FSU Jews React to Mid-East Crisis - July 2006
Russian, Ukrainian Jews React to Mid-East Crisis
JTA: Global Jewish News - 10.24.2006
Russia: Go easy on Hamas
(JTA) — Russia´s foreign minister called for Hamas to be included in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking efforts.
Sergei Lavrov said in an interview published Tuesday that it is unrealistic for Western powers to shun the radical Islamist group in a bid to get it to recognize Israel´s right to exist and renounce terrorism.
"I have said repeatedly that asking Hamas to change its positions 100 percent is not realistic. We must look at what is possible," Lavrov told the London-based newspaper Asharq al-Awsat. "Undoubtedly, Hamas, as the power that received a mandate from voters, must be a part of the solution and not the problem itself. As we know from our dealings with Hamas and its representatives, Hamas is ready to move toward common ground."
Russia broke with the United States and European Union by engaging Hamas politically after it won Palestinian Authority elections in January. The group has said it could enter a long-term truce with Israel but never recognize it -- a non-starter for Jerusalem.
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Israel Finds 39 Russian-Made Missiles in Hezbollah Hides
(MosNews) - Military sources said the Israel Army has collected 39 Russian-origin anti-tank missiles from Hezbollah outposts in southern Lebanon, the World Tribune has reported. They said the missiles included the AT-14 Kornet and the AT-13 Metis.
“Some of the missiles were still in their original packaging, which identified them as having been manufactured in Russia,” a military source said.
The sources said photographs of the missiles were delivered to Russia in September as evidence that weapons exported by Moscow ended up with Hezbollah. They said the Kornets were exported to Syria in 2002.
“The [Israel] army also found bills of lading and serial numbers with the missiles,” the source said. “It is probable that some of these missiles that were ordered by Iran for Hezbollah via Syria.”
The Hezbollah acquisition of Russian-origin missiles was discussed during the visit by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Moscow. On Wednesday, Putin met Russian President Vladimir Putin in a discussion said to have focused on Iran’s nuclear program.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov was also said to have met Olmert. Last week, the Defense Ministry ordered tighter supervision over Russia’s arms exports.
“The determination that there should be supervision over arms exports has been achieved,” Cabinet Secretary Yisrael Maimon said on Thursday.
Putin was said to have been angered by Israeli evidence that Iran and Syria supplied Russian missiles to Hezbollah. But Putin was not expected to sanction the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, a leading Middle East ally of Moscow.
“However, this does not mean that Russia will completely stop selling weapons to Iran and Syria, as the Israelis want,” the Moscow-based Vremya Novostei daily said on Wednesday. “Cooperation with Teheran and Damascus, including in the oil and gas and nuclear spheres, bring Moscow dividends — and not only material. Russia plays a unique middleman role.”
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Hizbullah weapons cloud Lavrov visit
By Herb Keinon
Russian-made, state of the art weapons Israel says Hizbullah used during the recent war in Lebanon will be one of the main topics of discussion during Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's two-day visit that begins on Thursday.
Israel, according to diplomatic officials, wants Russia to stop supplying arms to Syria and Iran, because some of these weapons ended up in Hizbullah's hands. Russia has claimed that the arms with Russian markings Israel found in south Lebanon were either of old Soviet issue, or came through other channels, not necessarily through Syria or Iran.
Lavrov is scheduled to meet Thursday evening with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and on Friday with Foreign Minster Tzipi Livni. He is also scheduled to go to Ramallah on Friday for a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Lavrov will be the first of a number of foreign statesmen arriving over the next three days for talks. Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema is also arriving for two days of talks on Thursday, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Polish President Lech Kaczynski are scheduled to arrive over the weekend.
The arms issue has caused some tension in the Israeli-Russian relationship, with some diplomatic officials saying this was behind a Russian decision to cancel an Israeli-Russian trade exhibition this week in Tel Aviv. The Russians say the fair was cancelled because not as many firms as expected signed up to feature their wares.
Soon after the war, an Israeli delegation headed by Mark Sofer, the Foreign Ministry's deputy director-general for Euro Asia, went to Moscow to discuss the arms issue. The delegation complained that Iran and Syria passed Russian-made Fagot and Kornet anti-tank missiles onto Hizbullah. These missiles were responsible for killing many of the 118 IDF soldiers who died in the war.
Although Israeli officials left Moscow satisfied that "their message was heard," a few days later Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said the Israeli claims were baseless.
Ivanov said Israel had provided no evidence of Hizbullah having the Russian-designed missiles, and Russian officials said Moscow maintained strict controls over its weapons sales to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands.
