The latest Israeli-Hamas war has led to a deluge of disinformation, including about non-regional stakeholders’ policies towards the conflict. Russia’s has been manipulated by the Mainstream Media (MSM) and the Alt-Media Community (AMC) alike, each in pursuit of diametrically opposed ideological goals that converge through each of them falsely claiming that it’s allied with Hamas. The MSM thinks that this discredits Russia while the AMC thinks that this makes it look good, but there’s no truth to it.
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov earlier elaborated on his country’s policy of principled neutrality towards this conflict during an interview that he gave to Belarusian media last month, which was analyzed here along with a collection of relevant works on this subject hyperlinked to at the end. This top diplomat once again spoke on this issue during his latest interview with RT, during which time he revealed that President Putin has been a lifelong supporter of “ironclad security” for Israel:
“You know, we always understood, and President Vladimir Putin, whenever he visits Israel, whenever he receives Israeli leaders in Moscow, he always emphasizes that when he first came to that place, not being president, in his previous life, when he worked in St. Petersburg and had some business contacts with Israeli colleagues, he says, ‘When I saw Israel and its geography, I immediately understood why ironclad security was so important for Israelis.’
And this was his conviction from the very beginning. And he never, ever gave any reason to believe that we underestimate the importance of security for the state of Israel. Not to mention that we, the Soviet Union, were instrumental in creating the state, but also in defending the state.
With arms and weapons, and with some volunteers. Immediately after Israel was announced as a new state, it was under threat. So we have always paid attention to this, but at the same time we were taking the stance and explaining it to the Israeli government that you cannot buy security, which we are convinced you need, by delaying and delaying the creation of the Palestinian state and by creepingly reducing the territory which was designed for the Palestinian state by the United Nations.”
Those who are aware of this collection of quotes here from the official Kremlin website about everything that President Putin said about Israel from 2000-2018 could already have surmised as much, but it’s nevertheless very important that this was explicitly confirmed by Lavrov. Neither the MSM nor the AMC will give his remarks the attention that they deserve since this revelation shatters their lies about Russia’s policy towards this conflict that their influencers peddle for clout, ideology, and/or donations.
None of this should be surprising to anyone who has a solid understanding of how Russian diplomacy actually operates, however, since President Putin’s approach is the epitome of pragmatism. That defining feature of his country’s diplomatic traditions is on full display through his commitment to ensuring Israel’s security in general and through the independence of Palestine in particular. While this might seem contradictory, the reality is that it actually makes perfect sense from Russia’s perspective.
To explain, Lavrov was telling the “politically inconvenient” truth when reminding everyone of the Soviet Union’s pivotal role in Israel’s creation, which the MSM and the AMC both want their targeted audiences to forget about for their own diametrically opposed ideological reasons. Even though that country is a close US military ally, ties between those two are far from perfect, especially since Biden’s election and his team’s efforts to orchestrate a Color Revolution against Netanyahu since the start of the year.
Even prior to then, differences emerged between Obama and Netanyahu over the Iranian nuclear deal and Israel’s illegal settlements. Trump’s time in office saw a renaissance in bilateral ties, but Russian-Israeli ones still remained strong even then. To this day, Israel refuses to sanction Russia and those two continue utilizing their “deconfliction mechanism” from late 2015 for avoiding midair incidents over Syria. The Kremlin accordingly has an interest in keeping their positive ties on track.
This motive explains the lengths to which its officials have gone since the start of the latest war to reaffirm their commitment to ensuring Israel’s security, which they believe can be most sustainably guaranteed through the independence of Palestine per relevant UNSC resolutions. Lavrov’s revelation about President Putin’s lifelong commitment to this is meant to maximally reinforce the sincerity of their country’s policy in this respect so that it can continue being seen as neutral and friendly.
Russia wants to mediate a resolution to the latest war in the best-case scenario or at least revive the Mideast Quartet upon breaking the US’ existing monopoly over the peace process, which the Kremlin blames for everything getting to this point after it failed in its role as a supposedly impartial mediator. So long as Palestine remains occupied and deprived of its UNSC-enshrined right to independence and sovereignty, some locals will always be at risk of radicalization and therefore carrying out acts of terror.
The self-sustaining cycle of violence whereby occupation leads to terrorism and this in turn solidifies Israel’s refusal to implement international law on the basis that granting independence would endanger its security must be broken in order for peace to have any chance of prevailing in the region. This can only happen through Palestine’s independence, the specific terms of which could prospectively be negotiated with Israel to truly ensure that its security isn’t threatened like it fears would happen.
No other country has the equally close ties with Israel and Palestine as Russia does, nor has any so adroitly balanced between those two as well as Hamas since the start of the latest war, which is why its policymakers are cautiously optimistic that it can play a positive role in the conflict’s eventual resolution. Lavrov’s revelation about President Putin’s lifelong commitment to Israel’s “ironclad security” is meant as the strongest signal yet of its peaceful intentions, which hopefully Israel will reciprocate in some way.
