Russia cites ‘concern’ but does not condemn Hamas attack on Israel

T. Belman. My daughter sides with the West in the Ukraine War. She hates the fact that I side with Russia. I said I blame the West for this attack on Israel because of its support for disengagement, Oslo, PA and the TSS. She would hear none of it and blamed Russia’s complicity and gave me this article as evidence.

Everyone can share the blame but some more than others. No one compares to the harm done Israel by the Wests’s support for the TSS.   Bibi shares blame for mowing the lawn. Israeli intelligence shares blame. The IDF is blameworthy because it didn’t set up a major army base near Sderot and another near the Lebanon border. And let’s not forget the Israeli left of which she is a part, that supported Oslo, the disengagement and the TSS.

As for the WaPo article, what else would you exect?

By  Oct 9

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, right, shakes hands with Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit during a meeting in Moscow on Monday. (Sergei Ilnitsky/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

Russia has labeled opposition figures such as Alexei Navalny as “terrorists” and, since invading its neighbor, the Kremlin routinely denounces defensive Ukrainian strikes as “terrorist attacks.”<

But after Hamas militants carried out a brutal surprise attack in which hundreds of Israeli civilians were killed or kidnapped, Russia stopped short of condemning the Palestinian militant group, referring instead to what happened as “a spiral of violence” and pointing fingers at the West.


“We are extremely concerned,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said during his daily briefing with reporters. “We believe that the situation should be brought to a peaceful resolution as soon as possible, as the continuation of such a spiral of violence is fraught with further escalation of the conflict,” Peskov said.

In a separate statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said: “Russia is gravely concerned over a sharp escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.”<

Russia’s carefully worded reaction reflected decades of nuanced — at times contradictory — diplomacy in which the Kremlin has sought strong ties with Israel while also supporting the Palestinian cause and courting groups such as Hamas that are committed to Israel’s destruction.

But the latest statements, following the stunning assault by militants that prompted Israel to announce its intention to impose a full siege on the Gaza Strip, also reflect how President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine now shadows all of Russia’s foreign policy — even far from the battlefield.

Moscow is now highly dependent on Iran, a longtime patron of Hamas, for drones used to attack Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure.

The Iranian mission to the United Nations on Monday denied that Tehran was involved in the coordinated attack, insisting that the “response” was “taken solely by Palestine itself.” But it also said the attack was “unwaveringly aligned with the legitimate interests of the Palestinian people.”

Meanwhile, drawing a different bizarre connection to the war in Ukraine, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on Monday alleged, without providing evidence, that Ukraine had given Hamas Western-supplied weapons that were used in the attack against Israel.

Medvedev’s allegation, issued on the Telegram messaging platform, came shortly after Ukraine’s military intelligence issued a public statement warning that Russia was planning just such a disinformation operation.

“The weapons handed over to the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine are being actively used in Israel,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram. “Later on, like the weapons left behind by the fugitive Americans in Afghanistan, they will be used uncontrollably in all hot spots.”

The reaction in Moscow on Monday was a mix of high-minded calls for diplomacy — in which Russia put itself forward as a trustworthy mediator — and gleeful applause for the Hamas attack, which was portrayed as beneficial for Russia because it would distract Ukraine’s Western backers.

During a meeting with Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit in Moscow on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for an end to the bloodshed and implicitly criticized the West for decades of failed efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.<

“There is an urgent need to stop the fighting and address the problem of civilians, who are being victimized in huge numbers, and to pay attention to the reasons the Palestinian problem for many decades cannot find a solution,” Lavrov said.

“We are ready to do this,” Lavrov continued, “with other countries that are sincerely interested in establishing sustainable peace in the Middle East and ensuring the security of all countries in the region without exception, including the State of Palestine.”

But some Russian politicians and pundits focused on the significance of Russia’s relationship with Iran, and described the attacks in Israel as a useful development in a broader struggle between Russia and the United States.