However, Vice Premier Shimon Peres said in an interview broadcast Wednesday in Russia that Hizbullah had indeed used Russian-made weapons. He told Ekho Moskvy radio that Israeli authorities were aware that Russia had asked Syria to explain how the weapons had gotten into the hands of Hizbullah.
"We saw these weapons. They had certain markings," Peres said. "As far as we know, the Russians demanded explanations from Syria."
In addition to discussing the weapons issue, the talks in Israel with Lavrov are also expected to center around implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, and the possible role Russia could play in implementation on the ground.
While Russia has not committed any troops to the international force in Lebanon, there was some talk in Moscow of sending army engineers to help rebuild the country's damaged infrastructure.
"Who knows," one Israeli official said, "they may come with other ideas as well." The official said that Lavrov's visit now must be seen within the context of the visits over the last two weeks of numerous foreign ministers.
"They want to be relevant," the official said, "and not leave all the work to the Americans, Germans and French." The Russian claim to relevance stems from the fact that unlike the US, it has an open channel of communications with both Teheran and Damascus.
Another issue that will be discussed is Iran, and the question of imposing sanction on Teheran now that it has decided to go ahead with the uranium enrichment. Lavrov suggested on Wednesday during a visit to Cape Town, where he was accompanying President Vladimir Putin on a state visit, that the Kremlin was contemplating the possibility of sanctions but remained opposed to harsh and quick punishment.
Russia, along with China, has steadfastly opposed efforts by the United States and other Western nations to bring sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program.
Lavrov said the UN Security Council's recent resolution on the issue holds out the possibility of further measures on Iran such as economic penalties, banning air travel or breaking diplomatic relations, but not the use of armed force.
"This article envisages measures to exert influence on a country that is not cooperating, including economic ones, but it is written unambiguously there that this excludes any kind of forceful measures of influence," ITAR-Tass news agency quoted him as saying.
Another issue that will be discussed in Israel, according to Israeli officials, is a planned visit by Olmert to Russia in mid-October. This would be Olmert's first trip to Russia since he became prime minister, and his first trip abroad since June.
AP contributed to this report.
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Common prayer in Moscow for deliverance of the Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah
Moscow, July 26 (Interfax) - Tuesday evening Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar led the congregation of the Moscow Jewish Community Centre’s synagogue in prayer for health and safety of Israeli soldiers and for the soonest victory of the Israeli armed forces fighting in Lebanon.
The rabbinate’s representatives read passages from the Holy Scriptures after Israeli ambassador to Russia Arkady Mil-Man solemnly carried a Torah scroll through the nave.
That same evening the congregation offered special prayers for deliverance of the three Israeli soldiers, Gilad Shalit, Eldad Regev, and Ehud Goldwasser taken as hostages by Hezbollah.
After prayers for health and well-being of the Israeli Defense Forces soldiers the Chief Rabbi of Russia reminded the congregation that ‘victory, as usual, will be achieved by those pursuing a right way.’
‘We are well aware that this war that we have neither provoked nor begun, is a matter of Israel’s defence,’ the rabbi noted.
He said he hoped that ‘this war will come to an end in the near future, and we shall live in peace with all neighboring nations.’
Some 300 people attended the common prayer.
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Israel pleased with Putin's stance on fighting Hizbullah terrorism
By Herb Keinon
The Kremlin issued a statement following a meeting in Moscow between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal on Tuesday that pleased Jerusalem and underscored the positive role Israel feels the Russians have, up until now, played during the current crisis.
"The Russian leader expressed his hope that the high-level diplomatic mission from Saudi Arabia and joint diplomatic efforts by Russia and Saudi Arabia will help find a mutually acceptable solution to the troubled situation that has developed today both in Lebanon and in Palestine," began the communiqu , in typical diplo-talk.
Then came the sentence greeted with satisfaction in Jerusalem.
"In connection with this, Vladimir Putin restated Russia's position, a position which condemns any attempts to resolve problems by resorting to terrorism. The state of Israel has the right to and should live in security, the Russian head of state emphasized."
In those circles in Jerusalem where statements from foreign capitals are read and parsed carefully, what stood out was that this was the message Moscow chose to underline following a meeting with the Saudi foreign minister.
Nothing in diplomacy is random, and governments carefully choose what parts of various meetings they wish to release. That Putin saw fit to underscore this message precisely after a meeting with the Saudis sent a strong message of friendship to Israel and a strong anti-terrorist message to the world.
In the first few days of the fighting, by contrast, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement blasting Israel for "disproportionate and inadequate use of force, endangering the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon and peace and security across the region."
"We urge Israel to cease incursions into Lebanon and the destruction of civilian infrastructure in the country and lift the blockade of its territories," that very critical statement read. "By armed means, as the Middle East experience shows, the problem of security cannot be solved," the statement continued.
