The Zionist Entity and Russia: Mutual Ties All Along

[Michael K.]

Editorial Comment:  The Russophiles in the "truth" movement often promote an image of a pious Christian Russia as oppositely aligned to the Zionist Entity as can be.  They use examples of its support for states like Syria and Iran to bolster this argument.  However, history and current events both show us a different side to the relationship.  The Zionist project was impossible without the military assistance of the Soviet Bloc, which was also the first to recognize the State of Israel as a legitimate state.  Although there was an apparent hiatus in good relations between these states during the Cold War years, this was possibly a sham and an act to protect the Jewish exploitation of their 'gold mine' in America.  




http://englishrussia.com/2006/12/04/rus ... above-nyc/

Russian Pilot Gets "Lucky" Pictures of 9-11





http://thebluevoice.blogspot.com/2009/0 ... union.html


Israel's founding and the Soviet Union
Monday, January 19, 2009

 

Establishment of the state of Israel on 14 May [1948] was internationally an important achievement for the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union and its satellites supported the Jews in every way throughout the war in Palestine. The military aid which the Soviet bloc extended to Israel, declared Professor Yaacov Ro'i, was a major factor in enabling the Jews to gain important military victories; it was also a significant factor in promoting Soviet political and strategic ambitions in the Arab world. To quote him, 'The desire that the British be expelled from Palestine and their position in the entire region weakened, justified the unusual step of exceeding the bounds of purely political backing in the international arena as well as the political risks involved in strengthening Israel's fighting potential both with personnel and arms supplies'.

Say what? Establishment of the state of Israel ... was internationally an important achievement for the Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies?

Well, yes. The latest round of fighting in Gaza reminded me that this was something I intended to post on one of these days. The quote above is from Soviet Policy towards the Arab World, 1945-48 by Rami Ginat Middle Eastern Studies Oct 1996 (JSTOR database link).

Raising of the Israeli flag at Eilat (then Umm Rashrash) in 1948, marking the end of the War of Independence

The Inauguration is obviously the biggest political event on most Americans' minds right now. But it's also Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. And Juan Cole reminds us at his Informed Comment blog (King's Anti-Imperialism and the Challenge for Obama 01/19/09) that King placed great value on the anti-colonialist movement of the post-Second World War period. And Israel's War of Independence played a role in that movement that isn't often mentioned in the light of today's priorities and political alignments.


Of course, the Truman administration also endorsed the creation of the State of Israel. But of the two then-superpowers, the USSR was the one that contributed most substantially to that event and to the support of Israel in its war with the surrounding Arab states that same year.

In an historical retrospective, Israel Seeks "Neutrality" Between U.S., Soviet Union by Washington Report on Middle East Affairs Jan/Feb 1995, Donald Neff recalled that at the time of its founding and immediately afterward, Israel had substantial interest both in having support from Washington and in the immigration of Soviet Jews to Israel. However:

   

But of more immediate importance were weapons. And it was here that the Soviet Union played a paramount role at this time. Moscow had allowed Czechoslovakia to become Israel's major arms supplier in 1948. In that capacity, Czechoslovakia had provided Israel with all the Messerschmitts and Spitfires that formed its new air force, as well as other weapons and the training of 5,000 of its military personnel by the fall of 1948. And it remained Israel's major arms supplier in 1949.

    The significance of the Czech connection to Israel rested on the fact that the U.S. had imposed an arms embargo on the area in 1947. Despite unrelenting pressure from Israel's supporters, the Truman administration continued to observe the embargo in 1949, as did subsequent administrations for more than a decade.

    The steadfastness of the Truman administration on the arms issue had less to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict than with the Soviet Union. Keeping Russia out of the Middle East was one of Washington's major goals. Before the Palestine problem grew acute after the end of World War II, the Middle East had been "virtually clean" of Soviet influence, in the words of one British general. But since then it had made some modest gains in Israel because of Moscow's support of partition, its quick recognition of the Jewish state, its decision to allow Jews to emigrate to Israel and its secret supply to Israel of weapons via Czechoslovakia during the fighting.

    Harry Truman (l) and Chaim Weizmann, 1948

    A mid-1948 report to Secretary of State George C. Marshall from Ambassador to the United Nations Philip C. Jessup observed: "...it is not apparent that communism has any substantial following among the [Arab] masses. On the other hand, there are apparently a substantial number of Communists in the Irgun, the Stern Gang and other dissident [Jewish terrorist] groups. Beyond that, the Soviet Union, through its support of partition and prompt recognition of Israel, must be considered as having a substantial influence with the PGI [Provisional Government of Israel]. The communist influence is, of course, capable of substantial expansion through whatever diplomatic and other missions the Soviet Government may establish in Israel."

