Recently, I was in the war-torn Karabakh region and witnessed how ANAMA, the national landmine agency of Azerbaijan, worked to clear landmines during the Second International Conference on Mine Action. I witnessed how any person who merely walked across a green area could easily fall victim to a landmine, which only special machines could detect. This is why landmines are so deadly, as they can kill and maim any person, including a child who just wanted to play soccer, just for walking by. This is why planting landmines, especially if they are not clearly marked, is a gross violation of human rights.

In recent days, an Azerbaijani civilian engaging in beekeeping was injured in a mine explosion in the Kalbajar region. This civilian was only the latest victim. Emil Hasanov, Deputy Chairman of the Public Council under ANAMA, added: "303 people since November 2020 have been killed by landmines in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has more than one million landmines. Since Azerbaijan's population is 10 million, this means that there is a landmine for every 10 people in Azerbaijan. Landmines also cause grave environmental damage. Having landmines in the ground for an extended period of time causes certain chemical reactions." He blamed the Russian PeaceKeepers for this, as they often turn a blind eye to the Armenians planting landmines in the area.

In a recent statement, the Azerbaijani Diaspora organizations proclaimed, "The mines and unexploded ammunition planted by Armenia in the territories of Azerbaijan continue to pose a serious threat to the lives of civilians. The planting of mines in the liberated territories of Azerbaijan and the failure to provide accurate maps of mined areas are a clear demonstration of Armenia's disrespect for the norms and principles of international law and international humanitarian law." Due to this grave incident targeting a civilian in Kalbajar, the Commissioner for Human Rights of Azerbaijan Sabina Aliyeva prepared a special report on Armenia's landmine terror against Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani journalist and lawyer Orkhan Amashov declared, "Landmines and explosive remnants of war remain a significant problem for Azerbaijan. It is not just that Armenia refused to provide minefield maps, but also engaged in transferring mines via the Lachin Road to the part of Karabakh under the temporary control of the Russian 'peacekeeping contingent" after the 10 November 2020 tripartite statement. Maps received from Armenia, to date, only cover 5% of the liberated territories, with the accuracy level of the maps being no more than 25%."

"The extent of the problem is massive: an area with a space of 7000 km2 is uninhabitable due to over a million mines remaining emplaced," he noted. "The next effect of this is manifold. It has ecological implications. Azerbaijan has so far managed to clear 74,644 hectares of land from mines - this is only 9.06 percent of the full extent of the contaminated territories. Large swathes of the de-occupied territories are uncultivable. Due to heavy degradation, it will take some considerable time to bring life to those areas after the demining efforts achieve some tangible results. There is a long journey."

Amashov noted how due to the "lack of accurate maps, there is a human cost, both in terms of accidental civilian casualties and the predicament of deminers operating in dangerous areas. Presently, the demining capacity of ANAMA (Azerbaijani National Agency for Mine Action) is being augmented, but the task is gargantuan. Azerbaijan hopes that the cooperation with Israel, the UK, the EU, and other partners, will give a new impetus to demining efforts. However, whatever resources could be employed, without Armenia providing accurate minefield maps, the process will be long, arduous, and costly in many respects."

Roy Nahari, the CEO of Open Minded Solutions Ltd., an Israeli anti-mine company, noted that the natural environment in Karabakh makes the issue worse, even if the Armenians provided all of the landmine maps: "Landmines in mountain areas are at a very big risk of going with the stream or melted snow or water washed away to the streams and rivers because of the power of the water in those areas. This makes the problem bigger and very dangerous because you do not know where the mines went. The area where the mines are spread is huge. This makes it hard to determine where they are and in what distance they can go. This is the main problem with mine pollution."

DSC Kingsley Chike Ahukanna, the head of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Section CBRNE Unit at the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corp, who also partook in the Second International Conference on Mine Action that was held recently in Azerbaijan, stressed: "Landmines continue to pose a lethal threat to peace, security, and development everywhere in the world and Azerbaijan is not the exemption. 147,988 hectares of land in Azerbaijan are still classified as highly contaminated, while 675,570 hectares are considered medium and low threat areas." He believes that the International Conference on Mine Action helped to create a community of committed professionals, dedicated to eradicating landmines worldwide.

