In recent days, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling upon Israel to withdraw from all Palestinian areas within one year and for an arms embargo to be formed against weapons that Israel might use in those areas. It was adopted by a two-thirds majority in a recorded vote of 124 in favor to 14 against, with 43 abstentions. Israel has immediately condemned this biased, slanted UN General Assembly resolution, and rightly so.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry declared that the UN General Assembly resolution represented "cynical international politics" that would encourage terrorism and harm the chances for peace. The resolution, the ministry said in a statement posted to X, strengthens Hamas and "the Iranian terrorist state that stands behind it," while sending a message that "terrorism pays." It also makes a hostage deal less likely, the ministry argued, referring to efforts via international mediators to reach a ceasefire in exchange for the release of captives.

Sadly, the UN General Assembly is not the only one to have a one-sided approach to conflicts in the world. The Netherlands Parliament set out a program that includes an International Security Chapter, which, while mentioning the escalated conflicts, labels the liberation of Azerbaijani territories as the "takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh." The infamous resolution also accuses Azerbaijan of engaging in "ethnic cleansing and damage to cultural heritage."

The Azerbaijani Parliament protested this move as a "racist political act." They added: "The emergence of such a document in the parliament of the Netherlands now that peace negotiations with Armenia are afoot and definitely encouraging results are being achieved to this comes as a vivid example of political recklessness and irresponsibility."

The Azerbaijani Parliament added, "It is regrettable that the members of the Parliament of the Netherlands never once raised their voices during those 30 years for which Azerbaijani lands had remained occupied and one million Azerbaijanis became refugees and IDPs. During this period of time, the Netherlands MPs tended to support the occupiers either openly or covertly, and today they are inclined to endorse the actions that undermine the process of normalization between two states that have had a conflict for many years."

The West Azerbaijani community added: "The Dutch parliament, which turned a blind eye to the expulsion of Azerbaijanis from Armenia and the once-occupied Azerbaijani territories, and the massive destruction of Azerbaijani cultural heritage, now demonstrates a fundamentally slanderous position. The harmful interference of external states in the context of the recent steps taken towards normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, including the delineation of borders, is unacceptable. The Western Azerbaijani community demands that the Dutch Parliament and government put an end to their biased and inappropriate actions, support the return of the Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia and support peace in the region."

Netherlands also gave a detailed statement on the recent UN General Assembly resolution against Israel, chastising Israel for the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza, and only abstained due to the "lack of clarity on the temporary nature of a humanitarian cease-fire" and "lack of reference to the heinous attacks by Hamas." If the Palestinians were open to negotiations on these two points, the Netherlands would have supported the recent UN General Assembly resolution, even though it makes a conclusion to the war accompanied by a hostage deal harder to achieve. And for this reason, the UN General Assembly and the Netherlands are two birds of a feather, hindering the resolution of conflicts across the globe.

Ayoob Kara served as Israel's Minister of Communications, Cyber and Satellite under Netanyahu.

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Across the world, there have been various articles printed in the media, criticizing the fact that Azerbaijan is hosting COP29 because the country is a major oil producer.   As a former Israeli communication minister, I disagree with such criticism, believing that Azerbaijan is the ideal country to host the COP29 conference.

Azerbaijan is a multi-cultural, tolerant and pluralistic country, which respects minority rights and women's rights.  It is an island of freedom and stability, neighboring a totalitarian dictatorship like Iran, which systematically represses both women and minorities.  In the Middle East, the country is a bastion for human rights and environmental activism, where eco-activists protested against environmental degradation for months, making it a national cause.

Azerbaijan has recently announced its plan to increase the share of renewables across its energy sector to almost a third.   For a major oil producing country like Azerbaijan, this is a big deal, especially given that the present share of renewables was 20.86%.

Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov proclaimed, "By 2027, in the first phase of partnership with energy companies, we are planning to realize close to 2GW of new renewable volumes, which will increase the share of renewables in installed capacity to 33%."   This is of vital importance because climate change has worsened in recent years.   We are already feeling the effects.  We are at a tipping point where we have to take action.  It is not even a matter of preventing it anymore.  Azerbaijan is a nation of action, as we have witnessed the green villages sprouting up across the Karabakh region, where the Caucuses country is working to turn a landmine-infested war torn region into an environmental green zone, which produces agriculture in an environmentally sound manner.  These efforts have been recognized by the international community when they decided to let Azerbaijan host COP29.

COP29 is trying to make sure that vulnerable communities, especially the poor, women and minorities, are able to be resilient and survive climate change and to be able to thrive.  COP29 is about making sure that cities will be prepared for climate change, as some cities and even countries can find themselves underwater if action is not taken.   Therefore, climate change awareness is very important because it is already happening and worsening.