This is a major reason that the legitimacy of the State of Israel itself was never a serious point of contention in the Cold War, despite the later alignment of the Soviets with some of the more anti-Israel states like Syria, Iraq and Egypt, and the strong alignment of the US with Israel. The Soviet Union not only recognized Israel at its founding. The founding of Israel was considered to be an significant diplomatic and political achievement for the Soviets and countries like Czechoslovakia that would later be part of the Warsaw Pact.

There were a number of reasons for this particular alignment. Palestine was under British authority until 1947, when under the pressure of Jewish guerrillas fighters (the British called them terrorists), Britain decided to dump the whole mess into the lap of the United Nations. A great many problems in the Middle East and Asia, too, have the fingerprints of the British Empire all over them: Israel-Palestine, Iraq, Kashmir, to name a few. In November of 1947, the UN declared the partition of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab areas. Civil war began immediately with Israel declaring independence in May 1948.

But Britain and France weren't ready to recognize Israel at that time. Both nations were trying hard to hang on to their worldwide empires and didn't want to give the Jewish-Zionist national liberation movement in Palestine that much of a victory.

The Soviet Union did. And the Truman administration decided to support the creation of Israel, not because it was particularly popular, on the contrary. Truman was persuaded it was the right thing to do for a number of reasons.

But it's important to note here that aligning diplomatically with the USSR on this issue, when Britain and France were taking a different position, showed that Truman wasn't simply dogmatically committed to opposing the Soviet Union above all other considerations. Although, as Neff points out in the quotation above, Truman's administration put trying to limit Soviet influence in the Middle East as a higher priority than arming Israel in the face of the Arab War with Gamal Abdel Nasser's infamous threat to drive the Jews into the sea. The Soviet Union, not the US, was their most important international ally at the time. Czechoslovakia was their most important arms supplier.

Rami Ginat writes:

   

At the very beginning of the war, the Soviet Union justified its support of Israel by claiming that the state of Israel had been proclaimed in accordance with the resolution passed by the UN and they therefore recognized its establishment. As for the Arabs, the Soviets mentioned frequently that they had defended and would continue to defend the independence of the Arab states and peoples. The Arab war against Israel [according to the Soviet position] was not intended to protect Arab national interests or their independence, but was against the rights of the Jews to create their own independent state.

Stalin's USSR didn't make a practice of letting ideology overrule practical considerations of power politics in international affairs. But ideology is also a part of any state's power-political position, and that was perhaps more so with the Soviet Union than most other states. It laid claim to be the leader of a revolution of worldwide scope. And the Soviets framed their support of Israeli independence in the context of Communist ideology which stressed the importance of national liberation movements against imperialism, even when the leaders of those movements weren't communists or close allies to communists.

Joseph Stalin: Israeli independence was perceived as a victory of Soviet foreign policy

Martin Ebon of the New School wrote in "Communist Tactics in Palestine" The Middle East Journal July 1948 that from 1920 until just a few months prior to his writing, the primary focus of Soviet Middle Eastern policy had been "to reduce the influence of the Western powers, primarily Great Britain."

   

This negative objective could be detected with particular clarity in Soviet policy regarding Palestine; as long as a solution of the problem was the concern of Great Britain, or of joint Anglo-American efforts, the Soviet Union's attitude was largely one of deterring action. But as soon as the Soviet Government could exercise its influence through the United Nations, Russia's policy became positive and sought a wider objective: to bring Soviet influence into play, even if this required modification of the traditional communist attitude of opposition to Zionism, as well as withdrawal from the goal of a unitary Jewish-Arab state which the communists had previously described as the only possible solution.

Ebon quotes the position of the Soviet-line Communist Party of Israel in 1948 on independence of Israel as follows:

   

This is a great day for us. The British mandate, covered with blood, is dead. The Jewish state arises. The British mandate has been annulled by the struggle of the Yishuv [Jewish national community in Palestine] and with the help of the Soviet Union and the progressive forces of the world. But the fight for independence is not yet finished. There are still British armies on our soil. The British sent Abdul-lah's Arab Legion into action, which is now attacking savagely.

    Just as we achieved liquidation of the mandate by a struggle for liberation of the Yishuv, so we will achieve full independence by the mobilization of all the forces of the Yishuv for the fight for our freedom. On our side stands the whole Jewish people. On our side stand all progressive forces. We will fight and we will win.