“Whose ally is Israel? The United States of America,” Andrei Gurulyov, a member of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, from Putin’s United Russia party, wrote on Telegram.<

“Whose ally is Iran and its surrounding Muslim world,” Gurulyov continued. “Ours. We have our own goals and objectives, which we are fulfilling. … We have to fulfill our tasks today.”<

Sergey Mardan, a Russian propagandist and television presenter, wrote: “This mess is beneficial for Russia, because the globalist toad will be distracted from Ukraine and will get busy trying to put out the eternal Middle Eastern fire. Iran is our real military ally. Israel is an ally of the United States. Therefore, choosing a side is easy!”

As the war in Ukraine faltered last year, and the Russian military suffered numerous battlefield setbacks, the Kremlin turned to Tehran for supplies of self-detonating Shahed attack drones. Russia’s increasingly close military alliance with Iran has alarmed Israel.<
>

Israel is not the only country whose relations with Russia have frayed since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Russia has come under fierce criticism by Armenia for failing to uphold a cease-fire agreement in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Russian ties with Central Asian countries have also eroded.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin has tightened alliances with Iran and North Korea, which could provide weapons for the war.

Moscow’s relationship with Hamas has been developing steadily for more than a decade, with Hamas leadership having visited the Russian capital several times in recent years.<

<
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh leaves Russian Foreign Ministry headquarters after a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow in March 2020. (Maxim Shipenkov/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

Pressed by a reporter in 2010 about why the Kremlin had begun meeting more frequently with the Hamas leadership, Lavrov said that Russia’s main objective was to help restore Palestinian unity. He said Russia recognized Hamas as a legitimate political player.

“We began to meet with Hamas immediately after the elections in Palestine recognized by all as free and democratic, in which a considerable part of the Palestinian people voted for Hamas,” Lavrov said at the time.

“It is not only us who meet with Hamas,” Lavrov added, “but also many others, including those who classify Hamas as a terrorist organization. We just do it openly, but they prefer to not talk about it.”

In recent years, Russia’s contact with Hamas has become more frequent. Since 2020, Lavrov has received senior Hamas figures — including the leader of the group, Ismail Haniyeh — at least five times in Moscow, with the most recent visit taking place in March.

In a Foreign Ministry readout from the meeting, Moscow expressed its willingness “to continue to assist in overcoming differences and bringing together the positions of leading Palestinian political forces.”

Meanwhile, Russia’s relationship with Israel has deteriorated.

There were expectations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who has historically maintained good relations with Putin — would pivot Israel toward Moscow after his return to government in late December.

Instead, Israel has instead demonstrated greater support for Ukraine, under pressure from the United States to consider sending defensive arms to Kyiv.

Last year, Lavrov also drew ire from Israel after he criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish, by asserting that Adolf Hitler had Jewish roots — a statement generally believed to be false and which led to demands by Israel for an apology.

Natalia Abbakumova and Robyn Dixon in Riga, Latvia, contributed to this report.

October 10, 2023 | 15 Comments »

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15 Comments / 15 Comments

  1. Hi, Bear

    In one of the Kfar Aza on the Gaza border 40 babies bodies were found. Many had been decapitated.

    Also,

    Israel National NewsDefense/SecurityCaptive Israeli child bullied by Gazans

    Captive Israeli child bullied by Gazans
    An Israeli child held captive by Hamas is bullied by children in Gaza.
    Israel National News
    Israel National News
    Oct 8, 2023, 1:11 AM (GMT+3)

    https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/378062?ssr=1&utm_source=spotim&utm_medium=spotim_recirculation&spot_im_redirect_source=pitc

    Rev. 6:
    [9] And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
    [10] And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
    [11] And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

    Luke.17
    [1] Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!
    [2] It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.

    Judges 19
    [29] And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel.
    [30] And it was so, that all that saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day: consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds.