A lot of smaller countries like Azerbaijan, Israel, and Costa Rica seem to be much more concerned with environmental issues than bigger countries like Russia, the United States, China and India are.  Since smaller countries are more adversely affected by climate change than bigger countries are, they are more likely to take action to try to tackle the issue than bigger countries are.  They also have less extractive resources, so eco-tourism is very important to them as an asset.  Therefore, they take action to promote green tourism.  Also, people are more pro-environment and less bigoted in Azerbaijan than they are in many bigger countries.   They are smaller and thus are more on a human scale.  The scale is important in creating a green environment that promotes tolerance and understanding.

Climate change is no longer about the non-human world and saving the ecosystem.  It has also become a social justice issue because people are dying because of climate change.   It is affecting disadvantaged populations disproportionately, especially in the geographic South and by the ocean.   Global temperatures rose about 1.98°Foffsite link (1.1°C) from 1901 to 2020, but climate change refers to more than an increase in temperature. It also includes sea level rise, changes in weather patterns like drought and flooding, and much more.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the United States, "Drought can harm food production and human health. Flooding can lead to disease spread and damages to ecosystems and infrastructure. Human health issues can increase mortality, impact food availability, and limit worker productivity. Climate change impacts are seen throughout every aspect of the world we live in."  For this reason, the COP29 Conference being hosted in Azerbaijan is of vital importance for the global community and critics condemning Azerbaijan should instead focus their efforts on how to get countries like China, India, the US and Russia, who are this world's biggest polluters, to cooperate with climate change initiatives, rather than picking on a small struggling country like Azerbaijan.

Ayoob Kara served as Israel's minister of communications.   

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In recent days, news headlines have been dominated by stories of hostages being returned to the State of Israel in exchange for the release of Palestinian terrorists.  While we are happy that these people are being returned to us, we are also greatly saddened by the condition in which they are being returned to us.  There are children who were separated from their parents, who remain in Hamas captivity.  Stories have emerged of women and children being held in cages and being tortured with electric shocks, while being only given pita, rice, and tuna to live on.   Evidence has emerged that the hostages that were released were drugged up with the same drugs used to rape women in order to conceal the extent of Hamas's brutality towards the hostages from the international community.

Of course, it won't be surprising if more stories of sexual violence emerge from the hostages, after it is already well-known that Hamas raped and mutilated women in their sexual organs before massacring them on October 7.  Meni Binyamin, the head of the International Crime Investigations Unit of the Israeli police, told The New York Times that they "are investigating sexual crimes against both women and men perpetrated by Hamas terrorists.  There were violent rape incidents, the most extreme sexual abuses we have seen, of both women and men. I am talking about dozens."  He said that a team of investigators had gathered "tens of thousands" of testimonies from survivors, witnesses, and first responders."  Therefore, it won't be surprising if it Hamas also raped women it held captive.  For the entire Israeli nation, the fact that innocent civilians are still being held hostage in Gaza and the condition in which the hostages are being returned to us, and the fact that terrorists are being released in exchange for their freedom is a great trauma.

These days following the October 7 massacre, as numerous hostages are returning to the State of Israel in a very traumatized state, are de ja vu for me to the 1970s, when I was a young man serving in the Israel Defense Forces.   ack then, three terrorists crossed the border to kill children in a Kiryat Shmona school.  As a result, they brought us to Kiryat Shmona.  The children in the school were so lucky that they had a holiday, so the three terrorists left the school and went to a building near the school, where they tried to kill people.  We came to fight with them. They shot at us all the time. They blew themselves up.  In the end, 18 Israeli civilians were massacred of which half of them were children and 16 others were injured.

I will never forget how the people in Kiryat Shmona were so angry.  This was the first time that the terrorists crossed the border. Usually, they shot from far away. I remember seeing a young 19-year-old soldier on a stretcher.  There were body parts on it.  He was broken to pieces.  There was a strong odor.  I will never forget that bad smell.  After that, I stayed near the building for a few nights with my team.  I did not eat nor drink.  It was a tragedy for me what happened there.  After that, we feared another terror attack emanating from Lebanon. Later, the terrorists did the same thing in Maalot.   In Maalot, over the course of two days, 115 Israelis were taken hostage, of which 25 were killed alongside six other civilians. It was such violence that led to the eruption of the First Lebanon War and since then, my health has never been the same.

However, the Ma'a lot Hostage Crisis differed from this one, as back then we did not give into the terrorists' demands and didn't release criminals in exchange for the freedom of our hostages.   Instead, we waged an operation, that did end up killing a number of the hostages, but at least no terrorists were released.    However, today, we free criminals who seek our death, just because they are minors or women.    Today, we do not have the valor and the courage that we had back then.   We are too broken to fight like that today.

After one witnesses pictures of abused women being paraded through the streets of Gaza and views images of mutilated and raped dead women, and beheaded babies across Southern Israel, it is hard to have the courage not to give in and release terrorists so that the remaining hostages will not have the same fate.   However, when you release one terrorist, it only encourages the next October 7 to occur again and again.

