Improbable romance between Israel and Azerbaijan

Since its founding in 1948, Muslim-majority allies have been hard to come by for the Jewish state. Yet an improbable romance continues to develop between Israel and Azerbaijan.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon took a surprise trip to Azerbaijan in September, marking the first-ever visit by the holder of his position to a Muslim-majority nation in the Southern Caucasus region. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and former president Shimon Peres have also visited Azerbaijan, and Azeri dignitaries have made the trip to Israel. Though it is most often attributed to a shared interest in combating the threat posed by Iran, experts say the blooming Israeli-Azeri friendship goes much deeper.

“Having a close link with a Shiite-majority nation helps shatter the notion of an Islamic rejectionist front against Israel,” said American Jewish Committee (AJC) Executive Director David Harris, who in 2012 received the “Dostlug” Order of Friendship, Azerbaijan’s highest honor for a foreign citizen, from Azeri President Ilham Aliyev. “For Azerbaijan, located in a tough neighborhood, Israel is a very valued source of economic and strategic assistance.”

While warm Israeli-Azeri ties have received increased media attention of late, the phe-nomenon is not a new one. Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, recalled a sympathetic environment for Jews and Israel when the 52-member umbrella visited Azerbaijan in 2006.

“We were taken aback by the welcome we received, by the freedom enjoyed by the Jew-ish community, the fact that Israeli flags fly in the synagogues, that when we met with Jewish students on campus and asked them about anti-Semitism, they said they never experienced it, nor anti-Israel expressions, except from very limited groups,” Hoenlein said.