    The proclamation by the government of the Jewish State means a change in the tradition of getting instructions from Washington and London. On this great day, we state that we will never accept foreign domination and we will fight for the roll evacuation of the British army. As we succeeded in destroying die British mandate, we will oppose every new attempt at Anglo-American suppression. On this great day we declare that we win fight for the freedom of the Arab population and co-operation with them in our state. We stretch out our hands for agreement to the neighboring Arab countries, for their independence means our independence, and we want to stand with them against the common imperialist enemy.

    May the Jewish State be the free homeland for all its inhabitants. May the Jewish State be the homeland for working people. Let us build a fighting democratic unity for full independence of our state. In these fateful days and amid dangers which threaten us, may the Yishuv be ready for die defense of our state. Our enemies won't conquer us. The whole Yishuv must be united to fight for freedom. Every attack will meet the opposition of the whole people.

    Long live the Jewish State! Long live our independent, democratic state! Glory to the defenders and fighters for independence! Justice is with us! Victory will be ours! [my emphasis]

That position cast Israel's independence war as a battle against Anglo-American imperialism, the "American" part of which wasn't entirely plausible given Truman's support of Israeli independence. The opposing Arab armies were cast as the agents of the British Empire, also quite a stretch, since Britain decided in 1947 to wash its hands of the Palestine mess and allow Israeli independence to move forward.

Soviet hopes to keep good relations with Israel soured fairly quickly. For one thing, the USSR was playing both sides of the fence to some degree in the 1948 war. As Ginat explains:

   

Nevertheless, Soviet support of partition, the establishment of the state of Israel as well as their solid aid to the Jewish effort throughout the war in Palestine, did not mean that the Soviet Union was willing to put all its eggs in the Israeli basket. In fact, there was much evidence to indicate that arms shipments from the Soviet bloc had been made to Egypt and other Arab states.

But it was mainly the larger political situation in the world that moved Israel fairly quickly firmly toward the Western side in the Cold War:

   

The Soviet plan to establish a stronghold in Palestine failed mainly because soon after the war in Palestine Israel demonstrated its neutral and independent policy in the inter-bloc struggle - a policy which did not fall in line with Soviet interest. Consequently, the Soviets concluded that the way to achieve domination in the Middle East would not be through Israel but rather through Arab countries, mainly Egypt, Syria and Lebanon. Thereafter, a significant change in their policy concerning the Arab-Israeli conflict took place. With the end of the war in Palestine, the Soviet pendulum of support swung again towards the Arab side. Throughout 1949, the Soviets extended their policy of promoting instability and insecurity in the Middle East. They rejected the possibility of lifting the arms embargo imposed by the UN Security Council. They benefited from the existing state of tension in the Middle East by, indirectly, supplying arms to both sides. They continued to attack the Western powers' defence plans in the Middle East and the Arab leaders' attitude towards these plans, which the Soviets considered to be directed against their vital interests. From this stage on, the Soviets launched a massive campaign against these plans, a campaign which later on proved fruitful. [my emphasis]

The Zionist Labor movement (Mapai, the Labor Party), which played a leading role in the years leading up to independence and just after, practiced a form of militant social democracy. The kibbutz movement was an idealist effort to establish a fundamental basis for a socialist society in Israel. But the orientation of the Israeli labor movement and left was largely social-democratic, not communist. As Martin Ebon wrote in 1948 at the time Soviet-Israeli relations were at their best:

 

... most Zionist statesmen, from Dr. [Chaim] Weizmann [Israel's first president], favor the Western democracy. Their own community government is run along parliamentary lines. Israel's financial, moral, and military support has in the past largely come from the United States. The young state will continue to require substantial aid, most of it from its friends and well-wishers in America.

http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0195/9501036.htm

Israel Seeks "Neutrality" Between U.S., Soviet Union
By Donald Neff

It was 46 years ago, on Jan. 13, 1949, that The New York Times reported Israel sought to steer a neutral course between the United States and the Soviet Union. Correspondent Anne O'Hare McCormick reported from Jerusalem that "It is true that Israel cherishes the ideal of remaining 'neutral' between the United States and the Soviet Union, constantly referred to as 'our two powerful friends...'" 1

The policy's name in Hebrew was ee-hizdahut, "non-identification." Although the Cold War was in full force at the time, Israel hoped to remain friendly with both superpowers because both had assets that Israel needed—money, people and weapons. Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett said: "Israel will in no case become identified with one of the great blocs of the world as against the other."2

This was not good news for the U.S. and its allies. Although Israel by itself was not a significant military factor in the Cold War, its willingness to equate the Soviet Union as the moral equivalent of the United States was a disturbing message to Western Cold Warriors. Their primary concern at the time was to keep the Soviet Union out of the Middle East, which had been a Western preserve since World War I.

