Expert: Negative dynamics in Israel-Russia relations have already been set
Andrei Nikulin for Caliber.Az

INTERVIEWS  30 July 2022 - 18:17

The Basmanny court in Moscow held a preliminary hearing on the case of closing the Jewish agency Sohnut on the territory of Russia. The Russian Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit in the court demanding the closure of the Sohnut office in the country, which assists with the repatriation to Israel. The Ministry of Justice had claims against the agency in early July: in the opinion of the ministry, the organization had violated Russian laws. It is not known which law they are talking about.

Can the expulsion of the agency turn into a crisis in relations between Russia and Israel, and how has it affected Moscow? Caliber.Az asked this and other questions to Russian political analyst Andrei Nikulin.

According to Nikulin, the situation with Sohnut continues the row of diplomatic disagreements between Moscow and Tel Aviv that arose with the beginning of the war in Ukraine.

"Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who took office only a month ago, has already managed to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine, calling what happened in Bucha a "war crime" and supporting the suspension of Russia's membership in the UN Human Rights Council. The Russian Foreign Ministry called his words "an anti-Russian attack," seeing in them "an attempt to take advantage of the situation around Ukraine" to divert attention from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. A month earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in an interview with the Italian Mediaset newspaper, when asked how Ukraine could be accused of anti-Semitism if its president was a Jew, replied that Hitler supposedly had "Jewish blood" and that "the most fervent anti-Semites are usually Jews." Naturally, there was a harsh reaction to this in Israel: then-Foreign Minister Yair Lapid called Lavrov's remarks "inexcusable and outrageous" and a "terrible historical mistake," and the Israeli Foreign Ministry summoned Russian Ambassador Anatoly Viktorov for a clarification conversation. Later, the office of former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that Vladimir Putin apologized for Lavrov's words in a telephone conversation with him, but the bad aftertaste has apparently remained," says the political analyst.

That is, in Nikulin's opinion, the negative dynamic in the relations between Israel and Russia has already been set, and if the liquidation of the Sohnut representative office in the RF is attained, it will aggravate it even more.

"The fact is that the Russian Empire has always stood on these theses and Russia will always stand on them. It's actually in the genes: if you approach the final imperial line, it's time to look for the Son of Israel to blame. So in the next six months most of the ties between the two countries will be significantly severed," he said.

At the same time, Nikulin believes that the expulsion of the Sohnut will do nothing for Russia but find some closure (a closure is an image, a view, in this case, of Israel and the world as a whole).

"In essence, Russia is closing one of the last windows to the big world. In addition, because of this, Moscow will actually lose the remnants of technological and financial ties, and at the same time set up a powerful and extremely successful Jewish lobby against itself. Russia, arranging a scandal, is simply walking down a well-trodden path and will receive the maximum applause from Iran and Syria, as well as the grim satisfaction of the darkest part of the electorate," added the Russian expert.

"In the circumstances of another re-election in Israel, the conflict with Russia may be used by the political forces to their advantage. This could give Israel first of all a feeling of self-sufficiency and self-respect. Israel can not go to the northern capital to bow, and clearly and definitely declare that it is a powerful and independent country, able to defend the interests of its citizens," Nikulin stressed.

"Israel's position in the context of another re-election and Russian attrition is quite advantageous, and if we remember that the Jews have successfully survived three generations of their Russian persecutors, it is also promising in the medium term. In addition, a number of Israeli politicians, by agreeing to aggravation with Moscow, will get a chance to put themselves forward in a rally around the flag as defenders of their country. Moreover, opponents of former Israeli prime minister and Likud party leader Binyamin Netanyahu might finally suppress him by accusing him of being friends with Russian President Vladimir Putin for many years," the political analyst concluded.

Caliber.Az