Israel Must Choose Better in Nagorno-Karabakh
Benjamin Netanyahu’s current policy of realpolitik risks putting the Jewish state on the wrong side of history.
The ravages of war.
Photographer: BULENT KILIC/AFPLast Saturday, two rival ethnic groups staged a bloody brawl on the road between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Israel has had its share of political violence lately, but this was not a clash between Jews and Palestinian Arabs, or supporters and opponents of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It was a fight between Israeli Armenians and Azeris over Nagarno-Karabakh, a territory that Armenia and Azerbaijan are at war over.
Most people here have never heard of Nagarno-Karabakh and have no interest in who wins control of the long-disputed territory in the South Caucasus that sits within Azerbaijan but is Armenian populated and controlled. But a front of that distant war has now been opened here. It may -- and should -- force Israel to do make some difficult strategic and moral choices. And it could open some interesting opportunities.