The Russia Hamas Connection
How Bibi Netanyahu’s trust in Putin brings us closer to World War III
The great puzzling thing about Hamas’s barbaric attack on Israel has to do with how one of the most advanced intelligence agencies in the history of the world (Mossad) was able to let such a thing occur in the first place. As for reports through the fog of war that “Hamas’s attack on Saturday took Israeli intelligence officials by surprise”, this was the word of an unnamed “official” and is dubious given that even Egyptian Intelligence was warning Jerusalem of an impending attack.
And while conspiracies abound on how Israel secretly wanted this war to happen, there is a far simpler explanation pointing to Putin’s Russia being responsible for the war that’s currently breaking out.
It would not be a coincidence in this case that the day of this ghastly invasion, October 7, was Putin’s birthday. And what a present he got indeed…
With Friends Like These
In this likely scenario of Russian involvement, the lion’s share of blame (and hopefully subsequent arrest) falls on the shoulders of current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This is not to say that Netanyahu intentionally looked the other way as many anti-Semites would love to imagine, but that he suffers from the same naivete that George W. Bush did when he looked into Putin’s eyes and got “a sense of his soul.”
For a long time, Israel has been full of Russian expats and with it, an extensive network of Putin’s spies. Numerous Russian oligarchs, including prominent donors to Jewish organizations, philanthropists, and Putin loyalists such as Roman Abramovich and Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor, have made Israel their home. Netanyahu among many others has been influenced by these circles including by Putin himself, given that the two leaders have been longtime friends.
In these circumstances, the only rational explanation of this leadership blunder was Netanyahu’s own irrationality from Putin’s influence leading him to ignore whatever evidence Mossad presented of mounting danger. We don’t know exactly what Putin said to Bibi, but a likely scenario is that he would have dismissed reports of Hamas mounting an attack as a bluffing provocation so as to drag Israel into further conflict. It is likely that Putin promised to take care of the problem himself, like he had previously said to the Armenian leaders who trusted him absolutely for many years.
While such ignorance and blind faith towards someone like Putin seems cartoonish at first, we need only to look at Joseph Stalin’s trust in Hitler not invading Russia back when the two nations had their Molotov–Ribbentrop nonaggression pact at the start of World War II (of course not to compare Bibi to Stalin). This was despite all the intelligence reports Stalin received to the contrary till the very end when he was still in a state of disbelief that Hitler would ever betray him.
As for other factors which cemented such a relationship that Ukraine president Voldymir Zelensky raised red flags about last November, it relates to Israel’s safety and religious concerns.
In terms of safety, Putin’s friendship means Israeli aircraft would not be damaged by Russian defense systems in Syria, despite Russia’s alliance with the anti-Israel Bashar al-Assad regime. And as far as religious matters go, Netanyahu’s Likud Party has always received strong support from the further orthodox Jews, some of whom benefit from Putin’s support and patronage of the Russian-Jewish diaspora. With signs of anti-semitism ramping up from Putin, rising Muslim demographic trends, as well as prominent Russian Nazi paramilitary groups like Rusich not going away anytime soon, they may have a good reason for wanting the support but it may not last long regardless.
Netanyahu, however, would not even require these justifications to have gotten along swimmingly with Putin till this day. So it’s not the case of Putin buying the Prime Minister’s loyalty; instead, Bibi’s genuine trust might have led to overlooking intelligence on the Hamas strike.
Putin’s Partners in Crime
Beyond its spies and influencers embedded within Israel, Russia has maintained good relationships with Israel’s enemies such as Syria, Lebanon, and of course Iran whose security officials allegedly helped plan this attack in the first place. Even more importantly, Russia has been one of the few non-Muslim (yet) countries including China which has welcomed Hamas’s delegation as guests of honor.
On top of this, Russia’s been recruiting Palestinians in Lebanese refugee camps to fight for Russia in Ukraine for $350, and the hang gliders employed by Palestinians to soar over the Israeli barrier bear a strong resemblance to the Poisk-06 MSN model that the Russian Guard has utilized since 2015.
But Palestine in general owes much to Russia for its support and perhaps even its identity, going back to the days of the Soviet Union.
Shortly after its founding in 1948, Israel snubbed Stalin’s USSR despite being one of the first countries to recognize its existence, instead showing favor to the West. Partially in response, the USSR started supporting the anti-Israel Arab states as part of its overall Cold War strategy.
According to the highest-ranking defector from the former Eastern Bloc, Ion Mihai Pacepa, the Soviet Union then played a central role in creating and propagating the concept of a distinct "Palestinian People" and in establishing the PLO, framing the Palestinian struggle as a secular nationalist movement rather than a religious jihad.