Yet Israel had compelling reasons to embrace the Eastern bloc, as David Ben- Gurion made clear when he formed his first government on March 10, 1949. He informed Israel's legislature that his government would pursue "a foreign policy aimed at achieving friendship and cooperation with the United States and the Soviet Union."3 He added that the Soviet Union was a "great and growing world power, controlling a number of states not hostile to us...and in it and its satellites lives the second part of the Jewish people."4

That was one of the cores of the matter for Israel—some two million Jews living in the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe. In the first three years after World War II the Soviet Union allowed 200,000 Jews who had fled Poland for safety in the Soviet Union to emigrate to the West and Palestine.5

Israel's interests in the United States were similarly compelling. The United States had the wealth and a generous Jewish community to help finance the fledgling state. Israel's total exports in 1949 were only $40 million, whereas contributions from Jewish Americans accounted for $100 million.6

But of more immediate importance were weapons. And it was here that the Soviet Union played a paramount role at this time. Moscow had allowed Czechoslovakia to become Israel's major arms supplier in 1948. In that capacity, Czechoslovakia had provided Israel with all the Messerschmitts and Spitfires that formed its new air force, as well as other weapons and the training of 5,000 of its military personnel by the fall of 1948. And it remained Israel's major arms supplier in 1949.7

The significance of the Czech connection to Israel rested on the fact that the U.S. had imposed an arms embargo on the area in 1947. Despite unrelenting pressure from Israel's supporters, the Truman administration continued to observe the embargo in 1949, as did subsequent administrations for more than a decade.

http://israelseen.com/2010/07/30/fact-s ... relations/

Fact Sheet Russia-Israel Relations
July 30, 2010

Since the end of the Cold War, relations between Russia and Israel have been on the upswing. A major source of the strengthened ties between the two countries is that one out of every seven Israelis is Russian due to the roughly one million Russian Jews who immigrated to Israel in recent decades.[1]

As a result, Israel is home to the world's largest diaspora of Russian speakers outside of non-Russian-speaking countries.[2] The two nations have a growing trade relationship,[3] and a business venture involving Russian and Israeli scientists has produced and successfully tested a fuel tank for hydrogen-powered cars.[4] Meanwhile, security cooperation continues as both countries face the threat of terrorism from radical Islamist groups.[5] Next year, Russia and Israel will celebrate 20 years of continuous diplomatic relations.[6] Russia takes over the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council Aug. 1.[7]

Diplomatic ties

The USSR was one of the first countries to recognize Israel, and the two nations established diplomatic ties shortly after the Jewish state declared independence in May 1948.[8] Relations soured as the Cold War intensified and the USSR sided with Israel's Arab enemies. Relations reached a low point during the 1967 Six-Day War when the USSR cut diplomatic ties with Israel.[9] However, Soviet policy moved away from a pro-Arab stance in the late 1980s under the reformist policies of President Mikhail Gorbachev.[10] In October 1991, shortly before the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia and Israel resumed diplomatic relations.[11]

Russia, along with the United States, the European Union and the United Nations, is a member of the Middle East Quartet, the international body involved in brokering a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.[12] Russia is also part of the "P5+1," the coalition of permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany working to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.[13]

While Russia has longstanding business ties with Iran, Russia has distanced itself from the Islamic Republic in recent months.[14] On June 9, 2010, Russia voted in favor of UN Security Council sanctions against Iran.[15] Since then, Russia has followed up on a promise to withhold a sale of S-300 air-defense systems to Iran – a decision in which Russia risks losing Iran to China as an arms client, as well as a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars.[16]

Although Israel maintains differences with Russia over its refusal to designate Iran-backed Hamas as a terrorist organization and its continued negotiations with senior Hamas officials, [17] both Israel and Russia have expressed a desire to further advance their relationship. In a 2009 meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said, "Russia is interested in upgrading its strategic relationship with the State of Israel to the same level as that which exists between us and Germany, France and Italy."[18]

More recently, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to urge Russia to "put heavy pressure on Hamas" and use Russia's relationship with the terrorist group to secure the release of kidnapped Israeli soldier Staff Sgt. Gilad Shalit, who remains in captivity by Hamas.[19]

