Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett made a surprise visit to Moscow on Sunday to try to act as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine. Bennett, who has been in charge of Israel for less than a year, has been largely untested on the world stage. They have put Israel in an uncomfortable position between Russia and Ukraine and are making a diplomatic effort more likely to play a role.
Israel relies on ties with the Kremlin for security coordination in Syria. At the same time, Moscow is sitting at the negotiating table with Tehran regarding Iran’s nuclear program. In such a situation, Israel cannot anger Russian President Vladimir Putin. Bennett has reportedly expressed his support to the citizens of Ukraine and has stopped condemning the Russian invasion.
Bennett has kept in touch with Putin and the Ukrainian president, despite increased Western sanctions on Russia. “Bennett has reinvented himself,” said Esther Lopatin, a specialist in European affairs at Tel Aviv University. Israel is one of the few countries that have working relations with both Russia and Ukraine. Hours after returning from his trip, Bennett told his cabinet that it was Israel’s moral duty to act. Simultaneously, a country that has traditionally been a beneficiary of international arbitration with the Palestinians and Arab countries was moving towards becoming an arbitrator.
Vera Michlin-Shapir, a former official of Israel’s National Security Council and author of Fluid Russia, a book about the country’s national identity, said: “It looks like there is an opportunity because no one is talking to Putin.” Is. Israel is a player who can talk to both sides. But what happens next? Commentator Barack Ravid wrote on the Israeli news site, “He (Bennett) has overnight improved his international standing and scored many political points within Israel.”
On the other hand, he is taking a great risk not only for himself as a politician but also for the State of Israel and its position in the world. The prime minister has descended into the Ukrainian mud without fully knowing how deep it is.