Russia expects that the crisis in relations with Israel will not affect cooperation between the two countries, the State Duma told Izvestia. They believe that "Israel should react more firmly to manifestations of neo-Nazism," especially in Eastern European countries. Israel itself believes otherwise: Russia's actions will affect the level of cooperation, for example, in Syria, the office of former Prime Minister Netanyahu told Izvestia. Yet, experts agree that there will be no deep crisis; cooperation with Russia in Syria is to the advantage, above all, of Israel and the Arab countries which do not want Iran to strengthen its role in the region.
Eastern cooling
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that Adolf Hitler may have had Jewish roots.
"I could be wrong, but Adolf Hitler also had Jewish blood. That means absolutely nothing. Wise Jewish people say that the most rabid anti-Semites tend to be Jews. "There's always a blemish in the family," as we say.
The minister's remark came in response to the journalist saying that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky "considers denazification pointless because he is Jewish.
Lavrov specified that Ukraine "has adopted laws that encourage Nazi theory and practice" and that militarists and Nazis "flourish" there.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid called the Russian minister's statements inexcusable and outrageous, and stressed that "accusing Jews of anti-Semitism is a blatant level of racism against Jews. Russian Ambassador Anatoly Viktorov was summoned to the Jewish Foreign Ministry to "give explanations. Neither Russia nor Israel gave details of the conversation, but Lapid said that they had a "very tough conversation" with the ambassador.
The Russian Foreign Ministry later wrote on Twitter that it "drew attention to the anti-historical statements of Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, which largely explain the course of the current Israeli government's support for the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev."
The Russian Ministry's website published an article in which the Foreign Ministry explained: "The president's Jewish origins are no guarantee of protection from rampant neo-Nazism in the country.
Zelensky, according to the Foreign Ministry, "speculates on his roots" and "covers up his origins himself and covers up natural neo-Nazis, the spiritual and blood heirs of the executioners of his people.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called such statements by the Russian ministry insulting.
Arab Coincidence
Lavrov's statement caused a great resonance in Israeli society. Another reason is that his speech was made during Memorial Week: April 28th was Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel, and May 4th is Memorial Day for Victims of Terrorist Attacks.
And it was May 4, according to Arab news reports, that a delegation from Hamas, recognized as a terrorist organization in Israel, was received in Moscow.
The Donia Al-Watan news portal wrote that Musa Abu Marzouk, deputy chairman of Hamas' political bureau, and two senior Hamas figures, Fathi Hamad and Husam Badran, had come to the Russian capital on May 4. This information was also published by TASS. There was no announcement of the meeting on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
- Andrei Krasov, deputy chairman of the Defense Committee of the State Duma, told Izvestia: "This (conflict) will not affect our relations. - If we turn the pages of history a little bit back to the thirties of XX century, we will see how Hitler came to power, with whose tacit consent, and in some cases with financial support.
The deputy believes that a similar situation has occurred in Ukraine, where "supporters of neo-Nazism have come to power. Therefore, the politician specifies, Israel's position on condemning "the growing neo-Nazism in Eastern Europe" should be "much tougher," because "it is a crime to forget about the victims of the Jewish people during World War II.
After Russia, at the invitation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, sent its military to the republic to suppress ISIS (banned in Russia) cells in 2015, Israel established a "conflict resolution mechanism" - also called "deconfliction" - with Russia to prevent unintended clashes during Israeli strikes against Iranian targets and arms shipments to Syria.
The mechanism is based on a line of operational communication between the Russian Hmeimimim airbase in Syria and the Israeli Kyria command and control complex in Tel Aviv.
According to Andrei Krasov, despite the degree of scandal, Russia-Israel relations on Syria will not suffer because they meet the interests of both countries.
During the meeting of the heads of Israel and Russia in Sochi in October 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett agreed to continue the existing cooperation between the two countries on Syria.
Israel's Red Lines
Meanwhile, Ariel Bulstein, an adviser to the former Israeli prime minister, told Izvestia that the Foreign Minister's statements and the ensuing reports on the minister's website "cross all the red lines.
- But immediately afterwards, when a Hamas delegation is officially received in Moscow, responsible for the murder of hundreds of Israelis, the impression is inevitably created that Russia is deliberately seeking to break off relations both with Israel and the entire civilized world, destroying everything that was built in the recent past," said the politician.
In his view, "the results of this approach may be far-reaching and deplorable - both in the Syrian area and beyond.
However, the experts polled by Izvestiya believe that Israel will not go to the curtailment of cooperation with Russia on Syria, which has been successfully developing since 2015, because the reduction of Russia's role will inevitably lead to the strengthening of Iran.
- A break on Syria is a predictable scenario, but it is unlikely that Russia and Israel will "collide" in the SAR. I do not think that the current crisis will be a catalyst for this, because Russia plays an important role not only for Israel's security, especially in the Golan area, but it is quite satisfactory for a number of Arab countries that are unhappy that the geography of the Iranian presence in Syria will increase with Russia's withdrawal from Syria," political analyst Roland Bijamov told Izvestia.
He is confident that in the near future the disputes will be resolved, there are parties in Israel who believe that "escalation is unacceptable and the reaction of the government of the country was aggressive.
Israeli political analyst Ze'ev Hanin also believes that relations between Israel and Russia will be complicated, but this will not affect the Syrian direction.
- The current crisis has more to do with Russia's internal interests. Yes, relations between Russia and Israel have seen better days, but it looks like Moscow is not interested in escalation," Khanin told Izvestia.
According to Lavrov, Lavrov's statement has had the "heaviest possible impact on public opinion in Israel.
- If earlier Israeli society was ready to accept - with all sympathy towards Ukrainians - that this conflict is not exactly our topic, with his statement the Russian Foreign Minister made it so that this is now our topic that everyone is discussing," summed up the political analyst.
Where Hitler came from
Reports of Hitler's Jewish origins have been circulating in the media since the 1950s, but there is no documentary evidence to support this. It is known that Hitler's father Alois was born out of wedlock and the name of his grandfather is unknown. This has given rise to speculation that the Führer's grandfather may have been a Jew and that Hitler himself was a vierteljude ("quarter Jew").
In 1953 the memoirs of Hans Frank, Hitler's personal lawyer, were published in which he suggested that Alois, born to an unmarried woman named Maria Schickelgruber, was the illegitimate child of Leopold Frankenberger, a Jew whose family was her maid. Later Frau Schickelgruber married Johann Georg Hiedler - his last name later became "Hitler". And it was this surname that the Führer took for himself.
Others claimed that Alois' biological father was also the grandfather of Hitler's mother, Clara Pötzl, which makes Adolf the product of an incestuous marriage.
You must be logged in to post a comment.