A more straightforward sign that Israel seeks to contain U.S.
Thursday, June 25, 2009 at 1:17AM WEEK IN REVIEW: "Mideast in Flux: An Israeli Cozies Up To Moscow," by Clifford J. Levy, New York Times, 14 June 2009.
Avigdor Lieberman, the new Israeli foreign minister, emigrated from the former Soviet Union years ago. He recently returned to Russia, receiving a "notably warm reception" from Putin's government, which has displayed, we are told, none of the Obama team's "squeamishness" on Israel's hard line.
Russia, as we've known for a long time, wants to be seen as a serious great power in the Middle East.
Lieberman is romancing the Russians like no Israeli official before. Naturally, since both have a taste for wielding government power in heavy-handed ways (Lieberman has called for Arab citizens of Israel to take a loyalty oath, which is oh so Soviet), Lieberman and Putin get along quite nicely (it helps that the former is still fluent in Russian).
No, Israel is unlikely to ever get Moscow to go for truly harsh sanctions on Iran. After all, Russia is building that contested nuclear power plant in Iran.
Still, when regimes feel marginalized by the global powers-that-be, they tend to come together.
You say Chechnya, I say Gaza.
I know, I know. Eventually we'll have to press the reset button on Israel too. For now, though, both sides of this long-time special relationship are exploring the concept of dating other powers.
And thus this burgeoning bond will be interesting to track.
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