Putin responds to the attack on Israel in a subdued manner. That Is Very Powerful.
Vladimir Putin has often hinted at cordial relations with Israel. But his silence following the assault on Saturday shows how the conflict in Ukraine has harmed relations between the two nations.
Russian President Vladimir V. Putin has long portrayed himself as Israel’s and the Jewish people’s friend.
In 2008, he played a role in establishing visa-free travel between Russia and Israel. In 2012, he oversaw the construction of a sizable Jewish museum in Moscow. And in 2020, he presented a memorial to the victims of Nazi Germany’s Leningrad siege alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.
But in the midst of the biggest attack on Israel in 50 years, Mr. Putin’s previous admiration for Israel seems startlingly absent. Even if Mr. Putin previously released such messages of condolences in the wake of terrorist acts in Israel, more than three days had passed since the beginning of the Hamas assault.
And despite speaking with Israeli leaders at least 11 times in 2022 and getting to know Mr. Netanyahu well during more than a decade of meetings and phone calls, he has still not phoned him. Instead, on Monday, Mr. Putin’s spokesman adopted a conciliatory tone, stating that Russia was “extremely concerned” and urging an immediate end to the hostilities.
Commentators reacted to the attack on Israel with a barely veiled sense of delight on Russian state television and in the pro-Kremlin blogosphere, portraying it as a sign of Western weakness and the beginning of a war that may weaken support for Ukraine from the West.
The abrupt change highlights one impact of Mr. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine: the steep deterioration in Moscow and Israel’s relationship over the past 18 months, which some Jewish leaders worry also portends an increase in antisemitism in Russia.
It is also the most recent crisis in a region where Moscow has historically played a significant role but is either unable or unwilling to exert significant influence. This was dramatically demonstrated this month in the Caucasus, where Russia did not even appear to try to prevent Azerbaijan from regaining control of the Armenian-populated breakaway pocket of Nagorno-Karabakh, dealing the military partner of Russia a crushing defeat.
Moscow has long supported the Palestinian cause, but Mr. Putin struck a balance by building close ties with Israel. Consequently, the Kremlin’s distance from Israel in recent days “is definitely a manifestation of a deteriorating relationship,” according to Pinchas Goldschmidt, who presided as Moscow’s chief rabbi for nearly 30 years before being forced to leave the nation last year because, in his words, he refused to back the conflict in Ukraine.
The deceased, Yuval Ben Yaakov, was the son of another former Moscow rabbi, according to Rabbi Goldschmidt, who spoke over the phone from Israel after attending the funeral of an Israeli soldier killed on Saturday in battle. Many Jewish leaders, he continued, had formerly viewed Mr. Putin as a partner in preserving the legacy of World War II, but when the Russian leader began erroneously associating the present Ukrainian government with Nazi Germany in order to justify an invasion, “that’s when the Jews said: ‘We’re not part of it.'”
Mr. Putin’s change of heart on Israel has clear geopolitical justifications. Russia, which has long aimed to be the Middle East’s kingmaker and to forge alliances with all the major powers, is now dependent on Iran, a fierce foe of Israel, as one of its main sources of arms for the conflict in Ukraine.
to unlike in the past when Mr. Putin looked for ways to engage with Western nations, he now seems to see little need to try to work with them to mediate a ceasefire in Israel as Russian soldiers are being battered by Western armaments in Ukraine.
But there may be other, more private ones as well. Putin seems hurt that Jewish leaders in Israel and other countries do not support his fabrication that “Nazis” are in charge of Ukraine. He has frequently attacked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in recent months for leading a Nazi administration despite being Jewish. In June, Mr. Putin asserted that he had heard from “many Jewish friends” that Mr. Zelensky was “a disgrace to the Jewish people.”
Since last year, there had been indicators that the connection was deteriorating. Russia took action against the Jewish Agency, an Israeli non-profit organization that was a cornerstone of Jewish life there and assisted Russian Jews in emigrating to Israel. Russia’s Foreign Ministry summoned Israel’s ambassador in June, alleging that he had participated in “whitewashing” Nazi atrocities. (Mr. Putin’s unfounded assertions that the current Ukrainian authorities are Nazis are based on those Ukrainian independence fighters who fought alongside Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union in World War II.)
According to Alexander Gabuev, the head of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, “no one in the Kremlin is rushing to show sympathy to the victims” of Hamas’s assault into Israel. “This also demonstrates the emotional attitude; the appropriate word is grievance.”
The Russian propagandists who portray the invasion as advantageous for Russia may have a point, he continued. According to Mr. Gabuev, the Kremlin “passively is a beneficiary for now, at least,” if only because senior officials in Washington may have less time to concentrate on how to effectively support Ukraine.
The Kremlin’s resentment—and even Schadenfreude—has recently been on display on Russian state media. Numerous pundits made fun of the tens of thousands of Russian Jews who had emigrated to Israel following Mr. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, some of whom did so to avoid being enlisted in the Russian Army, and who were now caught up in yet another conflict.
One talk show guest referred to a Russian tech tycoon, Arkady Volozh, who had moved to Israel and opposed the invasion of Ukraine as “let’s watch him go into Gaza now with a weapon in hand.”
Others on television bragged about Israel and its Western allies’ military and intelligence missteps over the weekend while predicting that the developments may benefit Russia by diverting the West from backing Ukraine.
The host of a talk show on the Rossiya-1 channel, Olga Skabeyeva, declared that “the idea of the unconquerable Israeli fortress has just collapsed.” She said, “Are U.S. aircraft carriers next?” in reference to the warships that the United States is currently bringing closer to Israel.
Despite Mr. Putin’s evident annoyance that Israel has not accepted his justification for the incursion, Mr. Netanyahu’s government has been circumspect in its support for Ukraine, angering Kyiv as well. According to experts, given Moscow’s close ties to Iran, Israel has been careful not to overly irritate Russia in order to prevent backlash against Jews who still reside there and to maintain the communications between the Israeli and Russian militaries operating in Syria that allow their forces to avoid fighting there.
According to Mr. Netanyahu, Israel has not complied with Western sanctions against Russia and has declined to give the Ukraine any weapons because they might end up in Iranian hands. In June, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry alleged that Israel’s leadership was neglecting the suffering of Ukrainian Jews in favor of “a path of close cooperation with the Russian Federation.”
But Mr. Zelensky has since put these accusations to rest and sided with Israel’s position. He said that in his Monday statement to NATO, Russia and Hamas, the Palestinian group in charge of Gaza, represented “the same evil.”
The only distinction, according to Mr. Zelensky, is that a terrorist group attacked Israel, but this terrorist state attacked Ukraine.