With the escalating crimes in Gaza, widely seen as a clear example of genocide, Israel has not only drawn widespread condemnation from the Muslim world but has also become increasingly detested by the broader international community. It is now time for the Republic of Azerbaijan to disentangle itself from the Israeli quagmire. In this context, the following points merit attention:
1. One of the justifications that the Republic of Azerbaijan used for having relations with Israel was the purchase of weapons to confront Armenia in the Karabakh war. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the intensification of the Karabakh conflict, the Republic of Azerbaijan entered into negotiations with the United States to purchase weapons, and subsequently Washington directed Baku to Israel. On the other hand, the Israeli regime, by buying oil and gas from the Republic of Azerbaijan, met about one-sixth of its energy needs. Secret information shows that the Zionist regime was dishonest in selling first-rate weapons to Baku, with some military officials of Azerbaijan admitting in private meetings that the weapons received from Israel were second-rate. More importantly, a pledge to equip Azerbaijan's airspace with The Iron Dome has never materialized. At this juncture, with the Karabakh war over, the return of the disputed region to the Republic of Azerbaijan, and Baku and Yerevan on the verge of signing a peace treaty, the issue of buying weapons from Israel is no longer justified and can be ruled out. If necessary, other countries in the region are ready to sell weapons to the Republic of Azerbaijan.
2. Another justification used by the Republic of Azerbaijan to maintain relations with the Zionist regime was to use the Jewish lobby at the international level to isolate the Armenian lobby on the issue of the Karabakh region. Although there is no evidence that Jews sought to weaken the Armenian lobby against the Republic of Azerbaijan due to the alignment of Christians and Jews in weakening Muslim countries, this justification was discarded after the end of the Karabakh war. Therefore, Azerbaijan’s reasoning that having ties with the child-killing Israeli regime will help them better use the Jewish lobby does not seem logical.
3. Our friends in the Republic of Azerbaijan are aware of Israel's hypocritical approaches and have acknowledged it many times in private meetings. They know very well that during the Karabakh war, Israel continued intelligence and security cooperation with Yerevan while selling weapons to Baku, and for that reason, Armenia opened its embassy in Tel Aviv before the Republic of Azerbaijan. When an Israeli drone violated Iran’s airspace from Nakhchivan, (the drone was shot down by Iran’s air defense), the Azerbaijani brothers fully realized that the Zionist regime readily bypasses even the intelligence authorities of Azerbaijan to achieve its goals.
4. During the ongoing genocide in Gaza, Netanyahu's cabinet, dishonored at the world stage, is facing a very fragile situation internally and is also experiencing a hard defeat on the battlefield with Hamas. Some of Arab countries, which had sought to normalize relations with Israel, have decided to err on the side of caution and stopped the normalization process. Even the UAE, the most eager country in this regard, tried to propose a resolution in the United Nations Security Council to establish a truce, to revive its tarnished image. In the meantime, the Republic of Azerbaijan, as a Muslim country and a member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, must maintain its status among the Islamic countries, and it is not wise for Baku to continue selling oil to the occupying regime, fueling Israel's war engine against the innocent people of Palestine.
The last point is that Israel has never been a friend of Muslim countries, and in order to get out of isolation, it advertises that Tel Aviv's relationship with Baku has become a strategic relationship. The Gaza war showed that Israel is the biggest security threat not only to the Islamic countries but also to the entire world. Today, Muslims of the world, especially the people of the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as the Palestinians, expect countries like the Republic of Azerbaijan to cut ties with Tel Aviv and brace themselves for the emerging world order, which will definitely be formed without Israel.
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