While U.S. gives Russia the cold shoulder in Syria, Kremlin’s ties with Israel grow warm.
By Anshel Pfeffer, HAARETZ Oct 09, 2015
The Pentagon announced on Wednesday that it was refusing to hold “de-confliction” talks with the Russian Defense Ministry to coordinate the two nations’ air-operations over Syria and would make do with just “technical details.” At the same time, de-confliction talks, of the kind the Americans rejected, between the Israel Defense Forces and their Russian counterparts, led by the deputy chiefs of staff of both militaries, were already wrapping up in Tel Aviv’s HaKirya headquarters.
Israel’s willingness to hold these talks reflects of course the recognition that after many years of operating nearly freely in Syrian airspace, things have changed with the arrival of a modern and well-equipped air force. But it also reflects the Russians’ desire not to have any confrontation with Israel in the region.
The fact that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested, and received, a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, immediately when the Russian deployment to Syria began, should not come as a surprise. Despite Israel’s strategic ties with the United States, both sides have maintained a discreet and intimate security relationship which is much closer than meets the eye. Israel received from Putin in 2008 advance warning of Russia’s plans to attack Georgia, in a personal meeting he had with former president Shimon Peres at the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. This enabled Israel to call back in time private defense contractors and advisers who were working at the time with the Georgian army.
Israel has also in recent years sold surveillance drones to the Russians, despite Russia at the same time supplying some of Israel’s enemies with arms.
In the past, Israeli officials used to explain the desire to stay on Putin’s good side, despite his growing animosity towards the West and the erosion of civil rights in Russia, as part of its concern for the safety of hundreds of thousands of Jews still living in Russia. But there doesn’t seem to be any true basis for such fears, at least not under Putin. He is interested in the ties just as much as Israel.
To this day there are various explanations as to how Putin actually feels about Jews. His many supporters among the Jewish community in Russia insist that he is philosemitic, due to the friendships he had with Jewish classmates back in his childhood in St. Petersburg and the influence of Jewish teachers who perceived his potential. Putin’s critics ask why then are the Kremlin-funded propaganda channels filled with Holocaust deniers and anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists, masquerading as respectable commentators? But even those critics agree that Putin has a high regard for Jews and regrets the emigration of many thousands of Jewish scientists and researchers following the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
A Russian warship fires cruise missile at Syria on October 7. Russia, which released the footage, claimed it was targeting Islamic State positions. AFP
Some think that Putin actually sees the Jews as being too powerful but this regard also extends to his assessment of the Jewish state and particularly Israel’s military capabilities. Throughout his rule, he has made sure each year to meet with Israeli leaders, putting store by face-to-face engagement over diplomatic channels.
In the meetings with prime ministers Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert and Netanyahu, Putin promised Russia would not surprise Israel by supplying the Iranians with the advanced S-300 air-defense system, which would make an Israeli air strike more difficult, a promise that despite contradictory statements, he has so far kept. In a meeting with Olmert, a few months after the end of the Second Lebanon War, Israeli officers presented Putin with shrapnel from advanced Russian anti-tank missiles which had been used by Hezbollah. Not everyone in Israel’s defense establishment believes the Russian promise that the missiles were supplied to Hezbollah by the Syrian Army without the Russian’s knowledge.
What is without doubt is that in the decade before the Syrian civil war, there was a significant reduction in Syrian arms purchases from Russia (most deals during this period were for the refurbishment of old Soviet-era aircraft of the Syrian Air Force), and a shift to acquiring weapons from Iran and North Korea. The Russians were not aware of Syria building a secret nuclear reactor, which was destroyed from the air in 2007, according to foreign sources by Israel. The Russians returned in force to Syria only after the civil war broke out.
Both sides mainly kept silent over the other’s actions. When the Russians upgraded Syria’s coastal cruise missiles in Tartous Port, and when the listening-base operated by GRU (Russian military intelligence) on the Syrian side of the Golan, monitoring Israeli military communications, Israel kept mum. And when Russian-supplied missiles and other advanced systems were bombed in Syria, according to foreign sources by the Israeli Air Force, only limp statements of concern were heard from Moscow.
Netanyahu knew what Putin needed to hear from him in their meeting last month – a promise that Israel isn’t seeking to actively topple Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. While the Obama administration and its NATO allies are still struggling to grasp what Putin is trying to achieve in Syria, it seems that the Israeli and Russian leaders understand each other’s interests pretty well. It may not be a formal military alliance but in the current situation in the Middle East, it’s quite a lot.
