The Fateful Triangle: Russia,
Ukraine and the Jews
Israel Shamir
The
erotic reliefs of Hindu temples with their gravity-defying and
anatomy-challenging positions have found a new modern competitor in the
Ukrainian crisis. Each party wants to get the Jews on their side, while
claiming that the other side is anti-Jewish and a Jewish puppet
at once. This impossible, Kama-Sutraesque position is the result of
extremely confusing alliances: the Kiev regime lists devout Jews and
fiery antisemites among its mainstays. The leading figures of the regime
(including the president-elect) are of Jewish origin; strongman and
chief financier Mr. Igor (Benya) Kolomoysky is a prominent Jewish public
figure, the builder of many synagogues and a supporter of Israel. The
most derring-do and pro-active force of the regime, the
ultra-nationalists of the Svoboda party and the Right Sector, admire
Hitler and his Ukrainian Quisling, Stepan Bandera, “liberators of
Ukraine from the Judeo-Muscovite yoke”. Jews are ambivalent, and the
sides are ambivalent about them, and a most entertaining intrigue has
been hatched.
The
Russians tried to pull Israel and American Jews to their side, with
little success. President Putin condemned the antisemitism of the
Svoboda party; he mentioned the desecration of the Odessa Jewish
cemetery in his important talk. The Russians re-vitalised the World War
Two narrative, fully identifying the Kiev regime with the Bandera gangs
and the Nazi enemy. Still, this rhetoric is not taken seriously by Jews
who refuse to feel threatened by cuddly Kolomoysky. “These Nazis are not
against Jews, they are against Russians, so it is not a Jewish problem”,
they say.
The Kiev
regime mirrored the Russian attitude, if not Russia's tactics. Being
rather short of facts to brandish, they faked a leaflet from Donetsk
rebels to local Jews calling upon them to register and pay a special
poll tax “for the Jews support the Kiev regime”. This rude and
improbable hoax was immediately and convincingly disproved, but not
before it was used by, no less, Barak Obama and John Kerry. The American
Jewish newspaper of record, The
Forward, obfuscated the issue by
saying that Russians and Ukrainians are antisemites by birth and their
denials are to be taken with a grain of salt. This mud-slinging was
effective – the hoax has made the front pages, while its debunking was
published on the back pages.
The
Russians had the facts on their side, and the West knew that: the US
refused entry to Oleg Tyagnibok and other Svoboda leaders (now
members of Kiev government) because of their antisemitism as recently as
in 2013. But Russian appeals to Jewish and American sensitivities failed
to make an impact. They know when to feign indignation and when to hush.
Pro-Hitler commemorations are frequent in Estonia, Latvia, Croatia, and
cause no lifting of a censorious brow, for these countries are solidly
anti-Russian. In March of this year, the Obama administration’s special
envoy on anti-Semitism, Ira Forman,
flatly denied everything and said to the Forward that Putin’s
assertions of Svoboda’s antisemitism “were not credible”. The US wants
to decide who is an antisemite and who is not; like Hermann Goering
wanted to decide who is a Jew and who is not in the Luftwaffe. In the
Ukrainian crisis, the Jews remain divided, and follow their countries’
preferences.
Israel
is neutral
Recently
Prime Minister Netanyahu called President Putin. Putin is always
available for and always courteous to Netanyahu, as opposed to President
Obama, who shows signs of irritation. (Admittedly Obama has to listen to
Netanyahu much more often and for hours.) Netanyahu apologised that he
wouldn’t be able to come to St Petersburg for Israeli Culture Week;
instead, old reliable Shimon Peres, Israel's President, will make the
trip. He apologised for leaking the news of this visit cancellation to
the media, as well.
This is
quite typical for the Israeli PM: at first, he asks for an invitation,
Russia extends it, then he cancels his visit and leaks it to the press,
thus earning brownie points with the Americans. He did it at the Sochi
Olympic games, and now again, in St Petersburg. This is his way of
expressing Israeli neutrality.
Israel
is explicitly neutral in the Ukrainian crisis. Israelis walked out and
did not vote on the UN GA Crimea resolution at all, annoying its
American sponsors. The Israelis had a flimsy excuse: their Foreign
Office was on strike. The Americans weren’t satisfied with this
explanation. Strike or not, vote you must!
