When Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, brutally murdering more than 1,200 Jews, and kidnapping over 250 Israelis, the images on TV and the internet of thousands rallying in support of the carnage made it hard to believe that Muslims and Jews could ever have a future of peaceful coexistence.
Overnight, the 2020 Abraham Accords — which raised hopes for recognition and economic relations between the Jewish state and multiple Muslim countries — suddenly seemed like a distant memory.
This bold, courageous project by the first Trump administration gave rise to the prospect of peaceful and prosperous relationships between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan.
Now, the idea of rebooting the Abraham Accords faces an uncertain future.
But nearly 30 years before the Abraham Accords, Jewish-Muslim relations arguably had their finest moment.
In 1991, the Muslim-majority nation of Azerbaijan gained its independence from the Soviet Union, establishing bilateral, strategic, and economic relations with the Jewish state the following year.
Since then, Azerbaijan has worked tirelessly to strengthen relations with Israel, nurturing a relationship — friendship — which serves as a model of what is possible when Jews and Muslims prioritize improving security and quality of life for their people.
That relationship experienced its latest iconic moment during last month’s Eurovision song contest. Israel’s participation in the competition was met with detractors and condemnation by multiple European media outlets and countries such as Spain, Finland and Slovenia.
Azerbaijan was not only publicly supportive of the Jewish state’s participation, but their own representation in the event was a band called “Mamagama,” whose members happen to be Azerbaijani Jews.
Israel would go on to finish second in the competition, receiving the most votes by the European public, including Azerbaijan’s citizens voting overwhelmingly for Israeli singer Yuval Raphael.
More recent weeks have seen horrifying developments for American Jews, including the murder of two Israeli Embassy staff members in Washington, D.C., and a Molotov cocktail terrorist attack on a pro-Israel march in Boulder, Colorado.
Supposedly “pro-Palestinian” calls to “globalize the intifada” have demonstrated their true colors: heinous and violent antisemitism.
Yet on a parallel track, the Israeli-Azerbaijani relationship is characterized by mutual respect and understanding of history.
For nearly 1,500 years, Mizrahi Jews have called this part of the world their home.
Often referred to as “Mountain Jews,” for almost 300 years Jews in Azerbaijan have had residential and property owner rights in the Muslim-majority nation.
Today, over 30,000 Jews live in Azerbaijan.
They are treated with respect and tolerance in this Muslim-majority nation, which includes the village of Krasnaya Sloboda, the only remaining all-Jewish community outside the United States and Israel.
Today, Israel imports approximately 60% of its oil from Azerbaijan, while the nations engage in deep collaboration in the defense arena.
What may be the biggest obstacle to any future peace between Israel and Muslim countries is that antisemitism and disdain for Israel are baked into the education curriculum in most Muslim countries.
Textbooks and children’s television programs promote what can only be described as hatred of Jews, while classroom maps either replace the Jewish state with “Palestine” or eliminate it altogether.
The opposite exists in Azerbaijan.
Earlier this year, Azerbaijan became the first Muslim nation to proactively combat hatred for Jews by including a definition of antisemitism in school textbooks.
In 2010, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev inaugurated a Jewish school, the Ohr Avner Education Center in the city of Baku.
It may sound simplistic, but for any future peace to exist between Israel and the Muslim world writ large, children cannot be taught to hate.
If Muslim children are taught to hate Jews at home and in the classroom, how can peace ever be achieved if the kids are literally born to hate?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called Israel-Azerbaijan ties “something we can show the world. . . .The world sees so much intolerance, so much darkness, and here is an example of what relations can and should be between Muslims and Jews everywhere.”
Peace treaties and ceasefires are the dominion of governments, but tolerance and friendship are ultimately decided by the people, not the politicians.
Azerbaijan is what can only be described as a pioneer in positive Muslim relations with Israel. Both nations are not only strategic partners for economic, technological and security reasons.
There is also real support — friendship — between the two governments, but more importantly, the citizens of these two countries.
The recent antisemitic attacks in the U.S. represent precisely the kind of terrorism that Azerbaijan is committed to preventing and rooting out.
In April, the Azerbaijani security services foiled an Iranian plot to assassinate a rabbi in Baku. And in May, the man who murdered Azerbaijan’s security chief at the country’s embassy in Tehran in January 2023 was executed.
Flourishing Jewish-Muslim ties are not a far-fetched dream. They have been a reality for over 30 years. The Azerbaijan-Israel relationship is the blueprint for peace.
Paul Miller is a Chicago area political consultant. He’s president of the news and public policy group Haym Salomon Center. His commentary has been published in USA Today, New York Daily News, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Newsweek, and The Hill. Follow him on X and Tik Tok @pauliespoint. Read More Paul Miller — Here.
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