# 397 – War & Democracy

Of course, our news is dominated by the war in Ukraine. Radio, TV, papers, social media…Ukraine dominates.

Putin has become the new virus variant.

And, as some of you may have heard, we are ‘involved’. PM Bennett was the first ‘World leader’ to visit Putin, and he did so on the Sabbath. Meaning that an observant Jew actually broke the Sabbath rules – a matter of life and death.

There seems to be an invisible alliance of some sort between Israel, France and Germany, all 3 of whom are in frequent contact with the 2 sides.

It is quite obvious that ‘traditional neutrals’, such as Switzerland and Norway, would have little influence on either side right now. Not quite sure why the U.K. is not part of this effort, considering the fact that they have often been ‘the mediator’ in the past, and they, in my opinion, fit well into the ‘European effort’ to help solve this crisis.

Israel, as usual, is acting ‘far bigger’ than its place. In this case, it has many reasons for being involved.

First, perhaps 20% of Israel’s population derive from the enormous immigration of ‘Russian Jews’ in the 1990s. In fact, they were refugees from the FSU (Former Soviet Union), collectively referred to here as Russians. It became individually ‘correct’ to label them Siberian, Belarussian, Ukrainian etc. And whether there’s now a line down the middle or not, the fact is that there is a sudden upsurge of immigration from both sides.

Israel has taken a few non-Jews, in cases where we could not say no, but the mere intake of those claiming to be Jewish places us under a lot of pressure. We’re still a tiny strip of land the size of New Jersey, with already 9 million ‘vibrant’ population.

Israel is walking a fine line right. You may have noticed that it is our Foreign Minister and future PM, Yair Lapid, who is doing most of the anti-war talk. The PM is playing both sides. Why? Because of Syria. Russia ‘owns’ Syria after hauling Assad out of the depths of the civil war (which killed upwards of 1/2 million…).

For various diplomatic and strategic reasons, Putin is turning a bind eye to Israel’s occasional  forays into Syria to attack Iranian-backed Hezbollah who threaten the stability of the area. This strategic and diplomatic balance is extremely important to Israel. Hence our taking a step back from outright criticism of Putin.

Where/when will it end? Well, I favour the argument that Putin is more Czarist than a Communist. He wants the ‘Greater Russia’ back, but not necessarily the Soviet Union. I don’t believe he plans to touch the NATO borders – and NATO is also trying to stay back from crossing those borders. It may become a stalemate for both sides, a war of occupation that could go on a long time.

The sanctions against Russia are already working, and they are increasing daily. (I remember visiting the World’s 2nd largest McDonalds in Moscow – Florida has the largest. The Russians LOVED it. Far better than wearing jeans. I recall that nearly every time I asked directions, the answer included ‘You turn left or right at McDonalds’. Yesterday, McDonald ‘temporarily’ closed their Russian facilities, where around 62,000 are employed).

The suffering of the Ukrainians is abundantly clear. But the Russian people will also suffer terribly. And, unlike Hitler’s Germany, I do not believe that the people of Russia have had any say in this matter. They are forced to stay silent.

So much for Democracy.

Stephen