However, despite the international community's dedication to eradicating landmines, this does not stop Armenia from continuing to plant landmines in the region, even though they are supposed to be negotiating a peace agreement with Azerbaijan. Nurit Greenger, the founder of the US-Azerbaijan Cultural Foundation, who partook in environmental protests in the war-torn Karabakh region last December, concurred with Nahari about the mine pollution being one of the gravest issues in Karabakh: "Yes, they dump the ecological exploitation into the rivers. That is eco-genocide. One of the largest perpetrators is a Canadian company. I think that Azerbaijan should simply go into the areas controlled by the Russian peacekeepers and put a stop to it."

Rachel Avraham is the CEO of the Dona Gracia Center for Diplomacy and an Israel-based journalist. She is also the author of "Women and Jihad: Debating Palestinian Female Suicide Bombings in the American, Israeli and Arab Media."

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Recently, I wrote a book titled "Ayoob Kara: The Man Behind the Abraham Accords," which will hopefully be published soon. In this book, Ayoob Kara, who served as Israel's Communication Minister under PM Benjamin Netanyahu, told me that he helped to bring Bahraini Princess Fatima Ben Khalifa, the wife of Bahraini Minister Ahmad Ben Khalifa, to Israel to get medical treatment: "She was extremely sick. Her life was very much in danger." In 2010, Kara approached Netanyahu regarding this. He did not accept the idea at first, fearing what could happen if she dies. But after one day of Kara pushing him, he agreed and this act saved the life of the Bahraini princess.

The Bahraini Minister asked what he could do in return. Kara told him that he wants him to support the Jewish community in Bahrain and to help Israel to make peace. He said, "we will see" and went back to Bahrain. According to Kara, "After that, I heard that everything got better for the Jewish community in Bahrain. One Jewish woman became a minister in the government of Bahrain and one of the important guys in the Jewish community became an economic advisor to the president. They began a new relationship between us and the Jews all over the world."

This ultimately led to Bahrain hosting talks surrounding Trump's Deal of the Century, the Abraham Accords, the Sons of Abraham Alliance, and the peace treaty getting signed between Bahrain and the State of Israel. In other words, it was medicine that led to the successful establishment of peace between Israel and Bahrain.

Now, Israel has a historic opportunity to help a Kurdish child from Iraq to get medical treatment in Israel. AAK, an elementary school-age child from Erbil, suffers from swelling in the kidneys and other serious health problems, which cannot be treated in Iraq. He is at risk of losing his kidneys and his life. Kurdish author Karzan Kirkuki related: "His dad is a university professor at the University of Soran. He defended Iraqi Jews who left behind properties after they were expelled from Iraq in the Iraqi media. He said that it is the Jewish right to reclaim their property or get compensation for everything that they lost. This man only has one son. If he lost him, it would be very sad for him. His mother was also a professor in university and she stopped teaching in the university just to take care of their son, and this affected their income."

Nevertheless, Ameera Kara, the CEO and co-founder of Israel International Medicare, an organization that seeks to bring patients from the Arab world and some African countries to Israel for medical treatment, stressed that so far despite all of A's father's positions and the plight of the child she has failed to get him a visa: "I tried to help him through my connections through the hospitals. I spoke to Sheba Hospital. They said they could help him. I contacted a foundation to help him, as we knew how much the treatment would cost. So, I spoke to a Jerusalem NGO and they agreed to help his case. The problem is that we have a lot of problems with getting him a visa. In the beginning, I thought it was because of corona. Then, I understood it wasn't."

According to her, "In the last year, I tried several times to speak to the Interior Ministry and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. No one could really help us. So, Karzan told the family and they were very disappointed. For them, coming to Israel was their last hope. We wanted to use this to open more doors to diplomatic relations through him. I think it would be helpful if we could do that. I tried through many connections. I spoke to several politicians and they were not able to help. Even when we ask why they do not give a visa, they do not have an answer. A visa would be life-saving and it would open more doors to Israel."

Ameera Kara stressed that she believes that the road to Middle East peace travels through medicine and technology: "Patients and the common citizen see how Israel is fighting against Iran. We are in this together against radical Islamism and Iran. Although we do not want any politics to interfere in medicine, it is the first door to enter Iraq and I hope through that to bring peace to the Middle East and especially to Israel."

