Surprise flew to Moscow from Vladimir Putin, where he spoke for three hours with the Kremlin man. Then he left for Berlin. In the very delicate Ukrainian crisis, he checks the Israeli card. In fact, Jerusalem tries to present itself as a mediator. The premier Naftali Bennett, perhaps the most cautious Western leader towards Russia so far, is the first foreign politician Putin meets after the attack on Kiev. Bennett first warned her Germanythe France and of course his main ally: the United States.
After the visit, the Israeli leader phoned the Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelensky and flew to Berlin to meet the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. All after hearing too Emmanuel Macron, confirming that something is probably moving. In Israel, the local press points out that in order to fly to Moscow, Bennet, who is a very observant Orthodox Jew, violated the strict rules of Shabbat: a sign that this mission could not really be postponed. In the interview with Putin, which lasted three hours and revealed by Kremlin sources only shortly before it ended, the possible imminent agreement in Vienna on Iranian nuclear power, which Israel opposes, was also addressed.
The move by the Israeli premier comes at a time when American and European diplomacy seem unable to find a exit strategy after all Western countries, albeit with distinct intensities, have come together in solidarity in support of Kiev, providing economic and military assistance and imposing economic sanctions against Russia. Although it does not belong to the EU or to NATO, Israel is also in all respects considered a nation of western deployment, especially as a leading ally of the US. For this reason, so far his approach of cautious condemnation towards Moscow, glossing over the sanctions in Moscow and denying the transfer of arms to Kiev, it aroused discontent and perplexity on both sides of the Atlantic and in Ukraine. But Israel is also the only Western country that can boast privileged relations with both Russia (for historical reasons, immigration and Moscow’s role as a power broker in the Middle East) than with Ukraine (where a community of about 50,000 Jews lives, including the president himself Volodymyr Zelensky). For this he tried to keep an open channel with both sides.
During the interview with Putin, the Minister of Construction and Construction Ze’ev was also present alongside Bennett Elkinwho acted as a translator: he was born in Kharkiv and has a brother in Ukraine. According to reports The Jerusalem Post, Zelensky offered him a cabinet seat after he was elected president of Ukraine in 2019. Elkin has been translating Putin for prime ministers in meetings for more than a decade. Even the National Security Advisor Eyal Hulata, diplomatic adviser Shimrit Meir and spokesman Matan Sidi accompanied Bennett to Moscow. Again according to the Post it would have been Kiev to ask for a greater Israeli role as intermediary. Bennett would have already proposed his role as mediator to Putin in their first meeting in Sochi last October (pictured) but the Russian president would have refused. But now the picture has changed and no country seems more equidistant than Israel.