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Russia accuses Israel of backing neo-Nazis in Ukraine, Israel acccusses Russia of using Holocaust for political gain

05/03/2022, 22:22

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation cannot be fooled by Jews

Israel upset by the hypothesis about the roots of Hitler

The conflict in Ukraine has separated Russia and Israel on opposite sides of the barricades regarding the interpretation of history. Before that, with no other state outside the post-Soviet space, Russia had such a deep mutual understanding on issues related to the preservation of the memory of the Second World War. Now Israel is accusing Russia of "historical mistakes", and the Russian Foreign Ministry is accusing the Israeli Foreign Minister of being "anti-historic". The reason for the diplomatic scandal was an interview with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, where he did not rule out the presence of Jewish blood in Adolf Hitler. It came to calling the Russian ambassador to the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Russian diplomats have also accumulated a lot of complaints against the Jewish state, which, from their point of view, supports the "neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv."

Photo: Valery Melnikov, Kommersant

Photo: Valery Melnikov, Kommersant

The statement of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in an interview with the Italian television company Mediaset , published on May 1, in Israel produced the effect of a bombshell. When asked by a journalist to comment on the words of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that “denazification is useless”, since he himself is a Jew, the Russian minister replied: “He puts forward an argument: what kind of nazification can they have if he is a Jew. I may be wrong, but Adolf Hitler also had Jewish blood. It means absolutely nothing. The wise Jewish people say that the most ardent anti-Semites are usually Jews. "There is a black sheep in the family," as we say."

The next day, Russian Ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov was summoned to the Israeli Foreign Ministry. There was also a whole series of comments from Israeli politicians and public figures.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said: “It is necessary to immediately stop using the theme of the Holocaust (the Holocaust . - Kommersant) as a means of political struggle and mutual attacks. His (Lavrova . - Kommersant ) words are untrue and unacceptable in essence.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid called the statements of his Russian counterpart not only "unforgivable and outrageous", but also "a terrible historical mistake." “Jews did not kill themselves during the Holocaust. Accusing Jews themselves of anti-Semitism is the lowest level of racism against Jews,” he said.

Finance Minister and head of the Russian-speaking party Israel Our Home, Avigdor Lieberman, offered Sergey Lavrov an apology. But in response to this, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued another statement regarding the history of the Holocaust and directed directly at Yair Lapid, who has been extremely annoying Moscow lately.

“We drew attention to the anti-historical statements of Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, which largely explain the course of the current Israeli government to support the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv,” reads a message published on the Telegram channel of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The Russian Foreign Ministry delved into history, citing “tragic examples of cooperation between Jews and the Nazis” in the ghetto (however, in Israel this was never denied, but only urged not to pull facts out of historical context). “The Jewish origin of the president is not a guarantee of protection from rampant neo-Nazism in the country,” defend their position in the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Moscow also wondered why Mr. Lapid and other Israeli politicians do not notice “everyday and political anti-Semitism and Nazism” in Ukraine and “cynically ignore the epidemic of destruction and desecration of monuments to the real righteous of the peoples of the world — the Red Army soldiers who stopped the Holocaust and saved the Jewish world” . “How many times did the Israeli Foreign Ministry call for the delivery of sharp protests on this occasion from the ambassadors of Poland, Bulgaria, the Baltic countries, the same Ukraine?” - they ask on Smolenskaya Square.

Recall, however, that Israel has repeatedly criticized Warsaw for distorting history, and also reminded Kyiv of the inadmissibility of rehabilitating and glorifying Nazi accomplices. In particular, the then President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, said this during his visit to Ukraine in 2016.

Until now, Israel, like no other country outside the post-Soviet space, had close positions with Russia on everything related to preserving the memory of the Second World War and on the issues of "rewriting history." This was stated at almost all political meetings - both at the level of heads of state and heads of foreign ministries of the two countries, embassies, as well as at public events.

