Keghart“Who can protest and does not,
is an accomplice in the act.”
The Talmud
By Prof. Z. S. Andrew Demirdjian, Los Angeles, 7 November 2022
Since September 27, 2020 the Republic of Artsakh (aka Nagorno-Karabakh) military forces have been engaged in a war of survival. It is fighting against an enemy mob consisting of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Syrian jihadist mercenaries, Pakistanis, including a government aiding and abating the criminal tripartite, namely Israel.
Israeli leaders’ complicity in the Artsakh-Azerbaijan conflict has not only dismayed the Armenians but has also disturbed people around the world including many intellectual Jews. After the attack on Artsakh on September 27, 2020 by Turkey-Azerbaijan and terrorist jihadists, a dozen or so articles were written as to why Israel helped Azerbaijan against the Armenians of Artsakh who achieved self-determination democratically thirty years ago.
One would have assumed Israel’s sympathies would lie with the Armenians. Armenians and Jews share historical as well as geopolitical parallels. Both have gone through holocausts in the 20th century; both nations have been scattered all over the world; both have been facing existential threats from their neighbors among other common predicaments. On the positive ledger, both nations have been resilient enough to rise out of the ashes. One could say the two nations are brothers in misfortune. Yet, one wonders as to why Israeli leaders have decided to side with rogue Turkey and criminal Azerbaijan in an unjust war. Let’s consider the main reasons as to why Israel is tarnishing its image by aiding and abating President Erdogan and President Aliyev in their nefarious attacks on civilian population centers in Armenia and Artsakh with modern Israeli weapons and military advisors.
Knesset has decided it’s legal for Israel to sell weapons to Azerbaijan. But is it moral to do so? Is there a way we can win Israel over, at least, to stop shipping weapons to Azerbaijan while war rages on? Chances are slim, but anything is possible since there are many righteous Jews in the world. Despite our low expectations, let’s examine the primary reasons why Israel ignores moral questions and supports the large military aggression against Artsakh.
Articles citing the reasons why Israel helps Azerbaijan say 1. It’s a lucrative business; 2. Israel needs oil (it buys from Azerbaijan at good prices – at 40% discount); 3. Israel needs to spy on Iran (it uses southern Azerbaijan to spy on Iran); 4. Israel needs strategic command (it has two bases in Azerbaijan); 5. Israel and Iran are enemies (Azerbaijan is not so friendly with Iran); 6. There are no benefits in protecting Armenia; 7. Mountain Jews of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has a sizeable Jewish community. To ingratiate themselves to the Azerbaijanis, Jews of Azerbaijan constantly ask Israel to help Azerbaijan. They know they would be treated shabbily like other minorities of Azerbaijan.
The Jewish community of Azerbaijan is called Mountain Jews, Caucasus Jews, Juhuro, and Kavkazi Jews. They live mainly in Azerbaijan and in various republics of the Russian Federation. Mountain Jews are supposed to be the descendants of ancient Persian Jews. They speak Judeo-Tat, an ancient Southwest Iranian language which integrates many elements of ancient Hebrew.
Roughly, 22,000 – 50,000 Mountain Jews live in Azerbaijan; 762 (2010 census) live in Russia; and 100,000 – 150,000 live in Israel. They also have a small population in the United States (10,000 – 40,000) and in Austria (220 in 2012 census).
Mountain Jews live mainly in and around Qirmizi (Red Village) in the northeast corner of Azerbaijan. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan discovered that Turkey benefited a lot from Israel. Thus, they began to treat the Mountain Jews with kid gloves. The current plans call for building two synagogues by the Azerbaijani government. It’s a propaganda gimmick to win Israeli’s support.
Prior to the Azerbaijan government’s change of policy Jews were subjected to numerous historical vicissitudes. Thus, they preferred to settle in extremely remote and high mountainous areas instead of living on the warm plains and in fertile valleys of Azerbaijan.
