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Armenia recognizes the State of Palestine -opinion
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa signed a joint communiqué for the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Palestine. On June 21, the Armenian Foreign Ministry officially recognized the state of Palestine, making Armenia the 149th country to take this step.
The formalization of Armenian-Palestinian diplomatic relations comes at a complicated time for the State of Israel.
The official establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Palestine comes at a time when Israel just eliminated Hezbollah terrorist leader Hassan Nasrallah in the hopes of derailing the Iran-backed terrorist groups that are presently fighting against the Jewish state. Many could view Armenia’s establishment of diplomatic relations with Palestine at this time as a move designed to give Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other Iran-backed terrorist groups breathing room to continue to wage a violent struggle against Israel.
As we speak, these terrorist groups continue to attack Israel. Last week, the Iran-backed terrorist groups in Iraq attacked Eilat. This comes after the Houthis in Yemen took responsibility for an attack on Tel Aviv, and Hezbollah itself rained down a series of missiles at central Israel a week earlier which targeted areas of the country previously not under rocket fire, including Netanya, Kfar Yona, and Even Yehuda. At a time like this, Armenia recognizing Palestine is a victory for terrorism.Although the PA is not the same as the Iran-backed terrorist groups fighting against Israel, it is critical to recall that the PA has given emotional support to these groups. According to Palestinian Media Watch, “Ignoring the thousands of rockets and drones fired at northern Israel by the Iranian-backed Lebanese terror organization Hezbollah since the start of the 2023 Gaza war, the Palestinian Authority and its ruling party, Fatah, continue to express support for Hezbollah against Israel by painting Hezbollah as a victim.”
Azerbaijan in contrast with Armenia
Following Israel’s recent pager attacks, in which Hezbollah has announced that at least 38 of its members were killed, both the PA and Fatah hurried to express their support for “sister Lebanon.” PA head Mahmoud Abbas’s office “condemned” the attacks as “acts of terror,” claiming they “harmed innocent civilians.” Also ignoring Hezbollah’s numerous attacks on Israeli civilian areas – and the murder of over 40 Israelis, including 12 children who were playing soccer – Abbas’s adviser Mahmoud al-Habbash accused Israel of “escalating” the situation and seeking to “undermine the region’s stability” with its “aggressive operations.”
Fatah also condemned Israel’s “aggressive and criminal operation,” stressing its continued support for Lebanon and its “great appreciation for the support” that Lebanon – i.e., terrorist organization Hezbollah – “has given the [Palestinian] cause.” In addition to promising to “continue on the path of struggle” by committing more terrorist attacks, Fatah has also directly called on Hezbollah to continue attacking Israel. Recently, top PA/Fatah official Jibril Rajoub encouraged Hezbollah and Iran to “punish the Israeli enemy.”
In contrast, Azerbaijan has not issued any statements in support of the Palestinians at this crucial time when Israel eliminated Nasrallah. The only action that Azerbaijan took was to cancel its flights to Israel due to “security concerns.” It also advised its citizens not to visit Israel and the Palestinian Authority at this time again because of security concerns. Azerbaijan has not expressed any hostility toward Israel as the Jewish state continues to fight against Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and other proxies of Iran.
This shows why Israelis should appreciate Azerbaijan and the friendship that it offers to the Jewish people. During our difficult moments, Azerbaijan is there, standing beside us, offering solidarity and support. In fact, the economic relationship between Azerbaijan and Israel continues to blossom despite Israel’s war against Iran and its proxies.
Azerbaijan is one of the few countries where it is safe for Israelis to travel despite the war in Gaza and Lebanon. Antisemitism is alien to the Azerbaijani culture.It is for this reason that Israelis should support Azerbaijan and condemn Armenia for supporting Iran’s proxies, especially at this critical time.
One of the reasons Azerbaijan is so understanding of Israel is that it must deal with a biased approach similar to the one Israel must grapple with. For example, Holland called Azerbaijan’s control of Karabakh the “takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh,” just as the Armenians now consider Judea and Samaria, and Gaza, to be “occupied Palestinian land” that must be liberated.
The Azerbaijanis have a rich history in Karabakh that dates back to antiquity, just as the Jewish connection to Judea and Samaria dates back to ancient times. Four UN Security Council resolutions have recognized that Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan, just as the Mandate for Palestine recognized Judea and Samaria as part of Israel.
Azerbaijan and Israel are facing the same struggle to get their rights recognized by biased states such as Armenia and Holland, which prefer to condemn both countries rather than recognize their historical rights.
The writer is a Middle East scholar and commentator on the region.
Michael Bar Zohar, at 86 one of Israel’s great and most prolific historians, especially regarding security issues, published a book called “Iron Swords, Bleeding Hearts” less than a month ago on the failures leading up to October 7 and the current war.
The book closes just as Hezbollah is considering its response to the IDF’s killing of its military chief Fuad Shukr on July 30, which turned out to be the August 25 IDF rout of Hezbollah’s attempted retaliation, which itself in turn pushed Israel into having the audacity to decapitate Hezbollah starting in mid-September.