Counterterrorism and military cooperation

Russian and Israeli leaders have recognized that cooperation on counterterrorism issues can enhance the security of both countries. For years, Chechnya-based Muslim separatist groups have attacked Russian civilian and military targets, killing thousands.[20] Similarly, Hamas and other Iran-backed Palestinian organizations launched a years-long campaign of bombings, rocket and missile attacks against Israelis.[21]

Chechen terrorists share some of the basic jihadist goals and characteristics as their Palestinian counterparts such as Hamas. For example:

* At the beginning of the Second Palestinian Intifada in 2000, Chechen terrorist leader Shamil Basayev offered to send 150 Chechen mujahedeen (holy warriors) to Palestinian areas to assist with jihadist activities there. He subsequently offered to pay $1,000 to the families of Palestinian "martyrs."[22]
* Hamas has expressed ideological solidarity with Chechen terrorists. For example, Hamas distributed a poster inside a propaganda CD juxtaposing headshots of former Chechen terrorist leaders Basayev and Ibn al-Khattab alongside those of former Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.[23]
* A jihadist Web site mainly focused on Palestinian militancy and likely produced by Hamas – "AqsaTube" – featured a video of the life of former Chechen terrorist leader al-Khattab. A Russian Internet company began hosting the site after it was removed by a French company that had previously hosted it.[24]

Click here for more information about links between Chechen and Palestinian terrorist groups

Following the 2004 Beslan school massacre in which Chechen separatists killed 186 children and about 150 other hostages,[25] Israel's then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was one of the first world leaders to offer assistance to Russia's policy on terrorism. Since then, Russian and Israeli security services have collaborated in counterterrorism, starting with a joint memorandum to "encourage in every possible way the development of broad bilateral, regional and multilateral cooperation in fighting international terrorism."[26]
The two nations have held high-level talks and have conducted joint training of counterterrorism forces.[27]

On the military front, Israel and Russia have worked together on security and intelligence concerns, including defense technology.[28][29]

However, in recent years Russia's growing arms trade with state sponsors of terrorism has troubled Israel. Russia has sold major weapons systems to both Iran and Syria, including tanks, air-to-air missiles, and aircraft, some of which have been found in Hamas and Hezbollah arsenals.[30] During Israel's 2006 defensive war against Hezbollah, the Israel Defense Forces found that the terror group had Russian anti-tank missiles, likely delivered to them by Iran and Syria.[31]

Economic ties

Russia is among Israel's top trading partners,[32] and both countries plan to expand trade despite a downturn in 2009 due to the global financial crisis.[33] Israeli exports to Russia increased by 351 percent from 2003 – 2008,[34] reaching almost $3 billion.[35] In 2006, the Israel-Russia Chamber of Trade and Industry and other Russian and Israeli business and manufacturing organizations signed a major agreement promoting bilateral trade.[36] During a meeting with Netanyahu in February 2010, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin noted that Russian markets were selling Israeli agricultural products.[37]

An Israeli-Russian business council was created in January 2010 to strengthen the relationships between businesses in the two nations.[38] In March 2010, the council held its first bilateral business forum in Moscow, featuring Russian and Israeli governmental and business leaders.[39] Russian Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov addressed the forum about the need for both countries to increase bilateral direct investment, especially in the technology sector.[40]

Also in March, Russia's largest diamond producer Alrosa agreed to supply about $300 million in rough diamonds to Israel's diamond industry following a meeting between Alrosa executives and their counterparts from the Israel Diamond Exchange, as well as Israel's Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Benjamin Ben-Eliezer.[41] While in Russia, Ben-Eliezer also led a meeting between an Israeli business delegation and Russian officials to discuss how Israel could help with projects related to the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.[42]

Said Ben-Eliezer, "Russia is one of the most important economies, with a population of approximately 140 million people. [Russia's] trade with Israel is hardly at its full potential, prompting the highest response from Israeli companies from all sectors joined in this delegation."[43] Click here and scroll down for a list of Israeli companies that took part in the mission to Russia

Russia and Israel have cooperated on research and development and business ventures,[44] and in 2009 the two nations began a project to advance nanotechnology involving Russia's state nanotech corporation, Rusnano.[45] In 2008, C.En, a Russian-Israeli-German joint venture, made a breakthrough in clean energy when it produced a fuel tank for hydrogen-powered cars. Led by an Israeli scientist, research teams from Russia, Germany and other countries worked to develop the tank, which is safe, lightweight and could help decrease dependence on oil.[46] Last year, Russian scientist Evgeny Velikhov became C.En's honorary president.[47] Said Velikhov, "I believe that the fulfilment of the potential of this technology will resolve one of the central issues facing society today."[48] Click here to read more about C.En's hydrogen storage technology

