T. Belman. Putin did state that one of his reasons for invading Ukraine was to “de-nazify and de-militarize” it. But the real reason was to make Ukraine neutral and remove NATO from it. He was prepared to live with the Mintz Agreements but the West wasn’t. So he also wanted to annex the territory which housed ethnic Russians.
Having said that, the invasion has adversely affected Russian-Israel relations.
Putin’s Foreign Minister said, “the biggest antisemites are the Jews themselves” and that Hitler had Jewish blood. Is this a change?
By (Former Min.) Ayoob Kara, INN
In 2012, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the beautiful coastal city of Netanya in order to celebrate the construction of a monument that the State of Israel built honoring the Red Army’s Victory over the Nazis during the Second World War. It was the first monument of its kind to be built outside of the Russian sphere of influence, as most Western countries are too colored by the Cold War to build such a monument.
At the time, the State of Israel constructed this monument in order to commemorate the twenty-seven million Soviet citizens who perished during the Second World War and the sacrifices made by the Soviet Union to defeat Adolph Hitler, who was responsible for the worst genocide in human history. For the Jewish people, commemorating those who defeated the Nazis, who slaughtered six million Jews in the Holocaust, trumped Cold War politics.
Up until the Ukraine War, Russian President Vladimir Putin had a positive relationship with the Jewish people. Putin once warned Yasser Arafat that “an attack on Israel would be an attack on Russia, since there are a million of his citizens living there.” Growing up, Putin shared an apartment with a Jewish family who assisted in his upbringing and had a Jewish teacher, whom he adored so much that he bought her an apartment in Tel Aviv in 2005.
In the past, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was able to reason with Putin on Syria, a fact which, prior to recent developments, gave Israel freedom of action in Syria. Prior to the Ukraine war, Israel was even able to rely upon Russia to help the Jewish state learn about the fate of Israeli soldiers who went missing. In fact, the body of Zachary Baumel, who went missing during the First Lebanon War, was recovered thanks to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
However, all of this started to change after the Ukraine war began. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergay Lavrov falsely claimed that their war against Ukraine is about “de-Nazifying” the country and made numerous comparisons between Putin’s war against Ukraine and the Soviet struggle against Nazism, even though Ukraine has a Jewish Prime Minister and a thriving Jewish community.
Putin’s Foreign Minister even said, “the biggest anti-Semites are the Jews themselves” and that Hitler had Jewish blood. He also compared how the West treats Russia regarding Ukraine with the Holocaust, referring to it as “the West’s final solution for Russia.” To date, Putin continues to work with him, despite the anti-Semitic tropes.
In fact, not only does Putin continue to work with him, but in recent remarks, he openly endorsed the notion that Russia’s struggle against Ukraine today resembles the Soviet war against the Nazis. On Victory Day this year, he stated: ““Today, civilization again is at a breaking point. Again, a true war has been unleashed against our motherland. Western globalist elites still talk about their exceptionalism, pitting people against each other and splitting society, provoking bloody conflicts and coups, sowing hatred, Russophobia, [and] aggressive nationalism. The Ukrainian nation has become hostage to a coup which led to a criminal regime led by its Western masters. It has become a pawn to their cruel and selfish plans.”
Meanwhile, as senior level Russian officials engaged in similar anti-Semitic tropes, the Russian government shut down the Jewish Agency Office in Moscow and attacked Chabad. Due to this situation, Russia’s exiled Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt has urged Jews to flee the country. For this reason, with the exception of six countries which included Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, the international community boycotted the Victory Parade in Moscow, which celebrates the Soviet defeat of Nazism during the Second World War. Under normal circumstances, most of the world would attend, but after the Russian government belittled the memory of the Soviet soldiers who defeated Nazism by comparing modern-day Ukraine to Nazism and the West’s struggle against Russia to “the Final Solution,” the world has lost all respect for the Russian government.
As Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky stated, “We will not allow the joint victory of the nations of the anti-Hitler coalition to be appropriated and we will not allow lies as if the victory could have taken place without the participation of any country or nation.”
From an Israeli perspective, Ukraine’s president is in the right. Today’s Russia is no longer a friend of Israel. In recent months, Israel has not been able to rely upon Russia to give Israel freedom of operation when going after Iran in Syria. Since Iran is now helping Russia’s war against the Ukraine, they are now letting the Iranians do whatever they desire in the war-torn country.