We are not the only nation to face this dilemma.  A couple of years ago, Azerbaijan agreed to a prisoner exchange agreement in order to free Azerbaijanis who were held in Armenian prisons.   Like the hostages in Hamas custody, these people were not given proper nourishment and were exposed to torture, and barely had any fresh air.   As one of the hostages told the Turkish media, "They didn't give me food for a year in prison. I was 107 kilograms (235 pounds) when I was taken hostage. I lost 52 kg [114 Ibs] in one year. They also gave me electric shocks."

Following the First Karabakh War, Human Rights Watch wrote a report which claimed that they investigated one of the places where Azerbaijani hostages were being held by the Armenians and found that the two women there were raped by the Armenians several times per day in front of the male hostages.  Amnesty International concurred that Azerbaijani prisoners have been mistreated and abused by the Armenian forces: "Durdana Agayeva said she and other women had been beaten when held in a cell containing some 30 women in a police station in the Armenian-populated town of Askeran. Gulaya Orudzheva reported that while she was held she saw two young Azeri men shot in cold blood, other prisoners beaten, and one woman raped."   When a nation has citizens who are suffering from such a situation, they will do anything to ensure their freedom, even if it means acting against their national interests.  So like Israel in recent days, Azerbaijan also has agreed to release Armenian prisoners in order to get its citizens back.

For similar reasons, the United States agreed to the Algier Accords in order to release the 52 American hostages that were held by the Iranians for 444 days after the Iranians seized the US Embassy in Tehran following the Iranian Revolution.   Many of these hostages were also mistreated and abused to the point that some even wanted to commit suicide.  For this reason, the Americans were desperate to get their people back.   Even though this agreement went against America's national interests, the United States agreed to it due to the torture and other degrading conditions that the American hostages were exposed to in Tehran.    For this reason, even though it is never good to give into terror and accede to the demands of groups like Hamas, sometimes, we do it for we lack another way to bring a humanitarian crisis to an end.   And for that reason, I support doing everything that it takes to bring the remaining hostages in Gaza home.

Ayoob Kara served as Israel's communications minister under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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After Iraqi Kurdistan's President Nechirvan Barzani visited Baku, I believe that we Israelis should do everything in our power in order to encourage strong Azerbaijani-Kurdish relations.  Israel has to be close to the Kurds and the Azerbaijanis. We have the same interests. Extremism is a problem for all sides concerned. We must do much to help them both with special technology. It is not just how the mullahs are oppressing both Kurds and South Azerbaijanis.  And we Israelis have a duty to take a stand against it.

As we speak, Iran is getting closer to getting a nuclear weapon.   The best weapon to use against the Iranian nuclear program is to prop up Iran's ethnic minorities in an attempt to topple the mullah's in Tehran.   Regime change is Israel's best hope.  Both the Kurds and the Azerbaijanis are friendly nations, who proudly wave Israeli flags even though they are Muslim.    It is in our interest that both Kurds and Azerbaijanis have a favorable position once the mullah's are toppled, as a free Kurdistan and free South Azerbaijan built on the ashes of Iran will help to create peace and stability in the Middle East.  Thus, Israel should encourage Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev to meet more often with the Iraqi Kurdish President and build up a strong unbreakable tri-lateral relationship.

As Diako Moradi, a Kurdish journalist and human rights activist in Norway, related: "After four decades of Islamist rule in Iran, all of the human rights activism of the minorities has been belittled as separatism and the regime has tried to unite all against them.  This has caused all of the ethnic minorities to be closer to each other, since they know that the only way to defeat the regime is through unity and cooperation."

Moradi added: "Kurds and Azerbaijanis have been living beside each other in Iran for centuries and always lived in peace with each other, but the mullahs tried to divide them and suppress them under national security slogans.    Azerbaijanis and Kurds know that they make a powerful force against the regime.  Therefore, they should know each other better, understand the power of unity, and that they have a common enemy, the mullahs.  They are not enemies of each other, even though they may have some differences, but they can solve them through dialogue and negotiation."

Indeed, as Iran's Morality Police increasingly crack down on the Iranian people including both Kurds and South Azerbaijanis, Israel must do its maximum to support both nations as they bravely fight against the mullahs in Tehran.    After all, the same people who chant "death to Israel" and have a clock that counts down till the destruction of Israel, who targets Israeli and Jewish sites abroad and props up terror groups in Gaza, also deprives both Azerbaijanis and Kurds the right to work and study in their mother tongue.   70,000 Iranian Armenians have schools, but neither 35 million Iranian Azerbaijanis, nor 7 million Iranian Kurds have schools in Iran.