Now the Mountain Jews constantly write about how well the Azerbaijani government treats them and the rest of the minorities in the country. To get the truth, one has to ask the other minorities (Lezgins, the Talish, the Avars, etc.) who dream of being free from Azerbaijan’s yoke.
Most Israelis recognize the Armenian Genocide. For example, a group of Israeli authors wrote an open letter to their government, stating: “One needs to question Israel’s role in an armament effort aimed mainly against a people that like the Jewish people suffered genocidal attacks in the twentieth century. We call upon other Israelis to raise their voice on this important issue.”
Most Israelis who oppose Israel’s support of Azerbaijan find the Israeli government guilty on moral grounds. The Bible and the Talmud/Torah teach moral conduct upon which a lot of laws have been enacted. For example, the Talmud, is the revered source from which the Jewish law is to be derived, says “Who can protest and does not, is an accomplice in the act.” Over the years, this quotation has been interpreted to mean “If you see someone committing a crime and do nothing, you are an accomplice.” While Turkey-Azerbaijan and the Syrian jihadists were bombing and shelling Armenian civilian targets and infrastructure, Israel continued to supply Azerbaijan with weapons.
Azerbaijani armed forces beheaded an Armenian solider on October 16, 2020.
Do the Israeli leaders condone such a barbarian act?
Jewish people know persecution and they know pain and suffering. They won’t tolerate the destruction of another people whose historic experience mirrors theirs.
Armenians use Jews as a standard of success. They admire them and compare themselves with Jews on many endeavors (social, political, educational, and economic).
Consistent with Hitler’s approach, Turkey/Azerbaijan are demonizing the Armenians to launch a second genocide. Their leaders have threatened Armenians with second genocide. Idle talk? Not really! Research shows that those who commit genocide are prone to repeat the crime.
Armenians do not want to alienate the Jewish people because of their unreasonable leaders who fail on moral grounds. A perusal of the Armenian Genocide shows that some notable Jews supported Armenians. To cite two names: Ambassador Henry Morgenthau in the 1900s made the plight of the Armenians known in the United States with his book (Ambassador Morgetenthau’s Story) as well as his passionate speeches. Franz Werfel wrote The Forty Days of Musa Dagh to show the world the struggles, the valor, and the determination of the Armenians to survive the brutal onslaughts of the Ottoman Turks.
Armenians show love and understanding toward minorities for they suffered under the yoke of the Ottoman Turks for 612 years. Yazidis, a minority in Armenia, built their largest temple in the world in Republic of Armenia. Unlike many Europeans, Armenians have never been accused of looking upon Jews as Christ-killers or for heartless usury, or for the control of world power centers. They consider Jews to be smart survivors who have contributed immensely to world civilization.
Back to our question: why is Israel helping Azerbaijan-Turkey? We said for economic and ethnic reasons. We ruled out Mountain Jews because they are not in danger from Armenians forcing Israel to protect them. Consequently, of the two reasons, economic reason stands out.
Israeli politicians are canny and watchful of their own interests even at the expense of innocent people facing genocidal threats. President Joe Biden recognized the massacres of the Armenians by the Ottoman Turks as genocide. In the early 1990s, Azerbaijan perpetrated massacres of the Armenian population in Baku, Sumgait, and other places.
Grotesque, but it is true. Azerbaijani troops beheaded an Armenian soldier recently and disseminated the images via social media. The Jewish people can not condone such barbarian behavior. The righteous Jews should force their blasphemous leaders who do not follow their own holy books to stop the killing of innocent people for the sake of economic gain.
Emily Schrader wrote in the Jerusalem Post (October 19, 2020): “Morally, Israel must stand with Armenia, a nation with shared values and history similar to the Jewish state.” She also bravely and sincerely said: “We [the Jewish people] are nothing if not a nation that can stick to its principles.”
The righteous Jews deserve a person of character for a leader who can differentiate between right and wrong, someone who has a moral compass to do the right things rather than perpetuate the image of his or her people as Shylocks.
