Armenia was one of the 87 countries that on December 31 voted in favor of a UN General Assembly resolution calling on the International Court of Justice (IJC) to provide an opinion on “Israel’s prolonged occupation, settlement, and annexation of Palestinian territory.”

The resolution was adopted after 87 countries voted in its favor, with 26 countries opposed and 53 abstaining. 

All the Arab countries, including those that have “normalized relations” with Israel, voted in favor of the resolution, along with China and Russia. 

Azerbaijan and Turkey voted in favor of the resolution.  

The resolution was opposed by Israel, the US, and a host of European including the UK and Germany. 

France, India, and Brazil were among the 53 countries that abstained. 

Herb Keinon, an American-born Israeli journalist and columnist for The Jerusalem Post, penned an article yesterday in which he asks why many so-called friends of Israel voted in favor of the resolution he deems “anti-Israel”.

“Azerbaijan, for instance, is a Shi’ite country with whom Israel enjoys good diplomatic ties, which just opened up an embassy in Tel Aviv and is one of Israel’s best markets for arms. Yet it voted against Israel on this vote. There are all kinds of explanations, the most prominent being that it is a Muslim country and does not want to set itself apart from all the other Muslim lands, which, with just a few exceptions, voted against Israel. Still, should Jerusalem expect more?” writes Keinon.

He then attempts to belittle many of those countries that voted in favor of the Palestinians as “authoritarian or hybrid regimes”. 

“For instance, of the 87 countries that voted for the Palestinians, some 43% are classified in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual democracy index as being authoritarian regimes, with another 21 being classified as hybrid regimes, which are states with authoritarian and democratic features, such as Mexico, Armenia, Turkey and Pakistan. Only a quarter of the states that voted for the Palestinians were either full or flawed democracies,” he writes.

Keinon wraps up his argument alleging that ‘democracies support democratic Israel’ by writing,” By contrast, 62% of those countries who voted for Israel were democracies, and only 19% were authoritative or hybrid regimes.”

Photo: From archive (Getty Images)