  2. In one of the Kfar Aza on the Gaza border 40 babies bodies were found. Many had been decapitated.

    This is the perfect example of why I say Hamas are Barbarians.

    When security forces retook the town of Kfar Aza from the Hamas terrorists who massacred over a thousand Israelis on Saturday, they found the bodies of 40 babies throughout the town.

    Some of the infants were decapitated.

    Maj. Gen. Itai Veruv described the scene to i24NEWS: “It’s not a war, it’s not a battlefield. You see the babies, the mother, the father, in their bedrooms, in their protection rooms, and how the terrorists killed them. It’s a massacre.”

    As many as 200 victims were found in Kfar Aza, where Zedek said the air was full of the “smells of death.”

  3. Ted,

    I agree that now is not the time to go arguing about “blame”. If anyone here isn’t convinced that HAMAS and their fellow terrorists are to blame for the atrocities of the past several days, I frankly have nothing to discuss anything with them (I trust that nobody here blames Israel and vindicates the Arabs).

    During the propaganda war between Russia and Ukraine, Russia has held to a line that the “Ukrainian” people do not exist as such, and have no legitimacy as a nation — the very attitude that HAMAS, Muslim Brotherhood, the PLO, etc. have concerning the Jews and Israel.

    Instead of accepting Ukraine as neighboring human beings, the Russians have semi-dehumanized them, calling them “Nazis”. HAMAS is not nearly so delicate in their attitude towards the Jews, calling them “the spawn of pigs and monkeys”. That gives them moral license to treat them like animals.

    I know the Russian leaders call the Ukrainian nationalists “Nazis”, and I know why they do it: They want to DE-identify them as a separate, legitimate nation — the same reason the Arabs use their many epithets (including “Nazi”) to describe the Jews. Both parties do this, for reasons I will detail below; but before i do, I will note that one group who should NOT be engaging in this “Nazi-calling” is the Jews; because they do not have a dog in the Russia-Ukrainian conflict; but every time they describe a freedom-loving, patriotic, brave Ukrainian as a “Nazi”, they cheapen the term Nazi to the point of meaninglessness.

    Who are the true Nazis? Are they economic or social ideologues? No. The vast majority of “Nazis” in WWII, and their collaborators, namely the German people, were everyday people, very much like people today, the world over. They were not convinced of any ideology; they were trying to lead normal lives and keep themselves and their families out of trouble. They were VERY much like just about everyone on Israpundit; so whenever anyone here points a finger at them, they have three fingers pointing back at themselves.

    Did the Nazis kill 6 million Jews? No. They didn’t, and you all know they didn’t. Only the leaders took part in the killings, along with accomplices (very often Jews). By this same argument, we know that the Jewish people did not kill Jesus Christ: It was the leaders who did it, primarily the Jewish and Roman authorities, and their soldiers. Again, one finger points forward, while three point back.

    People on this website can go around calling people “Nazis” and pointing fingers all they want. That accomplishes exactly nothing, and I want no part in it. In the meantime, HAMAS henchmen manhandled, abused, raped and killed hundreds of innocent people — justifying what they did, because they believed they were killing “apes and pigs”. If they are allowed to get away with this, without receiving the same back again with exorbitant interest, they will do it again and again.

  4. Police officer saves his daughter in Kfar Aza
    Chief superintendent Shimon Portal heard that daughter Neta was besieged in her home, which had been infiltrated by terrorists. He rushed to rescue her and others in danger.

    “This is the battle of my life”: Chief Superintendent Shimon Portal, intelligence officer of the southern district of the police and the former commander of the Ashdod police station, has led many battles in the past, but never a battle like this.

    During the Hamas attack on Saturday, he received a message from his daughter Neta, who lives on kibbutz Kfar Aza, in which she told him about terrorists who had infiltrated the kibbutz and she was in danger. Click on link before to continue article.

    I posted this under this article because all who truly support Israel and Jews should recongize this great story, whatever their politics or religious beliefs.