The righteous Jews should remind their leaders to observe what the Talmud mandates them to follow: “Whoever destroys a single life is as guilty as though he had destroyed the entire world; and whoever rescues a single life earns as much merit as though he had rescued the entire world.”
Hopefully, righteous Jews will try to stop their leaders from tainting the image of the Jews. With or without Israel’s participation in arming Azerbaijan Armenians of Artsakh may lose some of the battles. But in the end they will win the war for the Almighty has always been with the righteous and the Armenian warrior spirit has always prevailed. “Shalom to the righteous Jews.”
Keghart
Keghart
5 comments
Unfortunately, there are many, many Jewish and Israeli writers who continually write the most evil and untrue things about Armenians and Armenia (and Artsakh).
One reason for this hatred by these particular Jews is that Armenia is at odds with Azerbaijan and the latter is an ally of Israel.
That sort of hate is irrational especially given that Jews regard Azeris very negatively behind their backs.
I also believe that in many ways these Jews are jealous of Armenians.
Many Jews, but not all, don’t like to see people, especially Christians, who can compete with Jews on an intellectual or historical basis.
Believe me, here in the U.S. a lot of Jews don’t like any Christians though they won’t say so openly.
Instead, what some Jews do is try to expunge any display of Christianity such as crosses on public land and prayer in schools and even in high school football fields.
Prof. Demirdjian is too gentle in his criticism of Israel, the apartheid state which illegally occupies Palestine and terrorizes its neighbors. Israel has a long history of working with racist and terrorist states–from South Africa to the banana dictatorships of Central America.. For seventy years, the Zionist entity has had its murderous hand in conflicts around the globe. An Israeli politician reading the article would giggle at the naivete the good professor exhibits.
While some righteous Jews and even Israeli journalists criticize that country’s dismal official stance vis-a-vis the Armenian Genocide as well as their latest shameful complicity in the Azerbaijani war of aggression against Artsakh, one cannot overlook the fact that Israel pursues only its own political and economic interests and agendas where moral considerations will be damned. Suffice to say, on the other hand, whenever any criticism is directed towards Israeli policy or action, howls of indignation from the Jewish lobby is not too far behind with cries of anti-semitism escalating to new levels in the local media.
Apart from the subject matter of Prof. Demirjian’s article, I would be remiss if I did not point out that more care should be exercised by the author to use the correct terminology. To wit, the expression “aiding and abating” had no place in that instance; it should have read “aiding and abetting” which, given the context, conveys the true meaning of “helping and encouraging” as, I think, was the intention.
One does not gain by making enemies of others but by increasing our friendship with others we will become stronger. Diplomacy my friend is the right thing to do. Listen to how Jews speak and how Armenians speak. Jews are diplomatic and don’t wound anyone and Armenians are always ready for a fight. That’s not how to make friends and get your way.
Mr. Zohrab, you have your heart in the right place but your advice is not doable because of Israeli government’s unprovoked anti-Armenian policies. Israelis/Jews can afford to be diplomatic (your word) since they have the strongest armies around, not to mention at least 200 nuclear bombs. Since we don’t have the capability to hurt Israel in retaliation for its arming and training of Azerbaijan’s army, we resort to words. But even there, we face a huge challenge: scores of Zionist journalists, scholars, professors, etc. in North America, Europe, and Israel seem to have dedicated a large chunk of their careers to spreading anti-Armenian propaganda. They are “soldiers” of Israel in the fight to erase Armenia from the map. Look up Keghart’s annual list of “Heroes and Villains” to learn the names of some of these pen-wielding agents of Israel.
Bottom line: Armenians didn’t start the hostilities. Israel did. Armenians, I mean mostly diaspora Armenians, are retaliating be exposing the lies of the Zionist writers. For years, Armenian writers were circumspect about criticizing Israel but the 2020 war forced Armenians to come out fighting…with words. Images on the map which showed Israeli planes supplying arms to Azerbaijan before, during, and after the war, forced Armenians to tell it as it is.
Shame on people–Jew or not–who shy away from criticizing Israel.