World Jewry, or at least a substantial portion of it, has declared war on Russia. Jewish-controlled media, from the New York Times to the Washington Post to Tablet Magazine, have all launched vitriolic attacks against Vladimir Putin. The sole exception seems to be the Jewish Daily Forward, normally a voice of reason within the universe of Jewish-owned media, which appears to be holding to a policy of editorial neutrality on the issue.
Looking at media voices outside the sphere of Jewish control provides striking contrast. Asia Times, Press TV, The Times of India, and Xinhua, among others, have published articles critical of Western interference in Ukraine’s internal affairs, challenging the US overthrow of a democratically elected government, and in many cases defending Russia.
Jews, it should be remembered, voiced overwhelming approval at the overthrow of the Viktor Yanukovych, the deposed Ukrainian president, while some Jews, including former members of the Israeli military, even participated in the Maidan protests—this despite the presence of neo-Nazi elements among the opposition; meanwhile Western governments, uniformly pro-Israel in their policies, have begun targeting Russian officials with economic sanctions. What is the explanation for it all? What, if anything, does Ukraine have to do with Israel? Why do so many Jews seem to be moving almost as if in lockstep on this issue? Is all this Zionist kvetching motivated solely by a Russian “land grab” of Crimea, or is something else at stake?
A couple of interesting points were made recently by Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich and which are worth recounting here. One is that Israel stands to benefit quite handsomely should sanctions block the sale of Russian natural gas to Europe. Israel has several offshore gas fields as shown in the map below. One alone, the Tamar field, is believed to contain about 275 billion cubic meters of gas—equivalent to about half of what Europe consumes annually—while another, the Leviathan field, is even larger.
Sepahpour-Ulrich cites the recent comments of Gideon Tadmor, CEO of Avner Oil, a subsidiary of the Israeli-owned Delek Group. Made at a March 11conference in Tel Aviv, Tadmor’s remarks are quite illuminating.
“With recent events in Europe… and the aspiration of different countries to diversify their gas supply, that puts another spotlight on our massive resources and transforms our story into a global one,” he said.
An article here estimates total reserves of almost one trillion cubic meters of gas in the entire “eastern Mediterranean Levant Basin,” worth between $370 to $740 billion, and believed to be enough gas to supply Europe’s needs for more than two years. By global standards, this is not a gigantic supply—but it is significant and enough for a small number of people to become extraordinarily rich.
“There are many challenges, mainly political ones, but…when the economic benefits are overwhelming, those challenges will be overcome,” Tadmor said.
Yet curiously absent from the shrill chorus calling for harsh economic sanctions against Russia is that of the Israeli government, which has been strangely silent on the whole issue of Ukraine—something remarked upon recently in an article at The Forward.
“A Ukrainian Jewish leader opposed to the Russian takeover of Crimea failed to drum up support this week from Israel, which is sitting out the crisis pitting its U.S. ally against Moscow,” the article states. “Edward Dolinsky, head of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, made a lobbying trip to Jerusalem with influential Ukrainian Jewish lawmaker Alexander Feldman. They were not received by officials from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.”
Perhaps this is not surprising, though. After all, how tactful would it look for Israel, which stands to benefit from European sanctions on Russia, to be noisily clamoring at this time for those very sanctions to be firmly put into place? The Jewish state, of course, has no need to do such clamoring; its US and EU puppets are perfectly willing to perform the service for free, something Israeli officials seem acutely conscious of.
“We have good and trusting relations with the Americans and the Russians, and our experience has been very positive with both sides,” said Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. “So I don’t understand the idea that Israel has to get mired in this.”
Another Israeli official, quoted anonymously, insists “there are Jews on both sides of this,” and that “it’s not a clear-cut situation, and we’re taking our lead from the Ukrainian Jewish community.”
There apparently are “Jews on both sides,” as the anonymous official says, but a large number of Jews do seem to be lining up behind the coup government in Kiev. Recently 21 prominent Ukrainian Jews published an “open letter of Ukrainian Jews to Russia Federation President Vladimir Putin” denouncing Russian moves with regard to Crimea, while also minimizing and downplaying the neo-Nazi elements within the Ukrainian opposition, referring to such elements as “nationalists” rather than Nazis.
“Yes, we are well aware that the political opposition and the forces of social protests who have secured changes for the better are made up of different groups,” they write. “They include nationalistic groups, but even the most marginal do not dare show anti-Semitism or other xenophobic behavior. And we certainly know that our very few nationalists are well-controlled by civil society and the new Ukrainian government.”
The signatories go on to state, in fact, that “we have a great mutual understanding with the new government, and a partnership in the works.” Given Western backing for the coup, one would hardly doubt that to be the case. And given that the regime change buccaneers of the West have become their paymasters, it also stands to reason that the “nationalistic groups” would not “dare show anti-Semitism” overtly either.
In addition to downplaying neo-Nazi participation, the letter, perhaps echoing Western media, engages in a fair amount of demonizing of Putin. In fact the only time the word “Nazi” is used in the entire letter is in reference to “the Russian neo-Nazis, who are encouraged by your (Putin’s) security services.”
“We do not believe that you are easy to fool,” the signatories also state, “You consciously pick and choose lies and slander from the massive amount of information about Ukraine.”
And finally today we have Obama warning Russia not to escalate the situation further—while at the same time escalating the situation further himself by announcing new sanctions. This of course comes one day after Samantha Power did some escalating of her own, likening Russia’s actions on Crimea to thievery.
“A thief can steal property, but that does not confer the right of ownership on the thief,” she said in a meeting at the UN Security Council.
One wonders if Power would equally apply the “thief” analogy to Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank. So far she has never done so, and I wouldn’t hold my breath, although it certainly would have been a brilliant riposte had Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin asked the question of her.
Power, it was reported recently, owes her position as UN ambassador to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who views her and her husband, AIPAC fund raiser Cass Sunstein, as Israel-first stalwarts.
“As part of her continuing gratitude for her ‘dream job,’ as she told an American Jewish Committee convention on 2/10/14 in New York, Ms. Power assured the AJC that the United States ‘strongly supports Israel’s candidacy for a seat on the UN Security Council, and we have pushed relentlessly for the full inclusion of Israel across the UN system,’” Franklin Lamb wrote recently.
For his own part, Power’s hubby, Sunstein, seems chiefly concerned these days with stamping out conspiracy theories—presumably one way or another—having just authored a book on the matter.
“Is it good for the Jews?” is the rhetorical question Jews often ask themselves, and in terms of deposing Vladimir Putin and eliminating Russian sovereignty, the answer seems to be yes.
But in a bit of irony, the $5 billion spent by the US (according to Victoria Nuland) to bring “democracy” to Ukraine actually did achieve its stated purpose…for the people of Crimea. They are now part of Russia. I imagine they are quite grateful.