Putin's statement from Tuesday, it seems, was meant to correct the impression left by the Foreign Ministry's statement.
The overall feeling in Jerusalem is that, all-in-all, Russia has "behaved itself quite well" during the crisis, going along with the international community which called for the release of the captured IDF soldiers and an end to the rocket attacks on Israel at the G-8 summit last week, and not tussling with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who prevented a call for an immediate cease-fire from emerging at Wednesday's Rome Conference.
While in the past Russia has taken a position on issues decidedly contrary to those of the US in order to chart a course independent from Washington, Moscow has not followed a similar policy during this crisis. At the same time, Moscow has also not used a lot of leverage in Damascus to get the Syrians to rein in Hizbullah, with some believing that perhaps the Kremlin's leverage in Damascus is not as great as was previously believed.
Russia has taken a moderate line during the entire conflict. Had Putin so desired, he could have made things much more difficult for Israel at the G-8 in St Petersburg, at Wednesday's conference in Rome, and at the UN in New York. That he hasn't done so has not gone unnoticed in Jerusalem.
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Jewish assn: Russian terror list must include Hamas, Hezbollah
Moscow, July 28 (Interfax) - The Federation of Jewish Communities in Russia (FEOR) suggested on Friday that Russia put the Palestinian Islamic organization Hamas and the Lebanese Islamic group Hezbollah on its list of terrorist organizations.
The reason why the two militant groups are not on the list is that Russian security services "apparently just don't want to increase the number of terrorists for whom Russia is a target," an FEOR spokesman told Interfax.
"The list that has been published by the FSB [Federal Security Service] of the Russian Federation is a national list, which means it comprises organizations whose activities pose a direct threat to the security of Russia, though special services operatives do admit that both Hamas and Hezbollah use terrorist methods to achieve their goals," the spokesman said.
In exchanging intelligence with foreign counterparts, Russian secret services "do take account of the need of other countries for information on the activities of militants who belong to those organizations," he said.
"This means the FSB accepts global lists of terrorist organizations, which have, for example, been compiled by the United States, and it even takes part in combating them," the spokesman said.
On the other hand, Russian security services "apparently just don't want to increase the number of terrorists for whom Russia is a target," he said.
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Middle East conflict should not affect religious peace in Russia - religious leaders
Moscow, July 27 (Interfax) - The war between Israel and the radical movement Hezbollah based in the southern part of Lebanon should not affect stable inter-religious relations in Russia, in the view of religious figures representing a number of religious denominations traditional in Russia.
"We have good relations between Christianity, Islam, and Judaism here. I hope this conflict will not affect inter-religious peace in this country," Moscow Patriarchate spokesman Bishop Mark of Yegoryevsk said at a press conference on Thursday.The conflicting parties in the Middle East "lack the wisdom of religious leaders and Christian love," he said.
Executive Director of the International Islamic Mission Shafig Pshikhachev supported Bishop Mark's opinion that the conflict in the Middle East should not affect inter-religious relations in Russia, noting that steady relations between various denominations are present in Russia today."
Pshikhachev called on both parties to the conflict to immediately call a ceasefire. He also suggested that "there should be some scholars in the Islamic world who could influence Sheikh Nasrallah."
Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations in Russia Chairman Zinovy Kogan said he was sure that religious leaders "could do much more when Israel is fighting terrorists and when Russia was leading an antiterrorist war in Chechnya."
"There are no disagreements between Islam and Judaism today. Our religions are probably closest to each other," Rabbi Kogan said.
He pointed to "a dangerous trend toward a spread of extremist religious views, especially among young people," and called for eradicating "this modern plague."
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Many victims of Lebanon’s attacks on Israel were Hezbollah supporters - Ambassador of Israel to Russia
Moscow, July 26 (Interfax) - The Ambassador of Israel to Russia Arkady Mil-Man thinks that Tel-Aviv’s actions in military conflict with Lebanon are the single possible way to fight terrorists.
Speaking Tuesday in the synagogue of the Moscow Jewish Community Centre before common prayer for security of the Israeli Army, Mil-Man expressed his regret for the great number of victims and noted that Israel ‘looks at the developments quite seriously, however hard it is for us to see them.’
‘What has to be done as terrorists set up their headquarters and make their launching devices in apartment houses and thrust them against Israel? Shall we give up the struggle, or shall we destroy these devices by bombing?’ he said.
Mil-Man urged to remember that ‘many victims’ of the conflict killed in Lebanon were ‘Hezbollah supporters.’ ‘We must not forget it. These are the people who helped terrorists and were their accomplices,’ the ambassador underscored.
He believes that the Israel’s attacks are ‘a just retribution for all the threats against us and our children who are now hiding in bomb-proof shelters.’
