Just over a year ago, Azerbaijan attacked the ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. That was five days after the State Department falsely assured the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the United States would never tolerate military action against the democratic, self-governing entity.
In the days that followed, Azerbaijan ethnically cleansed the entirety of the region, ending a millennia-old Armenian community there. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev did not even maintain a small residual Armenian community to trot out as a museum exhibit for visiting dignitaries, as he does with Azerbaijani Jews.
In the wake of the Armenian community’s eradication, U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power traveled to Yerevan to express sympathy. Power, who hopes to trade her USAID position for the helm of the State Department in a Harris administration, reportedly spent more on photographers to document her visit than she did on the Armenian community in Nagorno-Karabakh, though she promised $12 million in emergency assistance.
Just last week, USAID and the State Department supplemented that by offering $20 million to Armenia. The U.S. said most of it will be used for cybersecurity and fighting climate change rather than enabling Armenia to protect itself or care for Nagorno-Karabakh refugees. The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan said the desire to “spotlight democratic progress” motivated its decision to provide the country additional aid, though the U.S. provided Azerbaijan, one of the world’s most authoritarian states, with nearly as much.
On Sept. 24, shortly after Armenia’s Independence Day, Vice President Kamala Harris called for the reversal of Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing.
“The right for Armenians displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh to return safely to their homes is vital to restoring dignity to the Armenian people and stability to the region,” she declared.
It was a wise statement and one former President Donald Trump’s team should emulate. However, the vice president’s subsequent action suggests she wants Armenian support on the cheap.
For 18 years, both the United Nations and the Lebanese government refused to enforce U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which called for Hezbollah’s disarmament in exchange for Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon. Not only did the U.N. and Lebanon allow Hezbollah to rearm with more than 100,000 missiles and drones, but both also remained largely silent as Hezbollah conducted near-daily missile and rocket attacks into northern Israel, driving 60,000 Israelis from their homes.
Israel finally had enough, especially after a Hezbollah rocket killed 12 Druze children playing soccer in a northern Israeli town. In an escalating series of precise strikes, Israel decapitated the Hezbollah leadership and neutered its fighters. As Israeli forces pushed north to destroy Hezbollah tunnels and military facilities, thousands of Lebanese fled north. In the capital, the Lebanese fled Hezbollah’s stronghold, the Dahiyeh neighborhood, knowing that Hezbollah planned to use them as human shields and knowing Israel no longer cared.
Enter Harris. In an Oct. 5 statement, she announced, “The people of Lebanon are facing an increasingly dire humanitarian situation.”
To alleviate civilian suffering, she continued, “the United States will provide nearly $157 million in additional assistance to the people of Lebanon.”
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Something is wrong and morally perverse when the U.S. awards the Lebanese temporarily fleeing their homes five times what it offers Armenians ethnically cleansed solely based on their ethnicity and religion. Armenia’s government works with the U.S. to counter money laundering and become more transparent. Lebanon is a morass of corruption, and Hezbollah thoroughly infiltrates the government.
Perhaps, rather than treat U.S. aid as an entitlement or use it to signal virtue ahead of elections, both Democrats and Republicans should reward allies and not countries with a decadeslong track record of embezzlement and tolerating terrorism.
Michael Rubin is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is director of analysis at the Middle East Forum and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.