Yves here. This is a welcome debunking of the ideas that Israelis and Russians are besties, as opposed to Putin being unduly fond of the idea of Israel being a haven for Jews, which is now a romanticized tale past its sell-by date.
By John Helmer, the longest continuously serving foreign correspondent in Russia, and the only western journalist to direct his own bureau independent of single national or commercial ties. Helmer has also been a professor of political science, and an advisor to government heads in Greece, the United States, and Asia. He is the first and only member of a US presidential administration (Jimmy Carter) to establish himself in Russia. Originally published at Dances with Bears
Once upon a time, in 2019, President Vladimir Putin declared that Russia and Israel make “a true common family; I can say this without exaggeration. Almost 2 million Russian speakers live in Israel. We consider Israel a Russian-speaking country…Without any exaggeration, I can say with pride that probably there has never been such a high level of relations between Russia and Israel, if, of course, we don’t go back to the very first months or maybe the first couple of years of the state of Israel. The positions of Russia and Israel, the peoples of our countries coincide….”
Putin was exaggerating the number of Israelis of Russian origin. But even at his estimate they are dwarfed by the 3 million Americans of Russian origin or Russian language. In fact, the measured numbers of the Russian diaspora living outside Russia are greater, in order of magnitude, in the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, the US, Brazil, and Germany, all ahead of Israel. Putin has never described the US, Germany, or Brazil as “a Russian-speaking country, a true common family”.
Putin was also misrepresenting the national identification and loyalties of Israelis of Russian origin. At most, only one in four, about 400,000, has held a Russian passport and has claimed Russian citizenship. However, most of that number have not renewed their passports as they expired in the past five years; these Israelis have abandoned Russian citizenship. In the Russian presidential election of 2018, only 120,000 Israeli Russians were eligible to vote. Of that number, only 12,000 actually cast votes.
Putin won an estimated 8,640 of those Israeli votes. Putin’s share of the votes in Israel trailed several other diaspora states including Finland, Canada, Italy, Germany, and Greece – all NATO adversaries.
In the Israeli army genocide in Gaza, Lebanon, and the West Bank of Palestine, 5,067 soldiers were holding Russian passports as dual nationals; more than double that number were US citizens; more than 6,000 were French. Under current Russian law, this would be criminal — but only if the Israeli Russians volunteered or contracted to serve in the Israeli forces, not if they were conscripted under Israeli law. By contrast, Israeli Russians making their living in Israeli companies producing weapons supplied to the Ukraine for combat against Russia are not breaking Russian law.
Russian Jews who are members of the Chabad organization which is supporting the war against Russia, the Gaza genocide, and the war against Iran are also not breaking Russian law by their Chabad links and loyalties. They include Berel Lazar (lead image, left, with picture of Chabad leader, Menachem Schneerson), officially Chief Rabbi of Russia whose election to that post against rival candidates has been credited to Russian oligarch money and Putin’s political backing.
In short, Putin’s publicly expressed rationale for supporting the Russian “common family” in Israel is a fabrication – statistically, politically, ideologically. Putin’s support is personal.
During the Gaza genocide, reports from the Russian Emergencies Ministry have claimed to have delivered 827 tonnes of food aid to the Palestinians through Egypt. In the same period, Russia delivered on commercial terms about 1.6 million tonnes of food and fodder grain to Israel, making Russia the leading source of Israeli grain imports; 90% of Israel’s wheat imports.
Last month, the Kiev regime announced that it would begin sanctions against Israel, cutting off the military trade, unless the Israeli government stopped imports of Russian grain. The Netanyahu government responded on April 30 by barring the Russian bulker, Panormitis, from unloading its 28,000-tonne grain cargo at Haifa.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has made a public protest in Moscow. “Barring absurd and baseless claims of the Ukrainian side,” spokesman Maria Zakharova said, “we would like to note that Moscow regretted this step that was obviously taken under pressure from Kiev. This runs counter to Israeli authorities’ official statements about their commitment to maintain Russian-Israeli economic cooperation and jeopardises the food security of Israel itself.”
Neither the President nor the Foreign Ministry has publicly said that Israel’s wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran jeopardize the food security of the populations under attack.
Instead, Putin has publicly supported President Donald Trump’s Gaza redevelopment scheme under the “Board of Peace”. Last October, responding to an Iranian question about what Russia “can do to bring an end to the [genocide]”, Putin replied: “regarding President Trump’s proposal on Gaza – you may find this surprising, but Russia is overall ready to support it. Provided, of course, that it truly leads to the ultimate goal we have always spoken about. We must thoroughly examine the proposals made. Since 1948 – and later in 1974, when the relevant UN Security Council resolution was adopted – Russia has consistently supported the creation of two states: Israel and a Palestinian state. I believe this is the only key to a final, lasting solution to the Palestinian–Israeli conflict. As far as I understand – I have not looked through the proposal carefully yet – it suggests creating an international administration to govern Palestine for some time, or more precisely, the Gaza Strip. It is proposed that Mr Blair would head it. Now, he is not known as a great peacemaker. But I know him personally. I have even visited him at his home, spent the night there, and in the morning, over coffee in our pyjamas, we spoke at length. Yes, this is true.”