  5. 8 comments so far

    Out of these 6 are from people who support Zelensky to the hilt

    and turns into a Russia hit exercise

    These people hating Putin on site will do anything to blacken his name

    This is the NeoCon agenda

    Are you denying that Putin is a lover of Israel? Are you denying he has defended Israel in Syria and Golan? Also he had Russian army unearth remains of Jews. He is very opposed to Hamas.

    Bear Klein demands basically no discussion what a nerve

    Such as what is best way to defend Israel from Hamas.

    This was the method of.Bush after 9 11

    Bear Klein wants a repeat

    There are so many questions but Bear Klein adopting a patriotic pose is very much opposed to discussion

    How many hostages?

    What would by the correct approach?

  6. Israel is very united currently in the effort to defeat Hamas. Everyone is reporting to military duty and wants to slay the enemy. The military and people are very motivated to win this war against the Barbarians.

  7. Abraham Lincoln and according to the Christian gospels, Jesus of Nazareth both pointed out that “house divided against itself cannot stand.” Israel is a house divided against itself. And it is not standing.

  8. I believe that blame lies squarely with the opposition’s “insurrection.” aimed openly at the overthrow of Israel’s elected government , This insurrection or insurgency aas the rebels openly called it, must surely have distracted Isral’s intelligence services, especially military intelligence, which must have been forced to closely monitor the insurrection and to cut back its monitoring of Israel’s external enemies, such as Hamas. The various military unit’s open threat not to serve if called up would have been of great concern to military intelligence. By distracting military intelligence and the iDF as a whole, the insurgents enabled Hamas, Iran etc. to plan the insurrection without Israeli intelligence even noticing what what was going on. But the main way in which the insurrectionists enabled the Hamas invasion was simply because they were waging a civil war. It is obvious that a cuntry undergoing a civil war is especially vulnerbale to attack by its external enemies. Therefore the blame for the Hamas invasion rests squarely with the insurgents, and especially the high-ranking retired generals like Ehud Barak, and probably some senior officers still on duty, enabled and facilitated the invasion and the massacre of Israeli soldiers and civilians. In any country other than Israel, they would have been arrested, jailed or executed for treason.

  9. @Adam

    Nearly everyone on the left opposes both assistance to Ukraine and assistance to Israel

    Yet, it is the actions taken by the MAGA supporters in the US congress which have objected to the aid going to Ukraine, non-MAGA members of the Reps such as Cotton have called for a reconsideration of aid based upon clear objectives in Ukraine, while the entire Dem party are, as per usual, united and they continue to support the aid going to Ukraine. In fact, the first political voice to object to the War in Ukraine was Trump, calling for an end to this unnecessary and easily avoidable war.

    Indeed, there is an odd mix of proponents objecting to the war, but I would suggest that the conclusion that “nearly everyone on the left opposes’ assistance to Ukraine is easily not accurate.

    And this is not just in the US. In Canada, the Leftist govt just celebrated Zelensky as they also cheered on a Ukrainian SS war veteran for ‘his service’. Germany’s hard Left govt is entirely supportive of the war. These are just the most obvious examples, but easily not the only ones.

    Also do recall that it was under Obama that aid was being smuggled to Isis, that the war in Syria was begun, that Libya was destroyed.

    The ruling left is not a peace party, and has not been for some time.

  10. Ted–your daughter doesn’t sound to me like a typical leftist. Nearly everyone on the left opposes both assistance to Ukraine and assistance to Israel, because of their belief. Therefore they consider any U.S. military involvement abroad. to be evil. See for example Noam Chomsky’s posts about the war in Ukraine. I don”t think that the left has a clear stance on the rights and wrongs in the Russo-Ukraine war as such, other than a suggestion that the United Nations should negotiate a cease-fire and a settlement of the dispute. Some leftists also suggest that China should mediate the conflict and help find a just solution, Just about any rersolution of the conflict as long as the U.S. and NATO stay out of it.