Kirkuki concurred, stressing that the Kurds are among the few nations in the Middle East that love the Jewish people and Israel: "Based on that relationship, we wish that Israel do something for the Kurds, just to make that relationship stronger and more visible to Kurdish people. Providing medical treatment is the ideal way to help Kurdish people because it is very hard for the Kurdish people to get visas to Europe and America. Since Israel has the same quality medical treatment as Western countries, we wish for Israel to open a gate to help patients from Kurdistan. That will make that relationship stronger. We have so many people like A, but there is no treatment for these people."

He concluded: "Also, we will make the Kurdish view towards Israel more positive than before. Kurdish people are surrounded by Arabs, Persians and others who hate the Kurds. We feel as Kurds that the Jewish people and Israel are the only country and nation that loves Kurds. This will also make the relationship between the Kurdistan Regional Government and the Israeli government stronger. Iran wants the Kurdistan Regional Government to be weak and unstable, without the ability to treat cases like this poor kid. However, the best way to stand up to Iran's hatred is to help this poor Kurdish child."

Rachel Avraham is the CEO of the Dona Gracia Center for Diplomacy and an Israel-based journalist. She is also the author of "Women and Jihad: Debating Palestinian Female Suicide Bombings in the American, Israeli and Arab Media."

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It was recently reported that five people were killed among them two Azerbaijani soldiers in an exchange of fire in the Karabakh region.   The incident happened after Azerbaijani soldiers stopped a convoy that was suspected of weapons smuggling.    The question remains, what caused the recent escalation of violence in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan?  Does the Kremlin play a role in this latest round of violence?   Do the mullahs also influence what happens on the ground in Karabakh?

Azerbaijani journalist Elnur Enveroglu stated recently that this was not the first time that Armenian separatists attacked Azerbaijan in Karabakh: "We have to blame the external powers and the Russian peacekeeping contingent for not observing their obligation, especially back to the first tripartite agreement with Russian mediation.   This is why Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev mentioned Azerbaijan's establishment of a checkpoint on the Lachin road from Armenia to Karabakh."

According to him,  this latest round of violence "means that Armenia does not want peace and stability in the region and it is always inclined to committing provocations and instability in Karabakh, especially impeding Azerbaijani side to incept the negotiation between Karabakh Armenians in Khankendi."   He added that Armenia is illegally bringing mines and weapons into the Karabakh region, pondering why Armenia would do this.   He claims that Armenia wants to do this in order to threaten Azerbaijan rather than finding "common grounds for peace talks."

However, even if the Armenian side were not so interested in making a peace agreement, Armenia is a landlocked country blockaded on most sides.   If it were not for the support that they were getting from Iran and Russia, they could not sustain themselves without making peace both with Azerbaijan and Turkey, and thus would have gone along with that course of action.     However, because there are international players who also do not want there to be an Azerbaijani-Armenian peace, they are thus able to evade signing a peace treaty.

Neil Watson, a British member of the Advisory Board at the Dona Gracia Center for Diplomacy, noted that what happened recently "is the last attempt of the Russians of trying to maintain instability.  They are very worried that there will be a peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The dialogue started between an Azerbaijani minister and the Armenians living in Karabakh.  He listened to their concerns in order to placate them. A dialogue has started on the human level."

According to him, "The Russians fear that it will get out of hand.  So, they permit the weapons to be transported along the road and this led to a confrontation.  The Russians are the source of the weapons in Karabakh, so the illegal entity in Khakhendi will be maintained and they will thus maintain their control.   Now, Azerbaijan seeks checkpoints to be installed at the end of the road.  That is why it happened."

Renowned French historian Dr. Maxime Gauin, who also sits on the Advisory Board of the Dona Gracia Center for Diplomacy, had a different take on the matter, "What we can say with a certain degree of probability is that the Armenian Army and the Armenian separatists do not want the peace treaty.  They feel encouraged by the mullahs and the Kremlin.  This process would mean the end of the separatist business in Khakhendi and the influence of the mullahs and the Kremlin will decline if this would be signed.  The whole reason why Armenia aligned with Iran and Russia is because of their fear of Turkey.   If they were sign a peace agreement, there would be no reason for this alliance."