‘Of course, talks about a cease-fire or proposals to fight the terrorists unarmed sound fine. Yet a dialogue with the terrorists is impossible since they will regard it as a sign of our weakness,’ Mil-Man said.
‘The Lebanese government is glad and happy about what we are doing because we are doing the dirty work they ought to have done themselves,’ he remarked.
Concluding his address, the Israeli ambassador called upon all believers to remember that the only strength of Jewish people is ‘unity.’
‘We are the one nation now and we shall hold out to spite our enemies,’ Mil-Man emphasized.
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Interfax
Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar’s address to the Jews in Russia concerning the Lebanon-Israeli war
Dear Friends!
Our people, our brothers in Israel are experiencing hard times. International terrorism takes the Jews as hostages, crushes thousands of missiles on the Jewish cities and towns and bombards them. Dozens of civilians had lost their lives, hundreds are wounded. Each of us should ask himself a question of what he can and must do to help our brothers and sisters.
People of the same faith with us in Israel have been forced many times to fight wars to protect the Jewish state from destruction, and the people from elimination. The Israel army of defence is a powerful force. Yet, force is not enough to defeat the enemy, - the blessing from heavens is needed. All Jewish people, each one of us, should take effort to ask God for his blessing. As the Rambam teaches, this is the lesson of any challenges which God makes us face.
We are now between the two dates that make us to recall the tragic days of our history: 17 of tamuz, the day of the Siege of Jerusalem, and 9 of aba, the day of the Destruction of the Temple. The wise man of our nation teach that the reason of this calamity that had fallen upon the Jews two thousand years ago was hatred and quarrels within our nation. Therefore, the first thing that we ought to do is to consolidate for the sake of defending Israel. No differences of political, public or personal nature should prevent us from common actions for the sake of achieving the single goal.
An important testimony to the unity of our nation is tzedakah - help to the needy. As tzedakah shows the Most High that his children are friends and take care for one another, He will take care for us and help us.
‘We should all pray for the security of our brothers and sisters, who are under fire, and especially for the Israeli soldiers, and primarily, for the three soldiers captured by the terrorists: Gilad, the son of Aviva Shalit, Eldad, the son of Toba Regev, and Ehud, the son of Malka Goldwasser. May God grant that they return to their families alive and in good health. In such cases Psalm 20 is usually read (to be found in sidur Tegilat Ashem, p.71), as well as Psalms 22, 69, 105 and 150.
An important law to be especially observed during these hard days is wearing teffilin. The Torah (Dvarim 28.10) says, ‘And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee.’ As our wise men teach, ‘the name of the Lord’ in this context means teffilin. If you have it, put it on for daily prayer, if you do not have one, go to a synagogue to pray for our brethren, and you will be surely helped to put on teffilin.
Another important law is having mezuzah on your doorpost to protect your home from any evil. If you do not have a mezuzah, consult a synagogue or your rabbi. If you have already got a mezuzah, please help other Jews, give them one too and get sure it is applied according to the tradition.
All these - tzedakah, prayer, teffilin and mezuzah - may be done by everyone either on one’s own or together with the closest friends and family. Also, I urge all Jews to go to their synagogues on Tuesday evening to attend the mincha prayer for the life and well-being of our brothers in Israel and for their deliverance from the threats of the terrorists. The upcoming Tuesday is a ‘small Yom Kippur,’ the day before the new moon, when prayer will be particularly effective. I ask all rabbis and heads of communities to do their best to ensure that as many Jews as possible participate in this prayer. I also ask to organize children’s prayers wherever possible, as the Most High is particularly attentive to children’s pure voices.
I am confident that with God’s help and through our ardent prayers, tzedakah and other things we do in the name of the Most High and for the sake of friendship and mutual respect among his children, we shall be delivered after all, and our enemies will be defeated.
July 23, 2006
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FJCR: world needs success of Israeli operation in Lebanon
Moscow, July 14 (Interfax) - The Federation of Jewish Communities in Russia (FJCR) has expressed solidarity with Israel's "fight for the peace and security of its citizens."
"Russian Jews, who know well what terrorism is, pray for people of Israel, which is conducting a just war. Terrorism is a global threat; the elimination of such a threat in one region will make life on the planet more secure. That is why not only Jews but people all over the world need the success of the military operation [in Lebanon]," a statement by the Federation of Jewish Communities in Russia reads.
Terrorism "from which many people of the world suffer" should be eliminated by all means available, the statement reads.
"It has become apparent today that it is impossible to negotiate with terrorist organizations and to treat them as participants of the political process. History has shown that soldiers, rather than diplomats should be involved in the issue," the document reads.
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