Posted on 12/26/2019 1:36:32 PM PST by Norski
Russian-Israeli relations are rapidly deteriorating as both countries engage in a tit for tat on visitor screening
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had 15 “republics” and countless “autonomous regions”, but really only two republics mattered: the Russian Federation and Ukraine. The rest were window dressing. The USSR had only three capital cities that mattered, Moscow, Leningrad (St. Petersburg today), and Kiev. The rest were “provinces”.
After the fall of the USSR in 1990 and the free for all that followed, Soviet Jews, those who have not emigrated to Israel or America in the 1970’s like my family had done, did what Jews always do: split into parts. One part stood in long lines at the consulates of countries that represented Israeli interests in the now defunct USSR, which had no diplomatic ties with Israel since 1967 and begged to be allowed to immigrate to Israel under the auspices of the Law of Return. The other part became busy appropriating anything of value that could be appropriated.
Enterprising mid-level managers in major industrial corporations, many of them Jews, suddenly became “owners” of said corporations, overnight billionaires in dollar terms. All it took was guts and small startup capital to hire enough bodyguards to avoid being killed by rival claimants to the loot. So was born the disproportionately Jewish oligarch class of Russia and Ukraine.
The oligarchs, never to be ones to put all their eggs in one basket, did not neglect to get their Israeli passports just like their less enterprising Jewish comrades had done, though their physical presence in Israel was not required and was often unwanted.
Israel, awash in American technology improved by Israel’s own contributions as well as indigenously developed top-notch military tech has always been a target for Russian espionage, but now there was a truly golden opportunity to infiltrate Israel with hundreds if not thousands intelligence operatives. After all, Israel’s founding mission was to provide a home for all Jews and the impact of a million repatriates, many with engineering degrees, on a country in dire need of more Jews and more engineers could not be overstated. They all got in and nobody was vetted.
One of the less advertised aspects of Israeli culture is its pervasive addiction to sex
If the point is that a third of Israel’s population being of Soviet origin creates an espionage risk it is well-founded.
It is a huge risk for both sides.
As sure existential security risks I think just the opposite is the case.
With every over Israel’s citizen having multiple relatives in Russia and vice versa I think the risk of war is actually lower.
War is ongoing. Only the battlefields change.
Do you now understand why I believe neither the author nor the article are antisemitic?
I must log off now. Goodbye.
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