We
learned from our Israeli colleagues the details of the Putin-Netanyahu
phone conversation, which elaborated the reasons for Israeli neutrality.
Israel is worried that as an asymmetric response to the US sanctions,
Russia would deliver its potent air defence systems to Iran and Syria.
Iran and Russia had signed a weapons supply contract a few years ago,
Iran duly paid; then the shipment was suspended. Iran went to court
demanding a massive compensation for the breach of contract. Likewise,
the Syrians were supposed to get the S-300 surface-to-air missile
system, able to protect its skies from Israeli raids. The deliveries
commenced; PM Netanyahu beseeched Putin to put it on hold. Initially
Putin objected, stressing the defensive nature of the system. Netanyahu
told the Russian president that the S-300 would allow the Syrians to
cover the whole North of Israel, at least all the way to Haifa,
rendering important airfields unusable and endangering civil aviation as
well. Putin agreed to stop the deliveries.
Vladimir
Putin is friendly to Israel. He promised he would not allow the
destruction of Israel; he promised to save its population if the
situation should become truly dangerous. During the recent visit of PM
Netanyahu to Moscow, Putin was not carried away by Netanyahu and
Liberman’s hints of possible Israeli re-alliance with Moscow instead of
Washington. He told the Israelis that their ties with the US are too
strong for such a re-alliance being conceivable. Putin said that Russia
is satisfied with the present level of friendship and does not demand
that Tel Aviv weaken its ties with Washington. Putin visited Israel a
few times, he received the Israeli PM in Kremlin. The Israeli ambassador
Mme Golender sees Putin more often than do her American or French
counterparts.
This
friendly attitude has a down-to-earth reason: Putin is not fluent in
English or French, while Mme Ambassador speaks Russian to him,
eliminating the bothersome need of an interpreter. A deeper reason is
Putin’s background: a scion of liberal elites, brought up in St
Petersburg, schooled by ultra-liberal Mayor Sobchack, anointed by Boris
Yeltsin, Putin is naturally friendly to Jews and to Israel. This
friendly attitude annoyed some Russian ultra-patriots, who excitedly
circulated his photo taken in the obligatory kippah near the
Wailing Wall. They also counted and recounted the names of Jewish
oligarchs in Moscow.
True,
some of them – Berezovsky, Gusinsky, Hodorkovsky - had to flee their
Russian homeland, but the Russian president is surely not the
Jewish-tycoons-Nemesis and the-new-Hitler he is sometimes made out to
be. Abramovich and Friedman, to name just two, retain his trust and
access. Putin does not mind any oligarch (Jewish or Gentile) – as long
as he stays out of politics.
Putin is
also friendly with Jewish intellectuals and gentlemen-of-the-media, even
if they are outright hostile to him. Masha Gessen, Jewish Lesbian
Putin-hater and magazine editor; Alexey Venediktov, Jewish chief editor
of Echo Moskvy, a popular liberal medium that attacks Putin every
day; many others enjoy access to Putin, - while no Russian nationalist
including Dr Alexander Dugin can boast of having met with the president
privately.
Putin’s
affability does not turn him into a bountiful source for every Jewish
initiative. He stopped S-300 deliveries to Iran, but rejected all
Israeli overtures asking him to ditch Iran, or Syria, or Hamas. In the
course of their last phone conversation, Netanyahu claimed the Israelis
discovered proofs of Iranian nukes. Putin politely expressed his doubts
and re-addressed him to IAEA. He agreed to receive the Israeli “experts”
with their proofs in Moscow, but nothing came of it. Russia’s support
for Palestine is unwavering, – there is a Palestinian embassy in Moscow,
too.
Putin
supported building of a spacious Jewish museum in Moscow and personally
contributed to its budget – but Russian street advertising proclaims the
Resurrection of Christ, Eastertide, and His Nativity at Christmas. No
“season's greetings”, but open affirmation of Christianity. Russia is
not like the US or EU, where external signs of Christian faith are
forbidden, Easter and Christmas can’t be mentioned and whatever Jews
request must be done immediately. Western Jews are annoyed (so their
organisations claim) by public displays of Christian faith, but Russian
Jews do not mind; moreover, they intermarry, convert and enter the
Church in previously unheard of numbers. They are not strongly
pro-Israeli, those that were already left for Israel.