Kurdish dissident Kajal Mohammadi noted that the Iranian regime has been engaged in the systematic killing of Kurds, Al Ahwazi Arabs, Turkmen and Azerbaijanis since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.  According to her, "Right from the start, Khomeini declared jihad against the Kurdish political organizations and accused them of enmity against God.  Khomeini even went as far as labeling the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan as the 'Party of Satan' and sanctioned mass murder against the Kurdish nation. Thousands of Kurds were executed."   The South Azerbaijanis and other ethnic minorities in Iran share a similar story, which helps to increase the bond between Azerbaijanis and Kurds.

Furthermore, from a political point of view, Iran is not the only enemy that Kurds and Azerbaijanis share.  Armenian nationalists claim that Urartu in modern day Iraqi Kurdistan was the "first Armenian kingdom."   Due to their dream of establishing a Greater Armenia, tens of thousands of Muslim Kurds together with Azerbaijanis were forcibly deported from Armenia, where they had lived for thousands of years.

In today's Azerbaijan, these Kurdish refugees live beside Azerbaijanis and enjoy rights as equal citizens in a multi-cultural Azerbaijan.  The Yezidi Kurds who remained behind in Armenia in contrast continue to face discrimination, as demonstrated by the gunning down of a Yezidi funeral in 2017 and the arrest of Yezidi human rights activist Sashik Sultanyan.  Similarly, it should be recalled that the same Armenian nationalists who disdain both Kurds and Azerbaijanis also were allied with Yasser Arafat in Lebanon.  Thus, the time has come for Israelis, Azerbaijanis and Kurds to unite as a force to be reckoned with in the Middle East and across the globe.

Ayoob Kara served as Israel's communications minister under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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After Israeli researcher Elizabeth Tzurkov was held hostage by pro-Iranian militias in Iraq, Israel should take more actions to strengthen one of Iran's greatest foes, the Republic of Azerbaijan.  Like the State of Israel, Azerbaijan faces an uphill struggle in getting badly needed support in Western capital cities in the face of the Iranian threat due to the existence of a bigoted perception against them.

Just as the BDS movement argues in the West for the sanctioning of Israel as it faces an existential threat from Iran, the Armenian lobby does likewise for Azerbaijan on Capitol Hill, even as the mullahs in Tehran hold Azerbaijani civilians in their custody.  Both the BDS movement and such hostile actions against Azerbaijan on Capitol Hill do nothing more than embolden the mullahs in Tehran to continue to oppress both Azerbaijanis and Israelis.

Israel should use all of its diplomatic power in order to help change this situation for Azerbaijan, as Azerbaijan is a tolerant, multi-cultural country neighboring a state that routinely chants "death to Israel," "death to America," and threatens Azerbaijan over their friendship with the State of Israel.  Friends should always stick together in hard times.

Presently, Azerbaijan reportedly supplies Israel with 40% of its gas supply.  At the same time, Israeli technology is being used in order to improve agriculture in Karabakh, so that Azerbaijan can in the future help to alleviate the global wheat shortage in the face of the Ukraine war.  When I visited Azerbaijan, I was in a joint Israeli-Italian dairy farm, which is being operated in the region.  The cooperation between Israel and Azerbaijan has only gotten stronger since then, as there is now an Azerbaijani Embassy in Israel.

However, Azerbaijan is not only a great friend of Israel but also a friend of the West. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg referred to Azerbaijan as a "valued partner." This was due to Azerbaijan's contribution to the NATO mission in Afghanistan, where Azerbaijan together with Turkey secured the Hamid Karzai Airport during the evacuation of Kabul, which allowed for the safe evacuation of NGOs and government personnel as the country was overrun by the Taliban.

According to the Jamestown Institute, Azerbaijan's contributions to the NATO effort started in 2002 with 22 peacekeepers and rose to 120 by the time of the withdrawal. In addition to ground support, Azerbaijani units had facilitated the Afghanistan-bound supply logistics for the allied forces by securing the transit routes for around 40% of the needed military cargo.

Stoltenberg also praised Azerbaijan for its badly needed gas supply to several NATO member states, which are facing an acute shortage of gas and oil in the wake of the war in Ukraine. While Azerbaijan is not fully able to substitute for Russia's supply of gas to Europe, it does play a crucial role in helping Europe to reduce its dependency on Russian gas and oil.

Just as the West should consider Israeli concerns when dealing with Iran, they should also consider Azerbaijani concerns. Israeli and Azerbaijani concerns are no less important than Ukrainian concerns when it comes to dealing with the Iranian threat. Both countries should have a voice at the table as the West considers how to respond to the Iranian nuclear threat.

Ayoob Kara served as Israel's communications minister under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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It was just recently reported that one person was killed and five others were injured in a rocket attack upon Rehovot. This comes as  rockets were fired at Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, and Givatayim in central Israel, in addition to the barrage of rockets that were fired at southern Israel during Operation Shield and Arrow. As a former Israeli communication minister, I wholeheartedly condemn the recent attacks upon innocent civilians by the Palestinian terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip and my heart is with the Israeli people living under rocket fire. I also pray for the souls of the people killed and injured in the recent operation.

