His Majesty's Jews

On June 7, a regular meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin took place in Moscow. And it suddenly became the number one event. What happened?

Strictly speaking, nothing new. Over the past 10 months, Netanyahu has been visiting Russia for the third, if not the fourth time, and the reasons are all about the same: the separation of the Russian and Israeli air forces in the sky over Syria so that they don’t shoot each other down, the Israeli side’s requests not to supply weapons to Hezbollah ”, which, together with the Iranian battalions, is fighting there for Assad, well, another middle finger to Obama, which Putin and Netanyahu equally cannot stomach.

This time the visit was, as it were, timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic relations - the red carpet for the Israeli prime minister at Vnukovo, the guard of honor, "Atikva" (Israel's anthem) in the pouring Moscow rain, state honors, with which the big and powerful are met, even moreover, that the third spoke in the chariot was actually the greeter—neither the Russian prime minister, nor even the minister of foreign affairs, came to the airport. Then dinner at the new restaurant of the lawyer and restaurateur Alexander Rappoport on the Moscow Golden Mile called "Voronezh" (the author even thought it was a sinful thing at first that Netanyahu went to Voronezh and the region where Subbotniks live - ethnic Russians who profess Judaism and dream of Aliyah to Israel , but - mind me!). The next day - hugs with Putin, two and a half hours of private negotiations, a joint press conference and a concert on the new stage of the Bolshoi Theater with jubilant official and (or) rich Jews in the hall: "The Israeli prime minister is our Caesar's best friend!" Before, during and after - the new Israeli ambassador (naturally, a native of the USSR) as the main jester of our shtetel on Channel One, the Moscow Manege, filled with travel agencies, inviting to visit the Promised Land, surrounded by dug-out streets that cannot be crossed, and something something else unbearably sweet and having absolutely nothing to do with the event that happened 25 years ago.

But it did not happen in June - October 18, 1991. It was on this day that relations between the USSR and Israel were restored, and two months later, on December 18, Soviet Ambassador Alexander Bovin presented his credentials to Israeli President Chaim Herzog. In June, only in 1967, as a result of the Six-Day War, where the USSR stood on the side of the enemies of Israel, the Arab states that it armed (by the way, as Russia is now arming Assad and Hezbollah), exactly the opposite happened - on June 10 there were relations between the Soviet Union and the Jewish state were severed, and another anti-Semitic wave began in the USSR. (Maybe it’s really such postmodernism: to celebrate exactly the opposite of what actually happened on this day in history?)

Is it any wonder that neither at the official receptions nor at the Bolshoi Theater there were any of those who had been fighting for years to leave for Israel and who went to prison for the right to be a Jew. However, imagine the same Iosif Mendelevich (the famous "Leningrad Aircraft Business", 11 years in prisons and camps), who observed kashrut and Saturday even in a punishment cell and in a "lid", side by side with those who worked along the "Israeli line" (Department No. 8 of the Fifth Directorate of the KGB of the USSR) and who considered and still considers Jews to be the "fifth column" in Russia, is also impossible.

Upright walkers - of any religion and nationality - are not required in Russia today, prostrating ones are in honor.

Why then, one wonders, did Netanyahu come to Russia, if the holiday is not quite a holiday, and it was quite possible to talk about Syria over a closed connection?

Upright walkers - of any religion and nationality - are not required in Russia today, prostrating ones are in honor.

The author's hypothesis is based on the fact that in the Russian security community that rules the country, among people from the KGB, in the first place, there is a widespread belief in some kind of "world government", which, of course, is headed by Jews. Well, who else? Since Haaretz - the Holy Land - is a source of sentiment for any Jew, and Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled this land for the sixth year, he can work as a lobbyist for Putin and his oligarchs in this very "world government" - lift sanctions, give access to capital markets, make Putin again a handshake and a friend of all democrats on earth. In other words, to do what tyrants and dictators have always wanted from Jewish leaders in exchange for the right of their people to give birth, to live, to be. About that the great Amos Elon wrote a great book - The Pity of It All - a portrait of the Jews in Germany 1743-1933.