Israeli politicians constantly talk about the heroism of the Soviet soldiers, whose feat saved the Jewish people from destruction. The same Yair Lapid, on every suitable occasion, recalls that Soviet soldiers saved his father from death. “Israel and Russia stand together today against anti-Semitism and any attempt to rewrite the history of the Holocaust. This is the most important message to the whole world,” Mr. Lapid wrote in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot last October.

And a few weeks before that, after very warm negotiations with Sergey Lavrov in Moscow, speaking about the role of the Red Army in the victory over fascism, and also recalling the participation of the USSR in the creation of the State of Israel, the head of the Israeli Foreign Ministry noted: “We owe you. And we are a people with a long memory.” He added then that "all the difficult pages of the joint history, which were also quite a few, the parties somehow tried to turn over."

Apparently, all this gave Moscow reason to think that the Israelis would take a more flexible position on the Ukrainian crisis. Moreover, in recent years, Russia and Israel have been closely cooperating on many issues, including those related to regional security, primarily when it came to Iran and its role in Syria. Russian and Israeli positions on these issues do not converge, but the sides have always sacredly respected each other's security interests. So, Moscow, although it criticized Israeli strikes on Iranian targets in Syria, never tried to prevent them.

Relations between the Russian Federation and Israel sharply escalated some time after the start of the “Russian special operation” in Ukraine.

“From the first minute, Israel chose a cautious position on Ukraine, which allows us to both respect our interests and remain one of the credible players who can speak directly to both parties and help,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in early March. who tried to play the role of an intermediary between Russia and Ukraine.

From the end of February to the end of March, six telephone conversations took place between him and Russian President Vladimir Putin. In early March, Mr. Bennet visited Moscow and Kyiv, but nothing came of his mediation, and in April he never spoke to the head of the Russian state.

In the meantime, at the very top, the parties tried not to hurt each other, at the level of the Russian and Israeli Foreign Ministries, controversy gradually flared up. “There are two points that require us to be careful and prudent. First, in many ways Israel has a security border with Russia. Russia is the most significant military force in Syria, and our mechanism of cooperation with them helps in our decisive struggle against the strengthening of the Iranian presence on our northern border,” Mr. Lapid said at the end of February.

At the beginning of hostilities in Ukraine, he tried to explain why Israel was voting against Russia in the UN General Assembly - it was about resolutions condemning Moscow's actions, and there was also the question of suspending Russia's membership in the UN Human Rights Council. However, a month later, there was no question of any caution on the part of the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Commenting on the footage released after the Russian military left the city of Buchi, Mr. Lapid called "intentional harm to the civilian population" a "war crime". Recall that Russia denies the fact of war crimes in the Kyiv region, calling the published photo and video materials “fake and provocation”.

Yair Lapid's statements about Bucha, as well as his words that "the Russian invasion of Ukraine cannot be justified," did not go unnoticed by the Russian Foreign Ministry. In an official statement published on the agency's website, Israel was reminded of the illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories, in particular the transformation of the Gaza Strip into an "open-air prison". The tone of the message was sharper than ever.

All this caused a series of publications in the Arab media about the possible toughening of Moscow's course towards Israel and its actions in regional conflicts. However, so far, apart from the exchange of caustic remarks, there are no other signs of aggravation of relations between the two countries, although the situation is tense and may worsen as the conflict in Ukraine develops.

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Israel has not yet joined the anti-Russian sanctions, although it has stated that it will not allow them to be circumvented through its economic institutions. For a long time, Israel also refrained from supplying Ukraine with not only weapons, but also military equipment. And only on April 20, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz approved the sending of helmets and body armor to Kyiv for rescue services and civil organizations.

Now, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, politicians in Israel are actively discussing what else can be provided to Ukraine. The discussion, according to the newspaper, is connected with European and American pressure. In addition, thousands of immigrants from the USSR, including from Russia and Ukraine, live in Israel, who do not support Moscow's actions and call on their politicians to help Kyiv more actively. Ignoring the "voice of the people" is increasingly difficult for politicians in Israel.

Marianna Belenkaya

Source: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5339600?query=Холокост