So the
Jews of Russia are not an influential factor to the Russian President.
Putin will do what is right according to the Christian faith, and what
is good for Russia, as he understands it -- and he can’t be convinced to
give up really important points. Other considerations – such as
friendship with Israel – would normally take a much lower place in his
priorities. However, in the midst of the Ukrainian crisis, as the
Russians are worried by sanctions and by threats of isolation, they try
to pull Jews to their side. This makes them increasingly susceptible to
Israeli manipulation, whether state-authorised or a private venture.
Last
week, Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld visited Moscow. In
2003, he famously threatened Europe with nuclear destruction (the
“Samson Option”), saying “Israel has the capability to take the world
down with us, and that will happen before Israel goes under”. Now he has
explained to Russians Israel’s new policy: While the US enters the
period of its decline, Israel must diversify and hedge its bets by
drawing close to Moscow, Beijing and Delhi, he wrote in
Izvestia daily. Perhaps, but without going too far. A flirt – yes,
switching sides – not yet.
Israel
prefers to stick to its neutrality. This is easy, as the Israeli
populace (excepting its Russians) is not interested in Russian/Ukrainian
affairs, does not know the difference between Russia and the Ukraine and
is rather unfriendly to Russians/Ukrainians. This goes for both the Left
and Right; the Israeli Left is even more pro-American than the Israeli
Right. As for Russian Israelis, they are equally divided between
supporters of Russia and supporters of Kiev regime. While observing
niceties towards Russia, Israel does not intend to side with Moscow. The
Jewish oligarchs of Ukraine – Kolomoysky, Pinchuk, Rabinovich – are
integrated within the Kiev regime, and they support Israeli
right-wing on a large scale. Israeli businessmen are invested in the
Ukraine, and the oligarchs are invested in Israel. Kolomoysky controls
YuzhMash, the famed missile construction complex in Dnepropetrovsk, and
holds the secrets of the Satan ballistic missile, the most powerful
Russian strategic weapon. He allegedly intends to share these secrets
with the Israelis. If Israel were to side with Moscow regarding Ukraine,
the breach with Washington would be unavoidable, and Israel does not
intend to provoke it.
Some
marginal Israeli right-wingers support Russia; they claim that they
represent Israeli public opinion and government. They try to collect on
their promises before they deliver. However, this is not an ordinary
scam: they are trying to turn Russia into a supporter of right-wing
Zionism.
Consider
Russian-Israeli far right activist Avigdor Eskin. He impossibly claims
that the Israeli government has already decided to jump from the US
train to join the Russian one, that Israeli commandos are on their way
to fight for the Russians in Donetsk, that Israeli authorities intend to
strip Mr Kolomoysky of his Israeli citizenship. Naturally, all that is a
load of bunkum, but Russians swallow it hook, line and sinker.
Avigdor
Eskin is a colourful personality: a convert to Jewish faith (his mother
is not Jewish), an observant Jew, an ex-Kahanist who was arrested in
Israel for an alleged attempt to desecrate Al Aqsa mosque and a Muslim
cemetery, and who served two or three years in Israeli jail; he styles
himself a “Rabbi” and wears a full beard. After serving his time in
jail, he moved to Russia and built a network of Israel supporters among
the Russian far right. His message is “Israel is a true friend of
Russia, while Muslims are Russia’s enemies”. He also adds that Israeli
settlers are anti-American and pro-Russian. (If you believe that, the
tooth fairy is the next step.)