Russian and Israeli high-tech companies are collaborating to provide cutting-edge services to customers. In June 2010, Russian telecommunications service provider NTC chose Israel's VocalTec as its chief supplier for its Voice-over-IP (VoIP) network.[49] VoIP technology enables users to make phone calls through the Internet rather than a conventional phone line.[50] Similarly, Tel Aviv-based video networking technologies provider Ravidson has begun expanding its business in Russia. In 2009, CEO Boaz Raviv said that Radvision had won contracts with two Russian clients, including a major government office.[51]

The AFI Group is an Israel-based international holdings company that also does substantial work in Russia, where it is one of the country's largest real estate developers. A subsidiary of AFI has been active in building shopping malls, hotels and other major construction projects in Russian cities.[52] Chaired by billionaire Lev Leviev, who immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan,[53] AFI also owns a spa in Russia and is a major shareholder of Israel Plus, a Russian-language TV station in Israel.[54] Click here to read more about Israel Plus and other Russian-language media in Israel

Tourism

Russians comprise the second-largest group of tourists to Israel after the United States,[55] and since 2009 the number of Israelis traveling to Russia has increased by 42 percent.[56] In 2008, the Israeli government ended visa requirements for Russian tourists,[57] resulting in 400,000 Russian visitors to Israel in 2009 – more than five times than the number of visitors in 2006.[58]

Many Russians travel to Israel for religious reasons. The Russian Orthodox Church has had a presence in Jerusalem since 1847,[59] and after the State of Israel was established in 1948, all property of the Russian Church Mission within Israel was transferred to the Russian Church Mission of the Moscow Patriarchate. Mission property within the West Bank, conquered by Jordan in 1948, was put under the control of the Mission of the Russian Church Abroad, which still administers those sites today.[60] Christian tourist sites in Jerusalem include the Church of the Holy Trinity, located near the Old City, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher,[61] a particularly holy site for Catholic and Orthodox Christians.[62]

In Israel, freedom of worship is a right that has been enshrined in law, and people of all faiths have access to the country's numerous holy sites. Israel's Declaration of Independence describes the country as a Jewish state but clearly extends religious freedoms to all of its inhabitants. The document states that Israel "will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions."[63]

The Protection of Holy Places Law of 1967 states that anyone who vandalizes a holy site can be sentenced to as many as five years in prison.

Cultural ties

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the newly formed Russian Federation lifted emigration bans for its citizens. As a result, between 1990 – 2004, about 1.4 million people emigrated from the former Soviet Union to Israel,[64] making Israel home to the largest Russian-speaking population outside the former USSR.[65] After several years of stagnation, Russian immigration to Israel has rebounded in recent years, jumping 22 percent from January – April 2010 compared to the same period the previous year.[66] Currently, there are more than a million Russians living in Israel, and Russian is the third most widely spoken foreign language in the country.[67]

During an official visit to Russia in February 2010, Netanyahu said, "We view Russia as a special friend of Israel. Part of our success story in recent decades stems from our special Russian connection, from the 'human bridge' of more than a million Russian speaking Israeli citizens who are connected to the Russian culture and admire Russia." Likewise, Putin told Netanyahu that Israel is Russia's "long-term partner in the Middle East. We say again and again that there are over one million Russian citizens living in your country. Israel is almost a Russian-speaking country."[68]

In 1999, Avigdor Lieberman, an immigrant from the former Soviet Union and currently Israel's foreign minister, established the Yisrael Beitenu party in the Knesset (Israeli parliament). Drawing largely on support from Israel's Russian-speaking community, the party is the third-largest and a key member of the current coalition government.[69]

The role of Russian-language media outlets has been expanding in Israel, demonstrating the increasing influence of Russian Jews in Israeli society. Israel Plus, a Russian-language cable TV station launched in 2002, broadcasts current affairs and commentary, Israeli entertainment programs and Russian TV and cinema to its Russian-Israeli audience.[70] Several Russian-language newspapers cater to Russian-Israelis, including Vesti,[71] Courier and others.[72] In May 2010, Tel Aviv hosted the Twelfth World Congress of Russian Press, which Netanyahu attended alongside 400 journalists from more than 50 countries. Netanyahu told the conference, "I really love and appreciate Russian culture and Russian people."[73]