In a new Red Pill Diaries podcast with Rasheed Muhammad, the discussion focuses on Russia, Iran and China in resisting Trump empire-fighting strategy with Israel. Click to listen or view.
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It’s no secret that President Putin is politically dependent on several post-Soviet oligarchs who financially support the Chabad-Lubavitchers and Israel, foremost among them Roman Abramovich. In many ways the conflict in Ukraine appears to be a civil war between post-Soviet oligarchs for economic control of the two former Soviet republics, and coincidentally many of those oligarchs are Jewish. I don’t subscribe to “Jewish conspiracies” but facts are facts.
While Helmer is doubtless correct about the relative numbers of Israelis of Russian origin compared to other countries, they do make up an inordinate absolute percentage of the Israeli population. I doubt that Putin is going to take any action against Israel that might upset the support of “his” oligarchs. Rather, he seems to invariably pump-up and exaggerate Russia’s ties to Israel. The Palestinians shouldn’t be looking to Russia for help.
Putin may supply wheat but at least he doesn’t send 2000 lb bombs. Perhaps his claimed neutrality is sincere.
Or in other words whatever the relationship it’s nothing like USA/Israel.
Helmer points out some very helpful facts that help explain the Russian president’s actions (or lack of).
Many anti-imperialist observers have been sorely disappointed in Russia’s lackluster opposition to US/Israeli crimes. We can’t project our values onto Vladimir Putin, he has his own political interests. The debate about why that is has been going on for a long time now, most of the points are covered here.
One wild speculation: given Iran’s performance against the US and Israel (that clearly surprised and impressed the Russians), does Russia (and China) expect Israel, in its current Zionist state, to exist in the longer term? If I were to look into a crystal ball, I could see a completely different map of West Asia, if extrapolating the watershed events of the last year or so (and resisting any wishful thinking). Going forward, one could say, there will not be room in the region for both Iran and Israel. (not to mention Turkiye) so who will prevail? Could it be Russia and China expect Iran to sort of take care of the US proxy state by itself?
It’s said that originally Stalin was for Israel, because it meant driving the British out of the Palestine. Pragmatism, I guess.
Now, one could claim that Putin’s benevolent attitude towards Israel has been to a large extent driven by the fact that both Russians and Jews suffered at the hands of the Third Reich, and he has been hoping some of the halo of the victim-hood would eventually rub on Russia, too. For a few years now it’s been obvious that this will never happen.
Also, I believe Putin is referring to “Russian-speaking” Jews when touting numbers, not specifically Russian emigres. That covers Belarus and Ukraine, too. Some have estimated that almost half of Israelis have connection to Russia/Soviet Union/Russia, even if it’s via babushka and dedushka from Brooklyn or Queens.
Regarding the Stalin was for Israel line, I’ve read a much different account (Stalin – Montefiore). Here Stalin wanted Crimea as the home for the Jewish state. As he discovered that Israel was selected he understood this as a betrayal by his inner circle whom he accused of collaborating with the West. Subsequently, Molotov’s Jewish wife was among the many Jews either tortured and executed and jailed as a result.
Not an expert, but I think Montefiore got it backwards: Soviet Union voted in UN for the state of Israel while at the same time Zhemchuzhina’s (Molotov’s wife) friends in Jewish Antifascist Committee were trying to convince Stalin to create a Jewish homeland on Crimea (as they thought Molotov was for it, too).
This was Stalin’s excuse to assume Russian Jews were traitorous and trying to destroy his grand plans for the post-war world. Fifteen members of the JAC were tried for conspiring to establish a Jewish Republic on Crimea (with the help of the rich American Jews, none the less). They were executed 5 years later, just half a year before Stalin’s death.
We must not forget that Stalin’s recognition of Israel demoralized and weakened communists in the Middle East and the rest of the Islamic world. If he had not made this mistake, the dynamics of the Cold War would have been vastly different.
Proportionality is missing from Helmer’s article.
Also proportionally the food supplied to Israel and Palestine from Russia is about equal per head of population. Russia has always been the main importer of food stuffs to Israel.
A bit late comment, but I just posted this on Helmer’s website and I thought that I could also put it up here:
“The issue of Russia’s support for Israel has been nagging me for quite a while and all arguments explaining it (and I have to say — including yours, Mr Helmer) seem to me unsatisfactory.
I will start with what I would say is your position, Putin’s philosemitism as a major factor (you may argue that it is not your position, that your position is more nuanced than purely the Putin factor, which would be only an element in your position… fair enough, but it is the only position that I have heard you articulate. My apologies if it is a misrepresentation): the normal state of policy in Russia would be anti-Israel (or just tepidly anti-Israel) and Putin’s philosemitism pushes decisively in the pro-Israel direction to the point that it becomes an oddity. Is this depiction of things, the core of the Russian state apparatus is just humouring Putin the same way that hardline elements in it seem to be humouring him about Ukraine. I don’t really know what to make of it. I don’t see the logic of an strictly personal factor having such sway when the whole Middle East Russian foreign policy is at stake.
