That was a Muslim province not a Christian one.
Moscow is 25% Muslim and Russia’s fastest growing demographic is Muslims.
Putin knows he has to fill his meat-grinder army with bodies.
What better way to do it than with Muslims and in order to do so, target Israel?
Meanwhile it has been reported that Israel supports the Muslim Azerbaijanis against the Christian Armenians. Maybe they think there’s not that much difference between Muslims and Christians. A lot of Christian nations have a history of anti-Semitism, at least in earlier times, but I don’t know if that is true in the case of Armenia.