For this reason, Israel made the right decision in not attending the Victory Parade this year, as it is doubtful that Russia will have much to contribute to positive relations with Israel under the present circumstances.
However, as a former Israeli minister, I do not believe that Putin is an antisemite, even though he is definitely surrounding himself with antisemites. Still, that does not mean that the future of Russian-Israeli relations is bright and thought must be given to the subject..
Ayoob Kara served as Israel’s Communication Minister under Netanyahu.
@ Sebastien Zorn
MAY 15, 2023 AT 11:17 AM
I appreciate what you write, and for this reason I am sending you two articles.
Please compare them, because they will help you understand that ‘someone’ wanted the relations between the two countries [Russia and Israel] to become conflictual…
In this matter, it can be stated that only one question is relevant, namely: Can Israel afford to make mistakes? We believe that a position of NEUTRALITY would have been easily understood by everyone!
So, here are the two articles that I proposed to you in order to understand the change that occurred between the two countries, of course to the intervention of a ‘third party’:
1 – ‘Vladimir Putin is the closest thing to a friend Israel has ever had in Moscow’
Jan 14, 2016
Vladimir Putin is the closest thing to a friend Israel has ever had in Moscow | Reuters
2 – Deal worth $344 million announced a day after Nordic country joins NATO, dramatically expanding the military alliance’s border with Russia –
6 April 2023,
https://www.timesofisrael.com/finland-to-purchase-israels-davids-sling-anti-missile-system/
*** And now look at the Map with the New NATO Border that will be defended – primarily – with Israeli systems:
– Finland’s 1,340 kilometer (832 mile) border with Russia is the longest of any European Union member –
https://geology.com/world/finland-satellite-image.shtml
And a Video: Finland STARTS Building Fence along 1,340 Km Border with Russia
April 15, 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJtQyRC6g_Q
And thus, a NEW dangerous situation arose, adding to many others…!
@Felix There is a consensus on the approach to this conflict. The conflict is over judicial reform. The left is afraid theocracy and what they see as gender apartheid will be legally voted in The right wants democracy and an end to appeasing the Arabs with suicidal concessions and want to preserve the Jewish character of the state. The left wants everything to be business as usual on Shabbat and the right wants businesses and travel to stop.
Felix, re “climate change”…
I don’t give a damn about how many expert climatologists – Israeli or not – feel that “climate change” is real.
And I don’t know who is supplying you with your numbers.
What you say is typical of the meaningless hyperbole on this subject. And apparently all we have to do is close down humanity and die… or a best live in caves… some of us.
Time to close down this ignorance.
The Ukrainian war (really the American Empire war to recover Russia into its orbit which it lost 1917 to 1923) has certainly made the Saudis begin their break from America.
This has driven the Israeli leadership into mortal crisis not knowing which way to turn. This is the payoff for being slave to America for 75 years.
TROTSKY had no illusions in the Jewish bourgeois leaders
On Israpundit this crisis expressed itself in a new but predictable turn against Russia and changing their previous positions supporting Russia and Putin.
A few hours ago email to me
Mark Sleboda very honest
West supplies Kiev regime with more long range missiles capable of striking inside Russia, even as Western MSM conveniently forget numerous strikes the Kiev regime has already conducted inside Russia
Prigozhin’s psy op performances somewhat successful in once again goading Kiev regime forces into diverting more resources and manpower into the Bakhmut meatgrinder, that could be better used elsewhere for offensive operations.
Latest Western arms packages worth billions a sign that the West will not stop support for Kiev regime, regardless of whether the Kiev regime’s spring offensive is successful or not, and is escalting this proxy conflcit further.
No – Donald Trump could not end the conflict in Ukraine in 24 hrs or at all.
Keelie if you have such experience of physics then you’ll have no difficulty in bringing onto the discussion here some Israeli specialists in climate science. Especially the rapid rise in co2in earth’s atmosphere just.passed.425 ppm and we go back 3 million years to find that. Our human race has never lived in those conditions.
