On Monday, Israel summoned Russian Ambassador Anatoly Viktorov to Jerusalem and demanded an apology after Russian Foreign Minister (FM) Sergey Lavrov claimed that Adolf Hitler was of Jewish origin. Russia has responded by saying Israel has sided with neo-Nazis, just as it did with Japan previously.
The head of Israel’s Eurasia and the Western Balkans Division, Gary Koren, met with Viktorov at the foreign ministry’s office to hold a “clarification conversation.” “Our message was made clear. The two sides decided not to give any more details on the contents of the conversation,” an Israeli official revealed, adding that both sides have agreed not to divulge any details of the conversation.
israel demanding apology from russia after foreign minister sergey lavrov rants “all the biggest anti-semites are jews” and “after all, hitler had jewish blood.” pic.twitter.com/6OF0DRHSEo
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) May 2, 2022
The meeting came after Lavrov claimed that Adolf Hitler, who murdered over six million Jews during World War II, had Jewish origin while speaking on Italian television on Sunday. When questioned about Russia’s intent to “denazify Ukraine” when President Volodymyr Zelensky was Jewish, Lavrov told the Rete 4 channel: “When they say ‘What sort of nazification is this if we are Jews,’ well, I think that Hitler also had Jewish origins, so it means nothing.”
“For a long time now, we’ve been hearing the wise Jewish people say that the biggest anti-Semites are the Jews themselves,” he added.
Following Lavrov’s comments, Israel slammed Russia for spreading “an unforgivable falsehood that debased the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust.”
Sergei Lavrov's comments have been described as "unforgivable" by Israel.
— Sky News (@SkyNews) May 3, 2022
Read more: https://t.co/2QnNnHy53X pic.twitter.com/9AvP9gGfO3
In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister (PM) Naftali Bennett said, “I view with utmost severity the Russian Foreign Minister’s statement,” denouncing Lavrov’s remarks as “untrue” and his intentions as “wrong.” “The goal of such lies is to accuse the Jews themselves of the most awful crimes in history, which were perpetrated against them, and thereby absolve Israel’s enemies of responsibility,” he further remarked.
Bennett stated that no contemporary war can be compared to Holocaust, adding, “The use of the Holocaust of the Jewish people as a political tool must cease immediately.”
Lavrov's remarks have encouraged Israel to take a firm stand against Russia's goal of denazifying Ukraine
— Samuel Ramani (@SamRamani2) May 2, 2022
Yair Lapid said this:
"The Ukrainians aren't Nazis. Only the Nazis were Nazis and only they dealt with the systematic destruction of the Jewish people"
Echoing similar sentiments, Israel’s FM Yair Lapid, in a press release, called Lavrov’s comments “unforgivable and scandalous and a horrible historical error,” adding, “Jews did not murder themselves in the Holocaust. The lowest level of racism against Jews is to accuse Jews themselves of anti-Semitism.”
Lapid said Israel has taken every measure to ensure friendly bilateral relations but reiterated that the Russian government has crossed the limit this time and needs to “apologise to us and to the Jewish people.”
In response, the Russian foreign ministry said today that Lapid’s comments were “anti-historical” and “explain to a large extent why the current Israeli government supports the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv.”
Israel sees Iron Dome aid to Ukraine as a high-risk, low-reward move
— Samuel Ramani (@SamRamani2) May 2, 2022
Its risky, as it could encourage unpredictable Russian behaviour in Syria, and low-reward, as Israeli analysts fear that Ukraine's large territory could dilute Iron Dome's effectiveness against Russian missiles
Despite affirming support for Ukraine, Israel has been wary of directly condemning Russia over the Ukraine war and enforcing sanctions on Russian oligarchs. While it has stated that it respects Ukraine’s sovereignty and even voted for a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution calling on Russia to end the war, it has for the most part refrained from outright condemning Russia. It did somewhat depart from this position at the start of April, when, referring to the Bucha massacre, FM Lapid blamed “Russian forces [for committing] war crimes against a defenceless civilian population.”
Also Read: Russia’s Preeminence in Syria Means Israel Will Not Help Ukraine
Nevertheless, Israel has refused to sell its Iron Dome missile to Ukraine despite repeated requests from Kyiv. This is due to its power-sharing arrangement with Russia in Syria. Since Syria’s 2011 civil war, Israel has been conducting airstrikes against Iranian proxies. Following Russia’s intervention in 2015 to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Israel was forced to coordinate its airstrikes against enemy targets with Russia to prevent their forces from coming into conflict with each other.
FM Lavrov could not help hiding the deeply-rooted antisemitism of the Russian elites. His heinous remarks are offensive to President @ZelenskyyUa, Ukraine, Israel, and the Jewish people. More broadly, they demonstrate that today’s Russia is full of hatred towards other nations.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) May 2, 2022
However, perhaps in light of recent tensions and Israel’s decision to explicitly speak out against war crimes committed in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova last week slammed Israeli airstrikes in Syria, calling them a “violation of the basic rights of international law” and “categorically unacceptable and inadmissible.” She further demanded that Israel ends “this vicious and dangerous practice.”
In this respect, simmering tensions between Russia and Israel could have huge ramifications for the situation in Syria and the uneasy but relatively stable peace that exists between the two powers.
Meanwhile, several Western leaders have denounced Lavrov’s anti-Semitic comments, with Ukrainian President Volydymr Zelensky saying, “This means that the Russian leadership has forgotten all the lessons of World War Two. Or perhaps they have never learned those lessons.” Furthermore, Ukrainian FM Dmytro Kuleba claimed, “Anti-semitism is deeply rooted in Russia elites.”
Following Russia’s response today, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak rhetorically asked: “I have just one question. Is there any non-Nazi country in the whole world in Russia’s point of view? Except Syria, Belarus and Eritrea, of course.”
My friend @yairlapid put it perfectly. It is incumbent on the world to speak out against such vile, dangerous rhetoric and support our Ukrainian partners in the face of the Kremlin’s vicious assault. https://t.co/WtLcfuPVBm
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) May 2, 2022
In a similar vein, United States (US) Secretary of State Anthony Blinken remarked, “It is incumbent on the world to speak out against such vile, dangerous rhetoric.” Similarly, Germany’s anti-Semitism commissioner, Felix Klein, opined that Lavrov’s comments ridiculed the victims of Nazism and attacked not only Jews but the entire population with “open anti-Semitism.”
Likewise, Italian PM Mario Draghi called the Russian FM’s comments “obscene,” while his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau expressed “disbelief.”