Col. (Ret.) Ephraim Michaeli, political-military commentator and former IDF attaché in Moscow, spoke today (Monday) with Ben Caspit and Aryeh Eldad on 103FM about the developing crisis with Russia, assessed what caused the crisis and warned against its consequences.
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At the beginning of his remarks, Michaeli emphasized: “The crisis is a crisis in the guise of a crisis called an agency and the legality of the agency’s activity in Russia, but the crisis is political and is expected to pass in light of the conduct of the Israeli government in the war between Ukraine and Russia, and clearly taking a side in favor of Ukraine and those calls of a war crime.
“Russia does not go over this easily, it looked for an issue and found an easy issue that may develop into a bigger political crisis, you have to act wisely, carefully to preserve Israel’s interests and not at the whims of sanctions and things like that. Diplomacy is exchanging interests always to your advantage and to the satisfaction of the other side, that’s how I was Conducts diplomatic talks and that’s how it should be done.”
He added: “Israel did not help with weapons, but with this voice, which is also called a communication voice, it helped Ukraine a lot. We should have sided with Ukraine but we exaggerated, 10 hours of non-stop broadcasts for two months from Ukraine to side with the Ukrainian side without understanding the details. 4-5 TV crews sit in Lviv, and reported what happened with day and night bickering. Or we weren’t wrong that we bickered too much in favor of Ukraine, but if we were fine why aren’t we now supporting Ukraine with such loud voices and everyone is silent?
“I see a picture and interpret it according to my experience – Israel was wrong in its diplomatic behavior and this crisis has arrived. A week ago Russia, Turkey and Iran gathered in Tehran, they did not talk about the good of Israel and how to help Israel. Russia, a senior member, on its own, has always known and can influence Iran”.
Regarding the fact that Russia supported Iran even before the crisis, Michaeli said that “Israel also sells weapons to countries sometimes without advertising, Russia dealt with Iran 40 years ago. They built nuclear power plants for them. To use the leverage of relations with Russia and Iran for the benefit of Israel, the US does not is talking to Iran, so maybe it should have been taken advantage of as they have always taken advantage of this avenue.
“The fact that in Syria we attack Iran’s positions and Russia practically controls there and allows us. We give them intelligence, support, and they let us attack the Iranians and do whatever we want in Syria and Lebanon, this is a strategic understanding. Therefore, we should not have interfered too much in Ukraine.” .
What did we get involved in?
“We spoke more loudly against war crimes than others. We didn’t gain from it, we only lost. We could have provided them with vests, food, medicine, but without much brawling. At the beginning of the war, there was brawling that was very harmful to Israel.”
When asked why they remembered only now, he replied: “What is diplomacy? I’m waiting, waiting for an opportunity and I’ll show you. This is diplomacy. You need to exercise wisdom and not send the president of a country there and impose sanctions. You need to talk to them and reach the valley with them. The delegation will not receive visas until the Russians They will, that’s how they show they’re the masters. It’s very important that we have infrastructure in Russia, it’s important for the State of Israel.”
Assisted in the preparation of the article: Shani Romano 103fm