An American climate scientist
Jessica Tierney https://youtu.be/Fcy1JJl748c
@Felix Is this New York ‘o phobia and music ‘o phobia we are hearing from you as you shiver down there in your bomb shelter underneath your school desk with your head between your knees while singing the Soviet anthem, not knowing whether you will be done in by the weather or the doomsday bomb and all because the Zionists on Israpundit wouldn’t appease the Trotsky loving Gods by calling for Russia to clobber Ukraine because of BANDERA and 1918, instead of hoping for peace, peace, what’s that?
And Zelensky is the “worst antisemite on the planet” because Ukraine/NATO fighting with a nuclear armed antagonist and “Global Warming” (I don’t know why you would throw that one in there or link it to Zelensky) is bad for the Jews because if the world blows up, Jews blow up with it? Lumping Jews in with everybody else in an undifferentiated way in an unrelated context shows you have no idea what antisemitism is, not that that will stop you from trying to re-define it, like the good little leftist you are or for getting angry at us “stiff-necked Jews” for not accepting your ferchachta redefinition. Antisemitism IS SINGLING JEWS OUT for harm, my fine gentile Irish friend.
And FYI, I’m not myopic, I’m farsighted, not that I’ll ever come to you to renew my prescription. I’ll pick a different store, thank ye very much. 😀
Tom Lehrer – So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrbv40ENU_o
Felix… speaking of myopia:
“And indeed Global Warming is setting the same calamity but with more drawn out suffering…”
This is rubbish; no other word to describe it. The issue of “Global Warming” (aka Climate Change) should have no place in any discourse on the state of the world.
Please note, this comment is not emotive; it is based on my engineering experience in the field of Renewable Energy… and my knowledge of physics.
Many of you are the greatest experts at evading a point. Which is the present Ukraine is rooted in its past – BANDERA
You start from that or you will betray those Holocaust victims
Perhaps that’s the fate of Trotskyism to stand for the memory of those.
Myopic foolishness from Sebastien
“Even if I agreed with that statement it would be irrelevant. Ukrainian fascists do not have the power to wipe Israel off the map nor are they trying to do so, in any case. Only one country is trying to do that. Iran.”
A thermonuclear war will certainly remove Israel from the map and end us all
And indeed Global Warming is setting the same calamity but with more drawn out suffering
See drone escalation just reported by Britain.
But you feel removed in New York – with your music ?
@Felix Even if I agreed with that statement it would be irrelevant. Ukrainian fascists do not have the power to wipe Israel off the map nor are they trying to do so, in any case. Only one country is trying to do that. Iran. Only one question is relevant. Who is helping Iran? Anyone who helps Iran arm is working towards another Holocaust, this time of Israel’s 7 million Jews. Anyone who aids and abets the mass murder of Jews is fomenting antisemitism, even if they are only motivated by realpolitik as Putin is. I feel sorry for the Russian speaking Ukrainians but their fight is not our fight and Russia has joined forces with our mortal enemies, so I am not wishing for a Russian victory. I agree with Trump who said he wants people on both sides to stop dying. Now. The longer this war goes on, the more Russia will have to rely on Iran and be indebted to Iran. There is a danger that Russia will assist Iran in its nuclear ambitions, in the end. That would put Russia in the category of mortal enemy. We are not gathered here in this virtual space to defend Russia but to defend Israel. I’m not interested in listening to empty moralizing drivel and ulterior motives. I’m sick and tired of All these irrelevant and/or antithetical pet causes of people who want to use the Jews, use Israel to fight their battles try to guilt trip us to support. The Armenians, the Kurds, the Ukrainians, the Russians, African Americans, the Arabs, for cryin’ out loud. We have our own battles to fight and our own people to think of, thank you very much. Thank you but no thank you. Not buying the Brooklyn Bridge today.
“We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow.”
The friend of my enemy is my enemy and the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Period.
end of story. (In matters of war and peace anyway. Interpersonal and even trade relations can be more complicated than that.)
These Ukrainian fascists are too busy fighting Russians to think about killing us so why should we care about what they do in their shit hole countries. We should be concentrating on just getting our people out and as for the Russkies and the Ukrainians?
A plague on both their houses. A peaceful one, hopefully, soon. But, worrying about them is not good for the Jews.
I will say this, however. If Russia continues to arm Iran, it will be appropriate for Israel to proportionately arm Ukraine as a warning, as Ted suggested.
