The Foreign Ministry’s summons of Russian Ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov on Monday to protest the egregious comments by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov saying that Hitler had “Jewish blood” marks the end of Israel’s effort to somehow stay above the Russian-Ukrainian fray.
Lavrov’s comments came in response to a question by an Italian radio interviewer about how he could call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a Nazi, when Zelensky himself is a Jew. In addition, Lavrov said, “For a long time now we’ve been hearing the wise Jewish people say that the biggest antisemites are the Jews themselves.”
Regardless of Israel’s genuine interest in not wanting to antagonize Russia because this could boomerang against it in Syria, where the Russians hold sway and could cause Israel considerable damage, the daily horrors in Ukraine, moves in the international arena forcing nations to take sides, and words such as Lavrov’s have made it impossible for Israel to remain “neutral.”
Furthermore, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s interest in mediating the conflict – originally one of the reasons for not strongly condemning Russia – has led nowhere; Israel has neither leverage to use on the Russians, nor any security guarantees to give the Ukrainians that would render it a serious mediator.
Along with the summoning of the Russian ambassador, Bennett’s responseto Lavrov’s words also signaled that Israel is sliding off the fence toward the Ukrainian side.
That Bennett was willing to publicly take the Russian foreign minister to task for his comments shows two things: just how bad he finds Lavrov’s words, and the distance he has traveled in the 10 weeks of the war. He has gone from condemning the war, but never mentioning the Russians by name, to now slamming the Russian foreign minister.
This is just the latest chapter in the anatomy of a policy coming undone. That the policy has unraveled, however, does not mean that the concern that led to it in the first place does not continue to exist: wanting to maintain a harmonious relationship with Russia so that the deconfliction mechanism in place over Syria’s skies remains and keeps Russian and Israeli forces from accidentally clashing.
Israel continues to have a genuine interest in keeping Iran from creating a beachhead against it in Syria, and good relations with Russia help promote that interest. That interest still remains, even as Israel has moved off the fence.
As a result, Jerusalem still needs to be wary – in its legitimate anger over Lavrov’s comments and in its siding more and more openly with Ukraine – not to completely alienate Moscow, because Russia still has the ability, through its actions in Syria, to severely complicate matters for Jerusalem.
Another turning point came on April 7, when Israel voted in favor of suspending Russia from the UN Human Rights Committee.
A Russian Foreign Ministry statement following the vote accused Lapid of “an anti-Russian attack,” and added, “There is an effort to take advantage of the situation around Ukraine to distract the international community from one of the longest unresolved conflicts – the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.”
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