Recently
he claimed that the Aliya Battalion of “experienced Israeli commandos
and sharpshooters” came to warring Donbass to fight on the Russian side
against the Kiev regime troops. The Aliya Battalion is a battalion in
the sense Salvation Army is an army. This is an Israeli NGO, established
by Russian Israelis of far-right Zionist persuasion and of some Russian
military background. It is not a part of Israeli Army. For a short
while, the NGO provided guards for Jewish settlements in Gaza and the
West Bank, but the settlements stopped using them as they were extremely
unreliable. They boasted of murdering Palestinian civilians, of
torturing and killing children, but this was just a sick sadist and
racist fantasy, people say. Afterwards, the Battalion leaders turned its
name into a profitable scam, roaming American Jewish communities and
collecting donations for their supposedly secret activities. As this
scam was exposed by Israeli TV (RTVI network; it is available on the
YouTube), they had disappeared from the public eye. Now Avigdor
Eskin resurrected the old scam, and made a lot of headlines in the
Russian media.
Eskin
found a soulmate in prominent Russian media man Vladimir Solovyev. The
Solovyev is of partly Jewish origin, lived abroad, then returned to
Russia; he runs an important political show Sunday Evening on
Russian TV. The Saker (a well-known blogger)
described him as follows: “This show is hosted by a famous
personality, Vladimir Solovyev, who is a very interesting guy. Solovyev
is a Jew, and he is not shy about reminding his audience about it, who
was even elected as a member of the Russian Jewish Congress. He is also
a Russian patriot, and he is an outspoken supporter of Putin and his
policies. His position on the Ukraine is simple: he as a Jew and as a
Russian has zero tolerance for Ukrainian nationalism, neo-Nazism or
Banderism. He is a determined and total enemy of the new Kiev regime.”
It is
possible Solovyev is going through some personal identity crisis: from
celebrating his Russian roots, he moved to proclaiming his Jewish
origin. Alternatively, it is possible (and more likely) that the Russian
decision-makers want to pull Jews on their side, and Solovyev is acting
with US Jews in mind. Stalin did it, so Putin could repeat the trick. In
1942, as Nazi onslaught threatened Russia, Stalin had sent some Russian
Jews to the US, to speak Yiddish to Jewish communities and lobby for the
USSR. The American Jewish community surely carries some clout… Now
Solovyev and others are trying to influence Jews abroad; or at least to
show to their superiors they are trying.
The
price Eskin extracts for his fantasy stories is high. In Solovyev’s
prime time programme, he called for the destruction of al Aqsa mosque
and for the building of the Jewish temple on its place. He called
Palestinians “the people of Antichrist”. Even in Israel such statements
can’t be voiced on public TV. In confused Moscow, Eskin was feted and
given a place in another important political programme, that of Arcady
Mamontov. Who is conning whom: is Eskin conning his Russian hosts, or
are his media hosts using him to con their superiors, or are their
superiors trying to con the Russian people? Or is Israel hedging its
bets? Who knows?
Ukrainian Jews beg to differ
Jews
came to the Ukraine a thousand years ago, perhaps from Khazaria. This is
not a homogeneous community; rather, they represent several communities.
A lot of them emigrated to Israel; even more moved to Russia. They speak
Russian and usually do not speak Ukrainian, though they picked up the
vernacular over last twenty years. Normally, they wouldn’t care about
Ukraine’s independence, as Jews traditionally side with the strong, be
it Poles under Polish rule, with Russians under Moscow rule, or with
Germans under Vienna or Berlin. Now many of them have decided to side
with the US or EU. One of the reasons why so many people of Jewish
origin do well is that the ruling ethnic groups trust the Jews and rely
upon their loyalty to the powerful and lack of compassion for their
Gentile neighbours.
Another
reason is the vague definitions. For last three or four generations,
Jews have intermarried freely; children of these mixed marriages are
often considered ‘Jews’. These are the ‘Jews’ to the present regime;
often they have only one Jewish grandparent.
Ukraine,
following its independence in 1991, moved into the Western sphere of
influence, but Eastern Ukraine (Novorossia) retained its Russian
character and links. Jews did well in both parts. Mr Kolomoysky is a
prominent member of the Jewish community, and a mainstay of the Kiev
regime. He is a ruthless businessman, famous for his raiding of
others’properties and for his Mafia connections. Rumours connect him
with many killings of business adversaries.
