Russia-Israel relations fracture after Putin's muted reaction to Hamas assault – WSJ
Russia has lost its "delicate entente" with Israel after the Hamas attack and Russian President Vladimir Putin's unsympathetic reaction, and now cooperation between the two countries has stopped, U.S. newspaper the Wall Street Journal wrote on Oct. 15.
Israel and Russia continued to maintain relations even after Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Jerusalem also refused to supply Kyiv with military aid, despite Western pressure.
However, after the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, Putin became one of the few world leaders who did not express condolences to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Moscow has not officially condemned the Hamas attack.
This put an end to relations between Jerusalem and the Kremlin, which proves "a larger tectonic shift in Russia's role in the Middle East" since Putin started the war in Ukraine, the newspaper states.
In contrast, while scrambling for weapons and allies for its failed invasion, Russia has changed its relationship with the chief enemy of Israel, Iran, with whom it now exchanges arms, and has begun to strengthen ties with Arab states.
In addition, the Kremlin has internal reasons to welcome a war far from its borders as it diverts attention from Russia's internal problems and from the failures at the front in the war against Ukraine, the article says.
Putin reacted to the war in Israel for the first time on Oct. 10, calling it "a vivid example of the failure of U.S. policy" that allegedly "did not take into account the interests of the Palestinian people" in creating a Palestinian state.
Read also: Longtime Russian assistance to Hamas permitted latest brutal attack on Israel, Zelenskyy says
On Oct. 11, the Russian dictator called on Israel and Hamas to "minimize or reduce to zero" civilian casualties, and on Oct. 13, the Russian Foreign Ministry made similar calls.
On Oct. 14, the Palestinian militant group Hamas welcomed the position of Vladimir Putin and Russia's "tireless efforts" in the context of the war with Israel.
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