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.679528
@ babushka:
@ babushka:
You are right. Never trust Putin. He has shown his colors already in the Ukraine. Never trust a RED.
My plan for the return of American hegemony should a republican get in. Bomb both isis and assad forces. Leave Syria to the Christians, Kurds and Yazidis. Shoot Russian fighter jets out of the skies. American technology and the skills of our fighter pilots are still superior. We need not be afraid of confrontation with the Russians. Risks have to be taken if we want America to return to the world’s supreme power.
Oldjerry, putin is out for himself. He has no friends. He cannot be trusted. If its in his interest to harm Israel, he will. If Russia controls the Middle East, he will protect iran from Israel. He is arming Iran with nuclear weapons. And if Israel needs to act in Syria to defend against terrorists, they should do so, regardless of whether it interferes with Russia. Arnold wants Israel to trade one form of dependency on a superpower for another, and a far worse option. I’m with babushka, Russia cannot be trusted. I continue to be puzzled that so many on the right are enamored with this communist thug in Moscow.
That is interesting and saddening, because the lesson never seems to be learned.
@ babushka:
BB, lots of Soviet Jews served in the organs of Soviet state security, and some of them were dependable killers in Stalin’s service. The rank and file tchekisti and gaibisti fared a lot better than most of their chiefs. Uritsky was assassinated in 1918. Yagoda was executed after one of the big 1930 trials of the chistka (“clean-up”). His successor Yezhov met the same treatment a few years later. Beria’s execution at the hands of the Soviet Army followed Stalin’s death by only a few months. As they said in the camps: “Your turn today, mine tomorrow.”
Arnold Harris, Outspeaker
The KGB and the Gestapo were evil conjoined twins.
And Putin is just getting warmed up:
http://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/2015/06/anti-semitism-and-the-new-russian-idea/
He is a czar, Jerry. And what was the fate of Russian Jews under the czars? What’s now happening in Russia looks eerily historically reminiscent of the preludes to pogroms.
@ babushka:
4 Heinrich Himmler made it his job to kill millions of Jews. So far I haven’t seen Putin kill one Jew, at least not intentionally. And as long as he’s killing Muslim Jew haters of all ilk I trust him more than Israel’s “peace partner” Abbas.
Not necessarily… as we have seen no real indication that the talks go beyond humoring and patronizing Israel. This article seems overly optimistic making unsupported assumptions. I expect Israel to be affected by limiting potential attacks against hezbullah convoys and arms depots in syria which supply hezbullah and russia to exploit the vaccuum to seek to make everyones actions in the area subordinate to theirs. Beware lebanon hezbullah seeking a russian umbrella to protect hezbullah iran in lebanon and golan. I have seen no real agreement on the potential conflict other than Israel notifying russia of its intent to bomb hezbullah.
Putin is the Russian Heinrich Himmler. Deal with him if you must, but never trust him and always fear him.
As someone commented Putin defends his friends and fights his enemies.Someone I’d rather have on my side then Obama who screws his friends and kisses the asses of his, or rather our, enemies.
Few news items concerning the Middle East could please me more than reading about growing military, trade, and political understandings between Russia and Israel. I have no illusions about the depths of short-sighted stupidity of the fading presidency of Barack Hussein Obama and his departments of State and Defense, regarding what most Jews have consistently hoped would be solid and trustworthy relations between Israel and the USA. Nor is there any certainty that under the rule of most other presidential hopefuls running for next year’s election, this now-confused and increasingly-bankrupt commonwealth, the American leadership would prove any more trustworthy toward Israel and the Jewish nation than past leaderships going back to the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Israel not only is an independent and sovereign state, but must also remain so. In addition, in the long run, Israel must increase its power base. That can never be accomplished by surrendering lands that must be kept not only to satisfy the historic rights of the Jewish nation, but also to render Israel more defensible. Minimally, Area C must be annexed an reserved for Jewish national settlement, Area B must be put under the same kind of administrative arrangement used for Area C, and separate and autonomous rule of the large Arab cities of Shomron and Yehuda must be turned over to their local blood-clan hamulas, with the Fatah-PLO broken up and stripped of any recognition by Israel.
Russian leaders tend to understand the underlying importance of moves such as these, in ways that American leaders never seem able to do so.
Therefore, I hope Israel will do nothing to disturb or undercut Russia in Syria.
Arnold Harris, Outspeaker
War is deception. So sorry!