On the
other side, in Kharkov, the Mayor and the district Governor (nicknamed
Dopah and Gepah) are Jewish, and they can be considered pro-Russian. It
was thought that Kharkov would become the centre of rising Novorossia;
president Yanukovich fled to Kharkov hoping to find allies and
supporters. But Dopa and Gepa disabused him, so he continued his flight
all the way to the Russian city of Rostov. Their decision to remain
loyal to Kiev did not work well for them: one was shot, and the second
one has been imprisoned and his attempt to run for president thwarted.
Kharkov
is also home to Mr. Hodos, a wealthy and prominent Jew who fought most
valiantly against Habad, the Jewish spiritual movement of which Mr
Kolomoysky is a prominent member. The Jews of Novorossia apparently
support the general pro-Russian trend, though there are exceptions.
Practically all Ukrainian Jews have relatives in Russia, and had Russian
education.
Israel
has a strong network of agents in the Ukraine. They snatched a
Palestinian engineer and flew him to an Israeli dungeon, and that could
not be done without support of Ukrainian security services. However, the
stories of Israeli soldiers fighting in Ukraine are somewhat
exaggerated: these are individuals of dual citizenship who act at their
own will, not a state representatives.
US Jews
are divided
US Jews
are divided on the Ukraine, as they were divided on Palestine. Friends
of Palestine, people with a strong anti-imperialist record and sound
knowledge of East European history - Noam Chomsky and Stephen F. Cohen
-- recognised and renounced the US attempt to sustain their hegemony by
keeping brazen Russia down. A subset of people, Gilad Atzmon aptly
called AZZ (anti-zionist zionists), Trots and other faux-Leftist shills
for NATO like Louis Proyect – called for American intervention and
brayed for Russian blood.
The
notorious Israel Lobby is strictly anti-Russian. The State Dept.
official Victoria (“Fuck EU”) Nuland personally directed the Kiev coup;
she handpicked the government and the president of the new American
colony on the Dnieper River. Her husband, Robert Kagan, is a founder of
FPI, the successor of infamous PNAC, the extremist Zionist think tank
which promoted wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and pushed for a war with Iran.
Now they attack Russia, but they do not forget about their support for
Israel.
Consider
a young American gender activist and journalist, James Kirchick. He
entered the Neocon network by shilling for the Lobby. He pink-washed
Israel (“Israel as the best friend of gays on earth, while the
Palestinians are homophobes who deserve to be bombed”). After doing the
Israeli stint, he moved on to fighting Russia. He worked for the
CIA-owned and US Congress-funded Radio Free Europe; stage-managed the
sensational Liz Wahl’s on-air resignation from the RT and protested
alleged mistreatment of gays in Russia. His dirty tricks were revealed
by
Max Blumenthal, a Jewish American journalist, a known anti-Zionist
(working together with a Palestinian Rania Khalek).
While
Israel is neutral re Ukraine, Israeli friends in EU and US are hostile
to Russia and supportive of American hegemony, while friends of
Palestine stand for Russia’s challenge to the Empire. The French Zionist
media philosopher Bernard Henri Levy is an example of the former, while
Michel Chossudovsky of Global Research is a representative of the
latter. Leading critical (“anti-Zionist”) websites Counterpunch,
Antiwar, Global Research sympathise with Russia, while pro-Israeli sites
are hostile to Russia.
Zionists
are nasty and vicious enemies, but they make even worse friends. Edward
N. Luttwak is friendly to Russia; he called upon the US to make up with
Russia. Strategic union of Russia and America is necessary, he says. Who
cares about Ukraine? And here is his pitch line: Russia should fight
China for the US benefit. Another Zionist friend, Tony Blair, also calls
for peace with Russia – so Russia can fight the Muslim world for Israel.
Quite similar to Eskin who offers his pathetic support to Russia in
order to neutralise her positive influence and defence of Palestine.
The
bottom line: Israel remains neutral for its own reasons. While Jews as
individuals differ on Ukraine, there is a correlation with their stand
on Palestine and on Syria. Enemies of Putin in Russia, Ukraine, Europe
and US do support Israel and are hostile to Palestine, to Syria of
Bashar, to Venezuela of Chavez. And the most dangerous lot are those who
support Israel and Russia, as they are surely plotting some
mischief.
Language
editing by Ken Freeland
Israel
Shamir can be reached at
adam@israelshamir.net