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So Armenians are an existential threat to Israel because they live in Nagorno-Karabakh and the Azers want them gone, and also they don’t like us much. I’m sorry, but that’s carrying realpolitic to far. The Azers will help against Iran because they also are threatened. Just like Jews are not a threat to Jordan just by living in Judah and Samaria, the Armenians are not a threat to the Azers. Higher purposes, on the contrary, are not a luxury. The Jewish People exist for a higher purpose, to make the world into a dwelling place for G-dliness. Participating in mass murder contradicts that purpose, and therefore must stop. How can we point to our own victimhood in the face of genocidal maniacs, if we’re in bed with the persecutors of another victimized people. What’s next? We’ll help ISIS kill Yazidis if they give us a shot at Assad? Sorry. No. What’s wrong is wrong.

[So Armenians are an existential threat to Israel because they live in Nagorno-Karabakh and the Azers want them gone, and also they don’t like us much.]

Armenians aren’t an existential threat to much, but access to Azeri airspace might be of existential importance to Israel. Israel’s relations with the Azeris could become much stronger for several reasons. First, the Azeris have 3 powers on their borders that might conceivably annex their entire country - Turkey, Russia and Iran. Second, the Azeri relationship with Israel is basically a roundabout relationship with the US. Israeli pols can put in a good word for Azerbaijan when no one else will. Third, Azeris are some of the most secular Muslims around, and unlike Syria’s Alawites, Azeri Muslims are neither a tiny minority besieged by a majority of fanatical zealots nor intrinsically hostile to Israel.

Whereas Armenia - it’s really hard to see what it has going for it as far as either being naturally inclined towards warm relations with Israel or being useful as a friend of Israel. Depending on how you look at it, Armenia has Russia either covering its back or ready to recover it as an oblast. No one’s about to re-enact the Armenian genocide. This is just one of those territorial skirmishes that could go back and forth for centuries. What better time to get in Azerbaijan’s good books?

Last, but not least, providing supplies to the Azeris would show the Muslim world at large that (1) Israel is not inalterably hostile to Muslim interests and (2) Israel is not a fair weather friend. This would help Israel improve relations with Jordan and Egypt while creating the possibility of even more diplomatic openings with the Muslim world.