I support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he tries to fight against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, who has been firing hundreds of rockets into the State of Israel. According to Palestinian Media Watch, senior level Islamic Jihad terrorist Khalil Al Bahtini, who was one of the terrorists that Israel recently eliminated, proclaimed: "What we were educated on and what our culture is, is that whoever lives on this land and does not merit martyrdom, he has lost out. Allah has honored us in this land with ribat (religious conflict over land claimed to be Islamic) and jihad, and we have no role in this blessed land other than jihad. It is an honor that we are fighting against Israel. It is our honor that we are continuing to blow up all of the Zionist entity's cities."

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad is a proxy of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iran's regime has an agenda to become an empire in the world. For that, they use all their money and that of their allies to increase their power. They support terror everywhere. For this reason, Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi met with Palestinian leaders in Damascus and expressed support for their "struggle against Israel."

As Israel waged Operation Shield and Arrow, there was an exchange of fire between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which was provoked after Azerbaijani positions came under fire, causing one Azerbaijani soldier to be wounded. In that conflict, Iran is backing Armenia because Azerbaijan is a strategic ally of the State of Israel, who recently opened up an embassy in Tel Aviv.

Already, in the past, the Iranian government proclaimed that the "territorial integrity of Armenia is our red line." Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi described the Caucasus region as "part of Iran's history, civilization and culture." For this reason, the Islamic Republic of Iran is staunchly opposed to the Zangezur Corridor, whose construction is pivotal for any Azerbaijani-Armenian peace deal, for it would cut off Iran from Armenia, and they stand behind Armenia as it engages in cross-border attacks against Azerbaijan.

On the other end of the Middle East, the Islamic Republic of Iran is attempting to reconcile with the Saudis and is holding talks where the Turks could reconcile with their proxy regime in Syria, merely so that Israel will be more isolated in the region. The Islamist regime in Tehran is very extremist, religious, and they want the world to be afraid of them. They recently executed two men for engaging in blasphemy, without caring how this would be viewed in the West. They don't care about anything aside from world domination. They don't even care to die.

They believe that the next world is better. This is the main problem. To stop this, one must stop the regime. People don't understand how dangerous the continued existence of this Iranian regime is. Therefore, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he fights against the Islamic Jihad in Gaza should not forget to also fight against their masters in Tehran. After all, at the end of the day, it is the mullahs and not the Islamic Jihad, who pose an existential threat to the State of Israel.

Ayoob Kara served as Israel's communications minister under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Last Friday, an Italian citizen was killed and seven other tourists were wounded in a brutal terror attack in Tel Aviv.  This comes after a barrage of rockets were fired into Israel from both Gaza and Lebanon, and as two young British Israeli citizens were killed in a horrific shooting in Judea and Samaria, with the mother of the girls severely injured.

All of these terror attacks have one thing in common and that is that Iran appears to be the one standing behind them indirectly.  Immediately after that poor Italian man was murdered, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a proxy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, was out in the streets, celebrating.  Indeed, just days prior to these terror attacks, the PIJ and Hamas warned that this would happen due to the tensions surrounding the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

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However, the tensions surrounding the Al-Aqsa Mosque are just a ruse designed to excuse more terror attacks against Israelis.  Is the real reason why the terror is escalating at this particular time in Israel is that Iran would like to punish Israel firstly for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's brave stance against Iran's nuclear program, threatening to act while the rest of the world just whines and complains, and secondly, for Israel successfully building a strategic alliance with Azerbaijan, right alongside Iran's borders?

According to a recent report in Al-Jazeera, Iran's Foreign Ministry recently claimed that the establishment of Azerbaijan's new embassy in Tel Aviv, which was accompanied by a press conference where Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen called for a "united front" to be formed against Iran, constituted a clear national security threat to Iran, which cannot be ignored.

The Iranians are greatly concerned with the fact that their neighbor is increasingly becoming close to a country that it calls the "little Satan," with Azerbaijan supplying Israel oil and Israel being one of the main arms suppliers for Azerbaijan.

However, while relations between Baku and Tehran have been tense for quite some time, these relations have reached a boiling point after Azerbaijan opened its embassy in Tel Aviv. Around this period of time, six Iranian spies were arrested in Baku and four Iranian diplomats were declared persona non grata in Azerbaijan, thus forcing them to leave their posts.  These incidents occurred after Iran attempted to assassinate an Azerbaijani MP and attacked the Azerbaijani Embassy in Tehran, killing a security guard.

As Tehran seeks to punish the Azeris for opening an embassy in Tel Aviv, they also seek to punish Israel for having the audacity to build an alliance with the Turkic states against Tehran.  They believe that this alliance together with the Iran protests has the potential to cripple their regime.  In fact, the Iranian regime recently blamed Dr. Mordechai Kedar, who sits on the Board of the Dona Gracia Center for Diplomacy, for the recent Iran protests alongside an Ahwaz dissident.