  11. @Bear
    I fully agree that now is not the time to allocate blame. Now is the time to unite for victory.

    The reason I even mentioned the blame is because she and other commenters on this site and elsewhere are blaming Russia. By doing so they are are ignoring the worst culprits. So I spoke up.

  12. @Ted, yes I completely agree US & West harms Israel with its support for TSS.

    However, the USA now is resupplying Israel with weapons and munitions NOT Russia. USA is Israel’s ally however imperfect it and the Biden Administration is.

    The USA has been brought an aircraft carrier to the area and warned Hezbollah and Iran to stay out of the fight with Israel. This is the act of an ally.

    Russia is the ally of Iran who is part of the attack Israel, financing, training and arming them. Including with Hezbollah planning this specific attack.

    Russia is not a direct participant currently in the fight but indirectly with their support of our direct enemies. To be understated Russia is not Israel’s friend and never has been.

    Ted, I feel for your daughter. I concur with her feelings. I would be ashamed and embarrassed to have a father who supports the enemy of Israel. WAPO article is right on the mark. That you are unable to see that is very sad.

    You are correct there is a lot of blame inside Israel to go around for being vulnerable. Right now as the Chief of Staff and others have said is the time to win the war. (I hope you agree with that Ted?). While writing this I am listing to the TV (channel 14) and they are saying left, right, center we all just care about victory and defeating the enemy completely.

    Later will be the time for investigation.

    Israel now needs to be united against the enemy and not divided. This means political divisions are set aside. Soldiers have all reported to duty (irrespective of politics). Over 300,000 called up. Soliders are returning from overseas to answer their call up to duty.

  13. Who can separate the disinformation, malinformation, and misinformation in the above article?

    There is a world war. It is a digital information war.

    “The war in Ukraine is an intelligence war, a creation of the U.S. State Department, CIA, and allied intelligence networks.”

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/10/09/notice-something-about-this-israeli-war-and-the-gaza-conflict/comment-page-4/#comment-10258832

    “Something monstrous is taking shape in America. Formally, it exhibits the synergy of state and corporate power in service of a tribal zeal that is the hallmark of fascism. Yet anyone who spends time in America and is not a brainwashed zealot can tell that it is not a fascist country. What is coming into being is a new form of government and social organization that is as different from mid-twentieth century liberal democracy as the early American republic was from the British monarchism that it grew out of and eventually supplanted. A state organized on the principle that it exists to protect the sovereign rights of individuals, is being replaced by a digital leviathan that wields power through opaque algorithms and the manipulation of digital swarms. It resembles the Chinese system of social credit and one-party state control, and yet that, too, misses the distinctively American and providential character of the control system. In the time we lose trying to name it, the thing itself may disappear back into the bureaucratic shadows, covering up any trace of it with automated deletions from the top-secret data centers of Amazon Web Services, “the trusted cloud for government.”

    “In a technical or structural sense, the censorship regime’s aim is not to censor or to oppress, but to rule.

    “If the underlying philosophy of the war against disinformation can be expressed in a single claim, it is this: You cannot be trusted with your own mind.”

    See:
    https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/guide-understanding-hoax-century-thirteen-ways-looking-disinformation

    Since the 1930’s liberals have been the handmaidens of Communism. Close to a century later, they still are.

    The goal of Communism was and still is a world wide Communist system, and they hide that goal inside the progressives and liberals in Western society, many of whom have no idea that they are furthering the goal of global Communism, and often don’t care if they do. It is a godless society in which the state replaces God.

    Barack Obama and Biden as his puppet are only the latest in a long line of Communist infiltrators into the US government.

    He and Biden have paid Hamas and Iran for the War they are waging against Israel, while working to destroy the US Constitutional Republic at the same time.

    For all his flaws, Binyamin Netanyahu is the only statesman on planet earth who is dedicated to fighting and defeating the enemy of his people.