So we have to get fishing for non-Putin arguments for the overall Russian position.
First, there is the argument of the link with the Russian-speaking population in Israel, that you dismiss, correctly in my view.
One could recycle the same argument with a different formulation (I am following here Patricia Marins, a Twitter commentator on military affairs): equating the ties between the Russian-speaking Israeli population and Russia to ties between the Israeli and the Russian military industries. Russia wouldn’t want a clean break with Israel because its military industry would be too closely linked to Israel. I really don’t know what to make of this argument, but if it worked in any way, it would seem to me that it would rather work the other way: the Israeli defense industry would depend on the Russian one way more than the other way around, hence, it would be moot to explain the Russian position.
Then there is the stability argument: Russia is essentially a conservative power, not a revisionist one. It considers that things may have to change in the Middle East, but not to the point of pushing for Israel’s disolution as a state. In this argument, stability includes the preservation of the state system of the region as it is currently, therefore, it would be in Russia’s interest to preserve the security of Israel (if only they would stop their distabilizing activities…!!!). I don’t know what you think of it. I think that the argument has some merit. But there is a limit to it given Israel’s behaviour.
I can’t think of any other possibilities (I don’t know Russia and I am not a Russian speaker). However, the consistent support to Israel, that I consider can’t be explained by Putin’s personal preferences, would necessarily have to be the expression of a degree of support for that position in the broader Russian state structures and foreign policy establishment. What is the reason for that, given Israel’s support for Ukraine, Islamist militias, destabilization of the region…? What drives this Russian support?
Baffled by this puzzle, a reflexion by Emmanuel Todd (I assume you know him) comes to mind. I can’t trace the reference now: it was in an interview. In the interview, he was discussing the folly of the EU Russia policy and how it seems kidnapped by the most radically anti-Russian countries and elites, and expressing his pessimism about Europe and, specifically, about Eastern Europe (Poland and the Baltics, essentially, but not only), he was trying to make sense not only of that Russophobia, but also of their love for Germany: they love and embrace the Germany that invaded, destroyed and genocided them, and abhorred the Russia that liberated them from that. Who can understand that? Then he said that “in his darkest moments” he feels that the reason is anti-semitism: the deep strains of antisemitism in those countries resurface today in the form of a cripto-antisemitism that engenders a form of filogermanism that is no other thing than an expression of gratefulness to Germany for having freed them for good from their “Jewish problem”, and conversely, they would hate Russia for having defeated antisemitic Germany.
It is an interesting reflection.
Now, how does that apply to the Russia-Israel relationship?
Well, antisemitism also runs deep in Russian history. When trying to make sense of a general support for Israel by the Russian state, couldn’t the argument of the special relationship with Russian-speaking Israeli Jews be reformulated as a form of cripto-antisemitism? Russia supports Israel because the special relationship with the Israeli Jews means that those Jews are in Israel, and not in Russia. Better keep them there, lest they come back and we have our particular “Jewish problem” return. To avoid that scenario, the continuity and stability of the state of Israel would be an essential driver of Russian policy for the Middle East.
The irony for Putin is that he would be a philosemite enacting an antisemitic policy.
Anyway, I don’t know what you make of my argument. Certainly, I have never encountered a thorough discussion of the reasons for Russia’s Israel policy. I would be grateful if you devoted some articles to it. You are the best-qualified person for that that I can think of.”
Any thoughts, anyone?
Could it be Putin’s connections with the late Jeffrey Epstein and Ehud Barak?
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/jeffrey-epstein-ehud-barak-putin-israel-russia-syria-war-depose-assad?utm_source=publication-search
Epstein once bragged to a journalist that he “often flew to Moscow to see Vladimir Putin,” and enjoyed close ties with Russian business and political elites. The American financier specialized in moving money across borders, and his expertise would be useful in stemming capital flight from Russia amid Putin’s crackdown on “foreign agents.”
The Epstein files connection is not a serious argument.
Plus, I am not asking about Putin’s position, but about the reasons for the whole Russian foreign policy establishment position.
Finally, the argument is a sociological one. Personal motivations don’t fit in the discussion.
Either Putin is compromised or he is so deeply and emotionally pro West/Zionist that it boils down to the same thing. The pathetic “macron betrayed me”, “Bojo broke up the Istanbul negotiations” etc etc make no sense after getting betrayed again and again in Maidan, Minsk 1, 2 …
Something does not makes sense here.
Any way the US could trade Israel to the RF in exchange for Greenland or Cuba? After all, Israel is the only “democracy” in the ME, might as well be a Pete Rose original baseball card. Bibi says their decoupling from US military aid over the next 10 years so why forestall the inevitable.
Before 2024, Turkey, an Islamic country, was Israel’s largest importer of steel. China ranked as Israel’s second-largest single trading partner… Many countries are reluctant to let sentiment toward another nation override practical interests.