Bar Zohar uses essentially all open sources on the most current events, but has a priceless number of anecdotes and unique perspectives from his exclusive coverage of Israeli titans like David Ben Gurion, Shimon Peres, and others as he leads into how Israel and the Middle East got to where they are now.
But the most important aspects of Bar Zohar’s book are forward-looking: How must Israel, and the West for that matter, understand the challenge of fundamentalist Islamist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran?With the anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 invasion passing this past week and the invasion of Lebanon moving forward at full throttle, the most practical lessons from Bar Zohar probably have to do with connecting those two events in terms of understanding how the current war in Lebanon must end.
Extrapolating from Bar Zohar’s narrative, predictions, and views, the war in Lebanon must end with Israeli security being dependent on Jerusalem and its allies being able to enforce its security and not merely on hopes of “converting” Hezbollah into accepting Israel and joining the Western world.
Bar Zohar writes, “I began writing this book on October 8, 2023, after a sleepless night. I had turned off my TV set after watching, on a foreign channel, the horror in the settlements at the Gaza border, and, for a change, the boisterous street protests in favor of Hamas in foreign capitals.”
“I knew that this crucial chapter of history would be distorted and falsified by lies and fake news, as well as emotions, blind fanaticism, insane hatred of some and foolish adoration of others. I felt that my duty was to tell the truth about these apocalyptic events that shook the world. But to tell the truth now, today, not in a year or two or five. Now.” he continues.
Here, Bar Zohar was cognizant that October 7 was not just about killing 1,200 Israelis, taking 250 hostages, and the failures that led to this – but how this event and Israel’s response would reshape the Middle East afterward.
Failures that lead to October 7
Aside from a harrowing account of the numerous political, intelligence, and operational failures leading into October 7 which are meticulously laid out in the first 16 chapters, there are some later chapters which paint some of the broader trends which have developed since November 2023 and still confront Israel now.
His coverage of Israel’s first major assassination in Lebanon on January 2, 2024 – of Hamas deputy chief Salah al-Arouri – is indicative.
Recounting the event, he says, “Sheik Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, took Al Arouri’s assassination very seriously. Only a few days before, he had met with Arouri and advised him to beware, as the Israelis targeted him. For Nasrallah, the location of the hit was symbolic. During the Second Lebanon War, Israeli warplanes had pulverized the Dahia neighborhood, where the headquarters of Hezbollah were located.”
With a bit of unforeseeable irony and almost prophetic foreshadowing for how Nasrallah eventually met his end from an IDF air strike in Dahia on September 27, Bar Zohar continues. “Nasrallah himself had to run for shelter to an underground bunker in Dahia. After the war ended [referring to the 2006 Second Lebanon War], he stayed in his bunker for years, avoiding any public appearances. Even his speeches were broadcast from the bunker. He thought he was safe in Dahia – and here [after Al Arouri was killed], all of a sudden, he found out that Israel could readily come and go as it pleased. If Arouri was not safe there, neither was Nasrallah. The assassination also proved that Israel had very reliable spies in Beirut.”
Bar Zohar recounts how Nasrallah was taken by surprise when the IDF killed Al Arouri as well as a few days later when the IDF killed Wissam Al Tawil, the deputy commander of the elite Radwan unit, with Al Tawil also being the brother of Nasrallah’s third wife, Hadda Al Tawil.
Nasrallah struck back at some IDF bases in the North, but without causing significant damage and in a relatively weak way, with Bar Zohar commenting, “These Hezbollah attacks were very close to acts of war, but did not cross the blurred line between a border conflict and a war…But once again the upshot failed to meet expectations,” for what Hamas had hoped for from Hezbollah in helping them fight Israel.
The bottom line is that, as indicated by these earlier rounds, once Israel switched gears into hitting Nasrallah much more complicated, he was not ready for the IDF’s fury and was taken by surprise – much as he had been by Hamas’s invasion on October 7.
Next, Bar Zohar briefly explores in one of his last chapters the implications of the Iranian attack, the Israeli counterattack, and the help Israel received from Sunni allies to defend itself in April.
He observes, “And yet, the most important result of these tumultuous days was the baptism of fire of the new American-Arab-Israeli coalition that augured a new era in the Middle East. A new era is indeed beginning, bringing tremendous changes to the lives of millions and carrying a faint glimmer of peace. The new coalition, strengthened by new Israeli leaders, may augur the creation of a new Middle East.”
“The coalition that defeated the Iranian juggernaut in the sky may transform into a solid alliance that could reshape the entire region, establish a new administration in Gaza, and bring moderation to these embattled lands. This is the dream for the future,” he continues.
But by the end of the book, Bar Zohar notes that the killing of Shukr, as well as the killing of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, were “the start of a new stage in the war, with the focus moving from the Gaza strip to the North. That seemed to be the fading away of the Iron Swords and the beginning of a new confrontation between Israel, America, and their allies – and the ‘Axis of Evil’ in the north.