In terms of popularizing the Palestinian People to the West, Professor Eugene Rostow's 1980 article “‘Palestinian Self-‐Determination’: Possible Futures for the Unallocated Territories in the Yale Studies on World Public Order.” goes on to say:
“The exploitation of Arab hostility to the Balfour Declaration, the Palestine Mandate, and the existence of Israel has been a major weapon in the Soviet campaign to dominate the Middle East. * * * * The attack on the legitimacy of Israel has been the strongest and most effective tool of Soviet strategy in the Middle East. * * * The anti-Israel card is not the only asset in the Soviet Union's Middle East hand, but among the Middle Eastern masses it has been trumps. * * * After the 1973 War, when there was some danger that Egypt and other countries might make peace with Israel, the Soviet Union invited Arafat to Moscow, supported his appearance before the United Nations in November, 1974, and increased its pressure for General Assembly resolutions supporting claims of self-determination for the Palestinian Arabs and denouncing Zionism as ‘racism’.”
While Russia’s relationship with Israel turned around after the fall of the Soviet Union, it had once again shown active signs of life with Putin’s ascension into power. A geopolitically critical nation like Israel aligned with the West is never a good thing for those like Putin who were taught to hate the West like his KGB predecessors. So it's no small wonder that an alliance among the world’s rogues’ gallery was cemented in order to counteract what have so far been a successful cooperation among Israel, The West, and Islamic nations who were tired of living in the Stone (or Stoning) Age.
Why Russia Benefits
For Putin’s Russia as was the case for his predecessor of the USSR, an effective way of castrating the West was to distract it with other problems, such as inflaming racial and political tensions in the United States. This was done through funding of radical leftists in the old days and now funding both far left as well as far right, but sparking the powder keg of Israel VS Palestine is as good of a distraction for the West as you can get.
Mainly, the motivation on Russia’s part to sow such chaos in Israel has been the potential for it to grow beyond a war against Hamas and blow up into a regional war that takes America’s attention, time, and money away from helping Ukraine.
One very important strategy in order to accomplish this goal has been to disrupt the alliances forged by Israel with Islamic nations who were once its enemies. Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia had already criticized Israel’s warming diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, which is something that Russia’s ally Iran hopes to see squashed even more so.
After Hamas's provocation, such critics of an Israeli-Middle Eastern alliance hope that Israel's response will encourage Muslim nations to initiate a conflict similar to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War or the 1973 Yom Kippur War. And while the leaders of these nations might care about the Palestinian issue as much as they'd care about their camel's choice of hairdresser, the passionate outcry from their citizens—fueled by the fiery words of prominent imams—might just dictate the next political move.
Given this potential scenario, America and the West in general will increase their level of monetary support, if not direct intervention. And this would indeed be a best case scenario for Putin, who ends up invading Ukraine without the support from the West it initially had. Other nations like China may see this as an opportunity to strike Taiwan as well, so there is no telling how hot this war will end up getting.
Overcoming Disunity through the Mind War
Even though a silver lining is difficult to find in such a scenario as presented above, Israel is not the small power it was in 1948 that was nevertheless able to repel the force of seven Muslim nations. Russia is not the Soviet Union empire it once was either, so a mere 6% tops of the US defense budget was so far enough to keep Russia from advancing further into Ukraine. Yet given the potential for other countries to get involved, Putin may possibly get his birthday wish of an over-occupied US going to the aid of a regional war. This regional war could turn into World War III if Russia succeeds in acquiring Ukraine down the line and then heads into Poland or the Baltics, not to mention China making hay (or rice) while the blood-soaked sun shines.
In such a worst case scenario, however, there is the grim but important lesson for us to learn about the priority of maintaining civilization. When sadistic acts displayed by the Russian army and Hamas in targeting civilians are seen as the general animalistic trend of those who have forsaken their chance at humanity, it’s not going to be the appeasers and society’s “social workers” who put a stop to this. Confronting evil of this magnitude will require resolve along with a strong enough justification of what we are fighting for.
To say it is a better and safer life for our children would be in many ways true, but not enough of a motivator for the grown-up children living such lives of safety yet finding them meaningless save for empty consumption. If we reject the animal nature with its ignorance turned to banality of evil, then we must be willing to understand who we are beyond the equally animal-like addiction to dopamine fixes as seen with the rise of social media.
Overcoming a challenge like the one in front of us today may perhaps be what takes many of us out of this nihilistic dopamine drip and teaches us the value of life, but this lesson can either be quick and easy or long and hard depending on how we respond to our current state of algorithm driven disunity.
Much like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Israel VS Palestine has been a long-time divisive topic, yet there are standards which can be looked at for how to judge certain actions so that we are not in a perilous limbo state of cultural relativism. Unable to grab onto any semblance of objective good with which to guide our decision making, it is no wonder why it's easier to just fall into tribalism. Yet such a challenge in our “mind war” means an equally great reward for having beaten it despite the algorithmically charged pull into whichever bandwagon resonates stronger with us.
When we’re able to win the Mind War, then the actual wars to come can either be won much quicker and with a minimal loss of life, or avoided altogether.
Благодарю for making my thoughts clearer on the subject. Saw it going to backfire for Bibi somehow after the support for Azerbaijan/Turkey/Russia in Nagorno-Karabakh but thought it would rather lead to long-term political effects. Then came October 7th.....