The greatest fear that the Iranians got is that Israel, Azerbaijan, and Turkey will join forces with the Azerbaijanis inside of Iran, who will work together with the other ethnic groups in the country, to topple the mullah's regime. In the eyes of Tehran, this is a greater threat even than a direct Israeli military attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, as it could spell their own doom. That could also suggest that their proxies the PIJ, Hezbollah, and Hamas seek to punish Israel for trying to create such a union, just as they already punished the Azeris for befriending "the little Satan."  And for this reason, we can assume Iran is the brains behind all of the terror that we have witnessed in recent days.

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Growing up as an Israeli minister, the Shoah has always been a pivotal part of my life. Every weekend, a family from Tel Aviv came to our home.  Their names were Rosa and Ernest Gold.  I understood that they ran away from Europe due to the Shoah.  My grandfather knew him and invited him to be part of our family because he did not have any family or children and they married in Kibbutz Ha-On, but then they left the kibbutz to go to Tel Aviv.  As a child, I was raised as the adopted son that they never managed to have. Due to this upbringing, I always have had pivotal respect for all victims of genocide and ethnic cleansing. And it is precisely for this reason that I always stand in solidarity with Azerbaijan.

I have visited Karabakh twice, where I was a personal witness to Armenia's campaign against Azerbaijan, where the Karabakh region and seven other Azerbaijani districts were occupied for close to thirty years by Armenia in violation of four UN Security Council Resolutions.  I was in Shusha and along the Armenian and Iranian border six months after the Second Karabakh War ended and more recently, I was in Aghdam last June, which is otherwise known as the Hiroshima of the Caucuses.  On both trips, I drove by mile after mile of ruined homes and villages, burned farmland and polluted rivers on dirt roads, just to get there, taking notice that there were cars along the way that did not survive the journey.

The plight of Aghdam was especially horrific.  Everything that was there, whether refrigerators, furniture, construction material or family heirlooms, was confiscated by the Armenians in the First Karabakh War and then sold to the Iranians.

What I witnessed there reminded me of the horrific situation I witnessed during the First Lebanon War.   In fact, what I witnessed in Karabakh was worse than what I saw in Lebanon, as at least in Lebanon you could find fish in the rivers and cows in the field.  But in Karabakh, one could not even find these things.

Azerbaijan was ready to sit down and negotiate a peace treaty with Armenia in order to obtain a brighter future for both their people and the Armenian people.  Last August, Azerbaijan and Armenia came very close to signing a permanent peace treaty, which would have ended Armenia's status as a land-locked blockaded country and helped both Azerbaijan and Armenia to enjoy prosperity, tranquility and a brighter future.   However, in the talks between both countries, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan decided to backtrack at the last minute on issues that were already agreed upon between both countries by refusing to recognize Azerbaijan's rights in Karabakh and the seven Azerbaijani districts in violation of the Tripartite Agreement that was signed between Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia.

And then his country decided to attack Azerbaijani soldiers in mid-September, killing 80 Azerbaijani soldiers, in addition to laying additional landmines in the region, a reality that has made the Karabakh region almost uninhabitable and led to the death of many innocent Azerbaijanis. In fact, more than 240 Azerbaijanis have been killed by landmines in recent times and 11,270 square kilometers in Karabakh is inhabitable because of landmines laid by Armenia in violation of international law.

Around the same period of time, members of the Armenian Diaspora community attacked the Azerbaijani Embassy in Paris, which in itself is a blatant violation of international law.   But when Azerbaijan decided to defend themselves following the border clashes initiated by Armenia, then all of a sudden there are certain voices in the media that point an accusatory finger at the State of Israel for its alliance with Azerbaijan based on unverified reports in social media, some of which have proven to be blatantly false.

An example of this is an article published on October 13, 2022 in The Jerusalem Post titled "The shame I feel as an Armenian Jew," a propaganda piece that attempts to cast a shadow on the current friendly relations between Israel and Azerbaijan. This is blatantly unfair.  Armenia is a proxy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, while Azerbaijan is Israel's eyes and ears on Tehran.   Furthermore, Azerbaijan is a multi-cultural, pluralistic and tolerant country, which I personally witnessed maintained the main Armenian church in Baku for historic conservation and is in the process of rebuilding churches in Karabakh.

In contrast, Armenia destroyed countless Azerbaijani mosques and even some Albanian and Russian Orthodox churches during their close to thirty-year occupation of the Karabakh region.   Furthermore, despite that occupation, there is still a thriving Christian community in Azerbaijan, as I visited several churches and a Christian museum in the center of Baku.   However, Azerbaijanis have been ethnically cleansed from Armenia.   And yet, there are some who blame Israel for building an alliance with Azerbaijan due to Israel's connection to the Shoah, as if the history of the Caucuses ended in 1915 and the more recent Khojaly Genocide did not exist.   However, I argue it is precisely because of our connection with the Shoah that I believe that we should stand with a country who has multiculturalism, religious tolerance and pluralism as a national policy and who fell victim to a horrific ethnic cleansing campaign, which robbed Azerbaijanis of one fifth of their country, and not with a country who serves as a proxy for the Islamic Republic of Iran and systematically falsifies videos and photos to promote their agenda Pallywood-style.