According to him, "Armenia is the exit door for Iran to the world.  The Iranians cannot export to the south via the United Arab Emirates and the Arab countries, so they do it via Armenia. The clashes are thus linked to the context that I described.    But we should make a distinction between the military and separatists, who do not want peace, and Pashinyan and the government, who are trying.   However, we will know for sure once we have access to internal Armenian documents, but this is the most likely scenario."

Rachel Avraham is the CEO of the Dona Gracia Center for Diplomacy and editor of the Economic Peace Center. She is also the author of "Women and Jihad: Debating Palestinian Female Suicide Bombings in the American, Israeli and Arab Media."

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The years 2013 to 2019 were a momentous period in modern history. In leading us through the ever-changing situation, Frantzman provides much more than a recital of the facts. He explains them. Because he was present himself at various times in the war zones and killing fields, his account is leavened throughout with personal experiences of how the shifting pattern of events impacted on people caught up in them. Nor does he desist from pointing out the various failures of the West during the long struggle to defeat the self-styled caliphate set up by the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

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Nothing moves Frantzman more than his personal witness of the horrific genocide that ISIS perpetrated on the Yazidi people in and around Sinjar in 2014. He arrived in the region very shortly after the slaughter. "To come face to face with genocide is unimaginable," he writes, describing how he visited a mass grave and found bones sticking out of the ground, a skull with a bullet hole in it, women's hair matted and twisted between rocks, clothes, and blindfolds lying on the surface. The sight moved him to righteous anger.

"No international investigators are here," he writes. "No NGOs are working here to protect the human remains. The world was silent again. These lives could have been saved. … How could the Western powers with all their technology, all their drones, their EU Parliament and councils of human rights and international criminal courts, do nothing?"

Nearly six years later, he saw new photos from Sinjar. "The city was still in ruins. On Mount Sinjar, people still lived in tents and huts. … Survivors were still picking through rubble." The International Commission on Missing Persons was apparently trying to document the remains in the mass graves, but the grave in one photo was not cordoned off or protected from the elements. There were more than 200 mass graves in Iraq. Of the handful so far discovered in Syria, one near Raqqa contained an estimated 3,500 bodies.

As Frantzman leads us through the sequence of events that slowly but surely squeezed ISIS out of the vast areas of Iraq and Syria that it had originally conquered, he provides an informed commentary on their impact. He embraces issues ranging from the effect on Europe of the influx of refugees from the Middle East, to the success of the Kurds' peshmerga fighters against ISIS, the subsequent boost to their independence aspirations, followed by the efforts by Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to remove what he saw as a Kurdish threat to his regime.

Frantzman brings to light the temporary battlefield alliances that were formed and disintegrated as the US-led coalition slowly crushed ISIS, and also with more profound changes in political thinking in the region, for example how Iran's growing influence encouraged Saudi Arabia and the UAE to look increasingly toward Israel as an ally, and how it changed the strategic thinking of Jordan and Egypt.

In considering whether the post-ISIS era would simply replicate the worst days of al-Qaida terrorism under Osama bin Laden, he is not wholly pessimistic. He sees hope in the rise of a younger generation of Middle East leaders that came of age in the 1980s or 1990s, in an era of US hegemony, taking over from leaders who had run the region since the colonial era. "With the Saddam Husseins, Mubaraks, Gaddafis, and Salehs out of the way," he writes, "there may be a new way forward."

The basis for Frantzman's qualified optimism lies in his belief that the whole ISIS episode was a unique phenomenon – a one-off. In his words: "It appears that the power of ISIS was sui generis. A group like this will not appear again. This was the apogee of Islamist extremism and jihadist groups."

"After ISIS" is a comprehensive, insightful, thought-provoking account of how an exceptionally ruthless and brutal organization succeeded in capturing the imagination of scores of thousands of Muslims the world over, how it rose to control large parts of Syria and Iraq and rule over millions, and how finally it was defeated. For anyone wishing to understand how this all came about and what might follow, "After ISIS" is essential reading.

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