There is a situation that historians will define in the future the shameful exercise of the right, which led to the establishment of the left-wing government led by Naftali Bennett, as an accident on a historic international scale. This, because she removed from the political stage a factor who had the tools to stop the madness of the systems, into which the world has fallen.
“A serious event that will affect our relations”: Lapid in a dramatic message to Putin
Netanyahu against Lapid and Gantz: “The crisis with Russia could lead to serious harm”
You don’t have to be a Likud supporter or a “bibist” to appreciate what the abilities of Benjamin Netanyahu to the Russia-Ukraine crisis, which is actually a Russia-USA crisis. Even many of his staunch critics recognize his extraordinary abilities and skills, especially compared to other politicians in Israel and the world, and understand that in the hat of Prime Minister Netanyahu he could have manipulated the parties into a settlement.
But these days, from the narrow Israeli angle, there has been a significant change for the worse in Israel’s relationship with Russia. A policy of rough-legged rookies not only removed us from the political arena on the basis of potential influencers and mediators, but created a real crisis in Israel-Russia relations. To all the heroes who inflate themselves like a balloon and preach to the government not to be a trampled escopa or a carpet, we should be reminded of the commandment not to provoke the nations of the world.
Havlig – no. Bow your head – no. But also not to provoke the power in distress unnecessarily. Especially when it comes to a power that is not completely democratic, what determines it is less public opinion and more the good will of the leader. The worst thing is to provoke such a power, which has enormous influence in the country that borders Israel and has excellent relations with Iran.
Befitting an experienced statesman and the son of a historian, Netanyahu managed over the years to establish a relationship of trust and closeness with the Russian leader. But destroying is easier than building. Prime Minister Yair Lapid, whose handling of political matters resembles a hippopotamus making clumsy transitions between playa and ralva in a ballet class, managed to create a diplomatic miracle: to create a rare agreement between Russia and Poland, both of which are united around their attitude towards him.
The publications regarding sanctions against Russia, the Turkish threats to return the ambassador and other headlines about forceful retaliatory measures conjure up the “mouse that roared”. in the film of Peter Sellersa tiny country declares war on the USA, in order to lose it and enjoy the favors of the American reconstruction. But the film is a comic parody, while Lapid lives in a film that looks more like an introduction to a tragedy. It should be remembered that the total rupture in Israel-US relations began with small steps, which unfolded to the landslide
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A bit of history. The Russian affair with the Jewish people began in the days of the Soviet Union, when the Red Army, with its hundreds of thousands of Jewish soldiers, liberated the concentration camps and stopped the German extermination machine. This is when the West, which already controlled the skies of Europe, refrained from bombing the railways to Auschwitz.
The affair continued when, through the Czech Republic, the USSR supplied the Jewish settlement on the island with ammunition and weapons, while the West, with the exception of France, imposed an arms embargo on the Jewish settlement, which was in danger of extinction. And the highlight: in November 1947, Joseph Stalin ordered his representatives at the United Nations to support the establishment of the Jewish state and tipped the scales for acceptance of the proposal with the required two-thirds majority.
Stalin’s obvious disappointment that Israel’s socialist government chose to turn its back on him and join the Western Bloc, filled us with many bitternesses. Only historians will determine whether the anti-Semitic outbreak in Russia in the early 1950s, which culminated in the blood plot against the Jewish doctors, was the one that distanced Israel from Russia. Or, on the contrary, it was a consequence of this feeling of betrayal by Stalin, who saw Israel’s behavior as good coercion.
The Czech arms deal with Egypt was a natural continuation of the rift. It led to the Sinai War in 1956 and the panicked withdrawal from the peninsula in the middle of the war, under the threat of Russian Prime Minister Nikolai Bulganin’s missiles. The choice of the democratic West over the sun of nations, Stalin, was inevitable at the time.
On the other hand, Lapid’s trips to Russia were completely voluntary. They created an unnecessary crack in the delicate texture of the relationship that was built with great effort. It was enough to condemn the invasion of Ukraine in the United Nations. The debate about Russia’s position on the wrong side of history was offensive and unnecessary chatter.
Vladimir Putin (Photo: Reuters)President of Russia Vladimir Putin Is not Stalin, but he is also not Mikhail Gorbachev. According to his opinion, those who do not miss certain aspects of the USSR – have no heart. However, those who long for its return – have no head. The Jewish oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who installed Putin as his prime minister and Boris Yeltsin’s successor, used to say that when Putin helped him set up a radio station in St. Petersburg, he was the first bureaucrat to refuse to take a bribe. In retrospect, it turned out that this unusual behavior at the right moment in front of the right person was the first and decisive step for Putin on his way to power.
Like Yeltsin, Putin aspired from the beginning to ally with the West, to build a free economy, to join NATO, and above all to build a democracy adapted to the Russian character. About Putin’s plan for deepening democracy in Russia, Prof. Sergey Markov told me years ago, then Putin’s close advisor and editor of the Times” of Moscow, and today a senior member of Duma. Putin planned to go beyond a model of two-party democracy, but one subordinated to a powerful head of state. Something like the Jordanian model. Except that instead of a king, as befits a republic, the head of the system and the source of power will be an elected president. Putin wanted To create a synthesis between a two-party model “like in the West”, and between the longing of the Russian people for a strong and justice-loving tsar, who restrains the politicians and puts them in their place when necessary.
But the West condescendingly referred to Russia as “Ghana with nuclear weapons”, and grossly violated the commitments given to Gorbachev in exchange for his agreement to German reunification. George Bush Srwho was the last American president who understood international relations, created a joint body for NATO and Russia, which convened once a year to discuss common goals and strategic coordination. Bush Sr. realized that the potential threat to world peace was China, where a one-party regime prevailed and still prevails today as in the past in Beria “M, and the picture of the embalmed leader still appears on all the banknotes.
The West has made a big mistake in its attitude to Putin and Russia in a series of other major international events. American presidents entered the arena, who did not understand their right and left in the international arena. They are the ones who deteriorated the relationship with Putin and in fact made the war between Russia and Ukraine inevitable.
In order to navigate correctly in the international political arena – it is impossible to act without a correct vision and in-depth knowledge of the key figures operating in it. A simplistic conduct that is unable to operate within the enormous complexity of interests and relationships, that sees good and bad in the judgments of idiots, without knowing all the facts and nuances – is the one that could degenerate the world into a third world war.
This principle is also true for the Israeli and Middle Eastern arena. Lapid is a classic Capricorn. He is an actor in good and bad series. He writes columns and books of good and bad. He is unable to understand and contain complexities. Among other things, because he is not aware of them. Yes, in order to be a good prime minister – you need to study history. Much more than five matriculation units. Anyone who rushes to present us with a standard greeting letter of manners, which came out of Putin’s office to congratulate him upon taking office – and tries to use it to convince the public in Israel that everything is honey in Israel-Russia relations, is making a fool of himself to know. For those who even have a little understanding of diplomatic correspondence – it looks like a bad joke.
But this joke is at our expense, and may have far-reaching and destructive implications for the delicate balance, which currently prevents a difficult and dangerous war of the axis of evil against Israel. The last thing we need at the moment is a heavy, rough-legged, arrogant and inexperienced boxer who enters the ring in his shiny suit and shouts “Shuponi”, when in front of him is a sophisticated, quiet, strategic and experienced fighter – with a dan 9 black belt in taekwondo.