Ayoob Kara, who is running in the Nov. 1 Knesset election as part of Likud, served as minister of communications.

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Not too long ago, I visited Azerbaijan, where I had the honor of witnessing how the Azerbaijani people proudly waved the Israeli flag in appreciation to the Jewish state for the military, medical and other humanitarian assistance that the State of Israel provided to Azerbaijan following the Second Karabakh War.   Indeed, given the strong historical friendship between the State of Israel and Azerbaijan, this should not surprise anyone.

Azerbaijan is one of the few countries that is anti-Semitism free and has enjoyed diplomatic relations with the Jewish state since the former Soviet republic obtained independence in the 1990's.   Following the Abraham Accords, Azerbaijan opened up a Tourism and Trade Office in Tel Aviv, which has further strengthened the ties between Israel and Azerbaijan.  And I am awaiting the day when we will finally have an operational Azerbaijani Embassy in Israel.

The strengthened relationship between Israel and Azerbaijan is pivotal to assisting Israel's strategic position in a region dominated by Hamas, Hezbollah, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Islamic Republic of Iran.   As the recent stabbing of Salman Rushdie in New York and the death threats against Israeli Ambassador to Azerbaijan George Deek demonstrate, Iran's tentacles spread very far.   Thus, it is very important that Israel build alliances with other countries in the region who share our values and thus expand the Abraham Accords further.

July 5, 2022 marked the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the State Committee on Work with Diaspora of the Republic of Azerbaijan which is a government agency equivalent to Israel's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs. As a person who has visited Azerbaijan more than once and is more or less familiar with the activities of this institution, I can state with confidence that the Committee headed by Chairman Fuad Muradov can be congratulated on its successful activities in recent years. Since 2018, when the aforementioned person began to head the Committee, the Azerbaijani diaspora has gone through a tense and proud stage of reorganization, self-promotion and confirmation of its existence on an international scale, which has greatly worked to enhance the strong strategic alliance between the State of Israel and Azerbaijan.

Regardless where Azerbaijanis live, they feel great pride in their state, which has led to the establishment of 18 Azerbaijan Houses in 10 countries, 13 coordinating councils in 27 countries, Karabakh schools in Switzerland, Sweden, Poland and France, Diaspora Youth Camps, and the formation of the Youth Network of the Azerbaijani Diaspora.   In the State of Israel, this has led to the Azerbaijani Diaspora hosting a number of events together with my Economic Peace Center and the Dona Gracia Center for Diplomacy.

This included but is not limited to a conference at the Begin Center on the Khojaly Genocide, a Newroz celebration together with an Israeli Dance Group and a Caucuses dance group at Beth Israel Congregation, an event honoring the legacy of Yemenite and Azerbaijan Jewry at the Yemenite Museum in Netanya, a celebration of Azerbaijan's Salvation Day inside a synagogue together with the For the Descendants of the Caucuses Organization, etc.   As I seek to enter the Knesset, the Dona Gracia Center for Diplomacy continues with what I started at the Economic Peace Center and not too long ago held a conference raising awareness about the problematic nature of landmines, where I appeared as a speaker.

Of course, what the Dona Gracia Center for Diplomacy is doing is not exclusive to the State of Israel.   The historic victory of Azerbaijani army in the Patriotic War (2020) under the leadership of Supreme Commander-in-Chief, President Ilham Aliyev resulting in the liberation of Karabakh became a symbol of unity, solidarity and pride for the Azerbaijani people. The great victory marked the beginning of the activities of the Azerbaijani diaspora. Entering a new stage, the Azerbaijani diaspora is trying to preserve the unity and solidarity it demonstrated during the pandemic and the Patriotic War, and to further strengthen the victory won on the battlefield with its successful activities in the field of diaspora activities and public relations.

The cooperation between the Jewish Diaspora and the Azerbaijani Diaspora deserves the highest praise.   In this respect, the official visits of the delegation headed by Committee Chairman Fuad Muradov to Israel in 2019 and 2022 should be highlighted. His recent visit which took place in June 2022 was a major testament to the strength of the Azerbaijani-Israeli relationship.  Within the visit Muradov was the guest of Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai, coming to learn more about the well-established Israel and Jewish-Diaspora connections, which consist of many initiatives and organizational Jewish life. Here he not only met with the heads of the ministry, but also with senior officials in the Jewish Agency, Birthright Israel and other organizations dealing with connecting Jews of the Diaspora with Israel. By the way, more than just having similar diasporic interests, Jewish and Israeli leaders visiting Azerbaijan is important to see how Azerbaijan brings the model of how Muslim countries can cooperate with Jews, while not harming other interests.