And now you can call me all sorts of silly hyperbolic Communist names, imperialist running dog or whatever to your hearts content. Go for it. Have fun.
We are Zionists, here. Nothing to do with Russia or Ukraine.
“One struggle, many fronts?” No, that’ s intersectionality and it’s leftist bull. It’s one planet and many momentarily conflicting or colluding individual and collective interests.
Communism allegedly represents the interests of the proletariat.
Zionism represents the national interests of the Jewish nation.
Sebastien
As always and as Reader observed you do not answer. Answer yes but fairly no.
So I wrote
“This new form is to work by every means possible to keep people from understanding that the regime which took the state power in Kiev on February 2014 (as undoubtedly a proxy force of America and Britain) has inseparable links to the Ukrainian Fascists from 1918 to 1945.”
So Peloni slips in a lethal abuse word funny enough ABUSE
And he diverts from above by claim I have a crush on Russia
No and No
Refer Peloni to above paragraph if he cares to answer
There’s no abuse in it rather total historical logic.
My Twitter carries Lviv Pogrom photo at top first item for a specific historical reaso
Sad I have to deal with nasty psychological games from Peloni when we have so much critical history to bring forward so that ordinary people can understand.
@Felix
Your attention and concern for the Russians seems to be so acute as to malign a great ally of our own. In fact, Kara’s hatred for the Russians does not make him an antisemite, nor does his support of Zelensky. I disagree with him as to his general outlook on the war, but he is a true friend and great ally of Israel, which can not be said with any similarity when discussing Russia. I find his honesty in accepting that Putin is not an antisemite to be further evidence of a rational mindset, but I would suggest that his description of the Jewish Community in Ukraine as ‘thriving’ is somewhat mischaracterized given the precipitous drop in the number of Jews who still reside in that country, even well before the war. In any event, your attempt to abuse him due to your seemingly obsessive support of Russia does seem, well, unwarranted, and again, I suggest that your reproach against him and the Druze in your earlier comment was, and remains, an unfair one.
@Felix
https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definitions-charters/working-definition-antisemitism
Sebastien
You are misinformed about Antisemitism even though it has been the direct experience of every Jewish person.
It is a phenomenon which is prepared to and does change its form even though the content remains the same.
Zelensky is part of the new lethal form.
This new form is to work by every means possible to keep people from understanding that the regime which took the state power in Kiev on February 2014 (as undoubtedly a proxy force of America and Britain) has inseparable links to the Ukrainian Fascists from 1918 to 1945.
Putin knows they are the same. Sadly the present bourgeois Zionist leadership of Israel does not.
So all we can do is to sadly shake our heads in disbelief and murmur
“Shame on you”
Peloni … Kara has in truth no credibility left except with the most die hard Fascists of this world who are seeking to disconnect the present regime of Ukraine from the Fascists who murdered Jews in Ukraine and Poland from 1918 to 1945, and Russians until today.
In answer to Peloni1976 as in
“A better question than the one you raised with Sebastien would be why would you are (sic) impugning Kara’s credibility rather than addressing what he said.”
Of course as with the previous answers to Reader the Peloni1976 and Zorn axis will never address anything you say. Masters of obfuscation.
Kara writes:
“However, as a former Israeli minister, I do not believe that Putin is an antisemite, even though he is definitely surrounding himself with antisemites. Still, that does not mean that the future of Russian-Israeli relations is bright and thought must be given to the subject..”
Well Kara since you are a supporter of the worst Antisemite on the planet, the worst Russian hater on the planet…
What right have you Kara, or Belman Zorn Peloni1976 matrix, to call anytime anyone and anywhere -an Antisemite?
You have now and forever forfeited that right by supporting the worst and most dangerous Antisemite on the planet who is Zelensky.
Have a nice rest of your life Kara.
@Felix a) I don’t support Zelensky though I don’t know why you would call him an antisemite.
b) However, as Kara says, while not an antisemite himself, the politics of this war has pushed Putin into bed with Israel’s enemies and Russia no longer cooperates with Israel against Iran in Syria. And clearly, some of his spokesmen have been indulging in inflamatory antisemitic tropes. Both Zelensky and Putin have cracked down on Jewish leaders who opposed them but not because they were Jews. This regime is anti-Russian, culturally but not racially. Zelinsky comes from a Russian speaking family!