In terms of how the conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran should end, he warns that military force will be continually needed alongside any diplomatic efforts and cautions not to leave too much based on “deals” with such parties.
“One can reason with extremists as long as they understand logic and have a modicum of common sense. Israel could negotiate with the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, and his supporters, as their movement, Fatah, was a nationalist, not a religious one. But when the rival’s ideology is based on religion – no reasonable arguments can influence it,” writes Bar Zohar.
Although Bar Zohar was formerly a Labor party member and Arafat was far from an ideal peace partner, his book’s conclusion is clear that any final security situation with Hezbollah and Iran must be enforceable by the Israeli military.
A diplomatic deal may end the conflict as all conflicts end, but after seeing how Hezbollah abused UN Resolution 1701 for 17 years, Bar Zohar clearly feels that resolving the current conflict with Hezbollah cannot rest merely on an, even strengthened, international peacekeeping force hopefully doing its job.
He finishes with a dark prediction that “The Israel-Hamas confrontation is the first battle of a new World War, a war between the modern world and the ferocious fanatics of radical Islam. A new kind of war. Not the wars to which the world has grown accustomed, fought with armies, tanks, planes, and infantry firing and charging and shouting Hurray – but a war against enemies who aim to destroy the free world from within.”
Special forces killed four terrorists in a vehicle during an operation in Nablus in the West Bank, army radio reported on X/Twitter Wednesday evening.
They were seen armed moments before they were killed, footage published by army radio showed.
A source told Kan that the terrorists killed in Nablus were a squad of terrorists from the Balata Camp that were preparing to carry out an attack against Israelis.4 מחבלים חוסלו ברכב במהלך פעולה של כוחות מיוחדים בשכם, כך הם תועדו רגע לפני שנהרגו pic.twitter.com/mFUGTHFqYg
— הוד בראל Hod Barel (@hod_barel) October 9, 2024
Riots in Nablus
Riots broke out on Wednesday afternoon, during which the IDF killed four terrorists following intelligence provided by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), Maariv reported.
Commander of the Balata Battalion of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade (which is aligned with Fatah) Issam a-Salaj was allegedly eliminated in the operation, Walla noted.
This is a developing story.
Following Hezbollah’s success at striking the Haifa area on Tuesday, the IDF later Tuesday and early Wednesday significantly increased its pace of airstrikes to try to roll back the groups’ rocket attacks.
The IDF announced on Wednesday that it had upped its airstrikes over the last 24 hours to 185 targets across all of Lebanon.
This was a significant increase compared to days when the strikes were in the dozens or even from Monday when the air force struck around 120 targets, but almost exclusively in southern Lebanon.
IDF strikes in southern Lebanon (Credit: IDF’ Spokesperson’s Unit)
Also, the targets were once again more spread out as opposed to being focused on the south, which had been the trend since the IDF invasion started on September 30. These changes could also mark a shift in strategy as the IDF possibly moves into a third phase of its major moves against Hezbollah, which started in mid-September.
The phases in question
The first phase saw two days of Hezbollah operatives and communications being torn apart by beeper and walkie-walkie explosions. It also included the killing of Ibrahim Aqil and around 20 of his top sub-commanders of the Radwan special forces. On September 23, it included the air force hitting 1,300 targets in only one day. Finally, on September 27, it included the assassination of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah as well as a number of other top Hezbollah officials, like Ali Karaki.
IDF officials have said that the strategy for Phase I was to disable Hezbollah’s capability to harm the Israeli home front in a devastating way as well as to lay the groundwork for a potential invasion if needed.
Phase two saw the invasion of southern Lebanon to take apart Hezbollah’s Radwan potential invasion weapons, tunnels, and positions. The air force, likewise, since September 30, has focused much more on southern Lebanon, especially providing real-time support to maneuvering ground forces facing ambushes from Hezbollah.
Every few days, the IDF sent in an additional division: first Division 98, then Division 36, then Division 91, and on Tuesday, Division 143, with more increases expected. They have increased the pace of destroying Hezbollah infrastructure in certain southern Lebanon villages, such as Mavarchin.
However, in what might be Phase 3, Division 98 is already receiving new maneuvering orders and IDF sources have said that they believe some initial missions of clearing Hezbollah positions will soon be taken care of sufficiently to move on to additional missions.
In turn, the air force may be refocusing on wider rocket threats throughout Lebanon.
If by September 30, it was assumed that Hezbollah’s failure to fire deeper into Israel and cause serious damage had shown they were truly losing that capability, Tuesday’s attacks on the Haifa area may have convinced top defense officials to return to striking beyond southern Lebanon to cause greater damage to those long-range capabilities.
All of this could be a prelude to the IDF shifting its focus from merely clearing southern Lebanon of Hezbollah’s presence to also trying to truly get the longer-range rocket threat under control.
These new efforts come with as the military also faces increased time pressure to succeed in restoring security for 60,000 northern border residents as Lebanon’s mountainous winter and the November 5 US presidential election both bear down on the timing calculus.
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