For centuries, Jews and Azerbaijanis have enjoyed living in an atmosphere of peace and friendship.     Throughout history, Jews played a pivotal role in Azerbaijani society.    While the rest of the world mistreated Jews and behaved in an anti-Semitic atmosphere, the Jews of Azerbaijan were treated as equal citizens who are part of a large family full of love, solidarity and brotherhood.   Representatives of the Jewish community of Azerbaijan are active members of the Azerbaijani society and contribute to the development of this country, as well as the dissemination of information about Azerbaijani realities, including the development processes taking place in Azerbaijan.  Thus, Azerbaijan is a reliable partner for the State of Israel and I look forward to more cooperation between the two countries in all arenas, whether military, economic, diplomatic, educational, medical, etc.

Ayoob Kara, who is running in the Nov. 1 Knesset election as part of Likud, served as minister of communications.

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In recent days, Maryam Azizvand and her son Ronahi Khodeie were injured in a landmine explosion in West Azerbaijan.  This comes after Yalpiri Yildirav, a Turkish citizen, was injured in a landmine explosion in Takavard village in the war-torn Karabakh region.  And last year, two journalists were killed by landmines in the same area of Azerbaijan.

According to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, more than 4,200 people of whom 42% are children have been falling victim to landmines and ERW's annually in conflict zones across the globe.  In fact, there are even landmines left over from the Second World War, which as of yet have not been cleared.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, "Mines are now proliferating so fast that there are perhaps as many as 110 million of them spread in 64 countries worldwide, and it is estimated that 2 to 5 million more mines are being laid each year. Scattered like deadly seeds, they kill and maim between 1.000 and 2.000 people per month, most of them innocent civilians."

In a conference at the prestigious ADA University which I attended together with 22 foreign experts, Fuad Muradov, the Chairman of the State Committee on the Work with the Diaspora, noted how the conflict with Armenia and the use of landmines had completely destroyed the cities of Shusha and Agdam, as well as many other towns in the Karabakh region.  He added: "Our main goal is to build peace in the region.  However, for that to happen, all landmines must be removed and removing them is an uphill struggle when the maps you have are not reliable." To date, Armenia has refused to hand over all of the landmine maps and this blocks peacebuilding.

As part of my recent trip to Azerbaijan, I was in Aghdam.   Known as the Hiroshima of the Caucuses, the city today is a ghost town, as the population was ethnically cleansed from the area and all of the homes in the city lay in ruins.   In the past, Aghdam had a population of 100,000 people, who used to enjoy theaters, cafes, restaurants, vibrant Azerbaijani tea houses, places of worship and even museums and historic monuments in the area. They all have been destroyed.  Even a loaf of bread from the Bread Museum dating from World War II was not spared.  Nor were the cemeteries, as the gold teeth were removed from the graves and sold to the Iranians, while the bodies were tossed away, deprived of a proper burial.

To make matters worse, the massive planting of landmines in the city inhibits reconstruction efforts.   Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev stressed that Armenia planted more than one million landmines in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.  Furthermore, more than 220 Azerbaijanis have been killed or injured by landmines in the Karabakh region since the Second Karabakh War ended.

Mined areas are the greatest disaster of our time.  During our visit, we stated to the government of Azerbaijan that we could provide technological support to Azerbaijan in the field of mind clearance.  Israel has invented a new robotic technology to clear landmines.   With the help of these robot machines, any type of mine can be safely removed from various depths of the earth without manual interference.  We have informed the Azerbaijani government about this in detail and made our proposals.

I believe we have the technology in Israel to solve this problem.  We used it here to clear away landmines from the Golan Heights.   We have special systems that we can send far away.   With these systems, they can find where the landmines are and what is the best way to remove them, even though only 25% of the landmine maps that Armenia gave to Azerbaijan are usable and many more have yet to be delivered.  Israel has become the best state not only to create robots to find landmines, but in robots to use for everything.

Today, we don't send soldiers to fight anymore.  No one else can do the same.  As discussed in a book that was recently written about me by the journalist Rachel Avraham titled "Ayoob Kara: The Man Behind the Abraham Accords," the trauma that I experienced during the First Lebanon War prompted me to strongly believe that robots rather than people should fight against Hezbollah, as I don't want other people to suffer as I have.  I will never forget how I lost two brothers because such robots were not available at that time.

Similarly, I don't want people to continue to be killed in landmines long after the wars and conflicts are over, as this is a major impediment to peace building in the Caucuses and across the globe.   Our technologies can give all of the solutions for Karabakh and for what Azerbaijan and other countries need to find to rid our world of landmines, once and for all, and by doing that, making peace will become closer to being within the realm of the possible.

Ayoob Kara is running in the Likud Primaries.  He served as minister of communications.

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