try to convince the Armenians to stop the resistance. Initially, Herzl at first offered money to pay for the Ottoman Empire’s huge debt, in exchange for land in Palestine. But this proposition was rejected by the Sultan. Herzl’s diplomatic agent Philip Michael Nevlinski (who was also an advisor to the Sultan), advised Herzl: “Instead of offering the Sultan money… give him political support on the Armenian issue, and he’ll be grateful and accept your proposal, in part at least.”

Herzl backed the Ottoman Empire in their cause in vanquishing the Armenians, and had meetings with Armenian resistance fighters to convince them to cease fighting, telling them that the Sultan promised them peace if they would comply. The Armenians were not convinced, knowing full well the intentions of a Cain. There were numerous Zionists who were completely against Herzl for this evil. When Herzl tried to recruit Max Nordau, a major figure in the Zionist movement, to join him in trying to convince the Armenians, Nordau sent him a simple reply in a one-word telegram: “No.” Bernard Lazare, a French Jewish leftist who supported a Jewish state, was so enraged over what Herzl was doing, that he cut off all ties with him. These Jewish men were righteous for going against Herzl, and the actions of Herzl show that the Jews are not exempt from criticism, and that they as well have committed evils against the Church. 

In the end, what one can say about Israel’s alliance with Azerbaijan is that it is part of the continuation of Cold War policy. Azerbaijan is an enemy of Iran which is an ally of Russia. Israel, thus, will ally with enemies of Iran like Azerbaijan.