The Nazis exterminated us on the basis of race! Farakhan is a neo-Nazi. From Iran, he called us termites. You can change everything else to pass but not your race, genetically defined. The Nazis weren’t antisemites because they were racists. They were racists because they didn’t want Jews to have any escape.
THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WORLD WAR II. Other than the attempt to sublimate rage through symbolism.*
c) While I don’t know why he abstained from the sovereignty vote in 2011, and I think his idea of letting Jordan administer Pal cities, albeit with Israel in charge of security is foolish.
Kara is simply amazing! A real non-Jewish champion of Israel.
Read the whole thing and savor it, though I got a big kick out of:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayoob_Kara
d) There were a handful of brief historical moments where Soviet or Russian and Jewish interests were somewhat aligned but Russia has mostly been an antagonist. We owe Russia nothing.
_—
*
– The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. Karl Marx 1852
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/ch01.htm
@Felix
A better question than the one you raised with Sebastien would be why would you are impugning Kara’s credibility rather than addressing what he said.
Sebastien so why are you running cover for Kara who promotes Zelensky who is without a doubt the worst Antisemite on the planet. With such cover by you what hope for the Jews?
Peloni
Not fair?
Kara supports Zelensky the worst Antisemite on the planet
Does down the Russians who fought those very Nazis laying down their lives in vast numbers defending Jews in the process from 1918 to today
And after all of that personal political and national sacrifice by the Russian people
You and Ted are confused. How sad is that?
Thoughtful article and impressive bio except for a couple of things.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayoob_Kara
@Felix
This is not a fair estimate of either Kara’s comment nor my own. Kara suggests that the Putin’s govt is antisemitic, not the Russian people. Likewise, my own critique of your comment makes absolutely no mention of the Russian people.
You are of course free to change the conversation to consider the degree to which antisemitism boils within the Russian people, but this is not a topic which either Kara nor I have raised.
As usual Peloni 1986 it is necessary to distinguish between appearance and essence
He writes above:
“If Kara had been fair, he would have added that Bennet acknowledged that Putin personally appologized for the antisemitic comments made by Lavov”
Going from memory it was an interview not a speech.
And the subject they were discussing was Zelensky
And Lavrov said the biggest Antisemites were Jewish
And he was right because as we live in today’s world the worst Antisemite on the planet is……
No other than Zelensky. Operating as a Jew. Is a Jew.
So Lavrov was right absolutely totally right.
Zelensky the worst Antisemite on the planet. SAY IT Israel !
Lavrov should have been praised by true well meaning Jews.
Why are we discussing following the pattern set by this Russia hater Kara out of its context the remarks by Lavrov. Only to jump on it to label the Russian people as Antisemites.
In reality Peloni1986 reinforces that.
@REBEL
Quite true.
Actually plenty of nazi organization and real nazis in the Ukraine.
If Kara had been fair, he would have added that Bennet acknowledged that Putin personally appologized for the antisemitic comments made by Lavov. I would suggest that this is an important point to recall when addressing the question raised so regularly of late, including in Kara’s article, if Putin himself is to be believe to be an antisemite.
@Felix
Kara’s family has supported the state of Israel since before Israel was a state. Kara’s uncle was murdered during the 1936-1939 Arab revolt by the Arabs due to him being accused of being a Jewish sympathizer. Furthermore, Kara’s father fought in the Israeli army during the ’48 War of Independence, while another of his uncles was killed by the Arabs around this same time. HIs two brothers were killed in the ’82 Lebanese War, and he himself is both an Israeli veteran and a former Israeli cabinet minister.
Consequently, suggesting that Kara’s comments should be dismissed out of hand based on his heritage seems a somewhat untenable argument to make.
Also, you seem to be linking the Druze to the Arabs when referencing an involvment in the Holocaust. Unless your comment implies something more tangible than this (which if so, please explain), such linkage should not be made. The Druze, as a community, are not aligned with the Arab nationalists and never have been. They were in fact a victim of such Arab nationalist sentiments going back nearly a century, which is, in part, why they came to support the Jews over the Arabs during the ’48 War and even earlier.
Perhaps Mr Belman first establish who is Ayoob Kara, a Druze, Arab, and what was the history of the Druze to the Nazis who carried out the Holocaust? Then we may start to understand this foul article.