Prime minister heads to Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan for two days ‘to strengthen diplomatic, security, and economic ties’
BY RAPHAEL AHREN AND STUART WINER, TOI
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara depart for Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan on December 13, 2016 (Haim Zach / GPO)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took off Tuesday morning for Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, pointing to his trip to the two Muslim countries as an indication that rather than being politically isolated, Israel is courted by countries around the world.
During his two-day visit, aimed at fostering security, economic, and diplomatic ties, Netanyahu will become the first sitting Israeli prime minister to visit the region in almost 25 years of diplomatic relations between Jerusalem and the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. Visits by Israeli leaders to non-Arab Muslim-majority countries are rare.
Speaking to reporters at the airport, the prime minister said the trip was a further indication of Israeli success in developing relationships with Muslim counties.
“These are two large and significant countries in the Muslim world, and our goal is to strengthen diplomatic, security, and economic ties with them,” Netanyahu said. “In complete contrast to what you have heard now and then, not only does Israel not suffer from political isolation, Israel is a courted country.”
Both countries are important allies. Azerbaijan, which has an extended border with Iran, is a secular state that has long had warm relations with Israel. Nearly 98 percent of its 10 million citizens are Muslim, the vast majority of them Shiites. Baku is one of Israel’s main trading partners, buying weapons systems and providing the Jewish state with the lion’s share of its oil. Israeli trade with Azerbaijan is said to be significantly higher than with France, for example.
“These countries very much want to strengthen ties to Israel, and following the strengthening of our ties with Asian powers, African countries, and Latin American countries, now is the time for relations with important countries in the Muslim world. This is part of a clear policy of reaching out. Israel’s relations are flourishing in an unprecedented manner.”
Netanyahu, who is accompanied by his wife Sara, said that his visit to Kazakhstan, the first by a sitting Israeli prime minister, has “historic dimensions.” He briefly visited Azerbaijan in 1997, during his first term as prime minister, becoming the first Israeli leader to visit the country.
Kazakhstan, where Netanyahu and his delegation will spend two nights, is interested in Israeli counterterrorism know-how and in doing business with Israel’s high-tech sector, a means of diversifying its economy, which is currently dominated by exports of hydrocarbons.
Azerbaijan is reportedly interested in acquiring Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, a deal that is likely to be discussed during this week’s visit.
Some 70 percent of Kazakhstan’s 18 million residents are Muslim. Starting January 1, Kazakhstan — the ninth-largest country in the world — will assume a two-year position as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. It traditionally follows the lead of its top ally, Russia, in supporting pro-Palestinian resolutions, something Netanyahu is expected to try to revert.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu will meet with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev at Baku’s Zagulba Palace, where officials from both countries will sign bilateral agreements and make statements. After lunch with Aliyev, Netanyahu will lay a wreath at ??hidl?r Xiyaban?, or Martyrs Lane, a memorial dedicated to Azeris killed by the Soviets during the 1990 January Massacre and the Nagorno-Karabakh War, which lasted from 1988 to 1994.
Azerbaijan and neighboring Armenia have warred for years over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but ruled by Armenian separatists. Fighting between the two sides flared up earlier this year. Armenian forces claimed Baku deployed Israeli-made kamikaze drones in a battle against Armenian “volunteers.”
After his visit at Martyrs Lane, the prime minister will visit the Ohr Avner Jewish educational complex, operated by the Chabad movement, where he is scheduled to meet with representatives of Azerbaijan’s Jewish community.
Rabbi Yona Yaakobi stands in front of the larger synagogue currently active in the Jewish Azerbaijani town of Krasnaya Sloboda. (Courtesy)
It is estimated that more than 20,000 Jews live in Azerbaijan. Most of them reside in the capital, while smaller communities exist in the Guba region and elsewhere. Most famous among these is Krasnaya Sloboda (Red Town), which used to be thought of as the largest Jewish locality outside Israel with 18,000 residents, but currently only about 1,000 Jews live there.
On Tuesday evening, Netanyahu will leave Azerbaijan and head to Astana, where on Wednesday morning he is set to meet with Kazakhstan’s longtime leader, Nursultan Nazarbayev, at the iconic Akorda presidential palace. The two leaders will hold a working meeting and then attend a bilateral business forum.
Netanyahu will then meet the chairman of Kazakhstan’s Senate, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, before heading to the Astana’s new Great Synagogue for a meeting with the local Jewish community.
It is estimated that between 12,000 and 30,000 Jews live in Kazakhstan, most of them in the country’s former capital, Almaty.
Netanyahu, who is also accompanied by Russian-speaking Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze’ev Elkin, will conclude his visit Wednesday with a business forum in Astana before heading home Thursday morning.
I remember when Israel had a secret agreement to use one of those countries’ territory as a refueling base to hit Iran’s nuclear infrastructure years ago but Obama sabotaged it by leaking the plans to the media. The liberal media like to attack those countries as human rights abusers while mostly keeping silent about the rest of the Muslim world’s daily horrors. They attack Putin because he suppressed the Islamists of Chechnya. Their idea of a human rights abuser is a country that doesn’t tolerate the worst human rights abusers in the world. It’s Walter Duranty all over again.
Oh, and in the interview with Bibi where that unspeakable journalist seemed to chide Bibi for having poor personal rapport with Obama. Let me tell you, After ardently urging people to vote for McCain/Palin all year, I wound up voting for Obama because my mother acted like it would kill her if I didn’t (won’t fall for that again) , I thought the new right wing majority in the Knesset would be Obama proof (which it wasn’t) and I thought it didn’t matter because the polls said he would win by 80 percent (which he did) in NY; McCain didn’t even bother having an HQ in NY, just in New Jersey, and I thought cynically, what the hey, maybe I”ll get to bask in the glow of being on the winning team. Felt like crap, as it happens. But, the final straw was in Obama’s first week in office when he made Bibi use the service entrance, kept him waiting for hours while he went upstairs and had dinner with his family without warning, and then posed for the papers with his feet on the desk, while talking about Israel and right after reading how he humiliated our homeland’s Prime Minister over and over (this was long before the sotto voce remark to Putin about having to deal with him and having more flexibility after the election). I don’t know if it was the same week he kissed the Saudi King’s hand, toured the Middle East skipping Israel, and said that Israel was created because of the Holocaust from CAIRO!. But, when I saw that photo of his feet on the desk — parodied in the Latma tv video with the flippers — I flipped. I personally went down — nobody does that, it’s a closet and it takes a year to take effect — to the NYC Board of Elections to change my registration from Dem to independent. I couldn’t bear even to be in the same party with that anti-semitic schmuck even another day! “Above all to thine own self be true!” “Because you have to live with you.” – two quotes from “The Nutty Professor” (1963) Jerry Lewis.