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"Fear of closing the Iron Curtain", VOA: Tensions between Israel and Russia

2022-08-04 15:33:24Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

"Fear of closing the Iron Curtain", VOA: Tensions between Israel and

Tensions between Jerusalem and Moscow are rising after a Russian attempt to close the Jewish Agency office in Moscow.

The semi-governmental agency helps Jews immigrate to Israel, but Russia says it violates local laws by collecting information on Russian citizens.

Israeli officials say they believe it has more to do with Israel's growing support for Ukraine. VOA correspondent Linda Gradstein reports from Jerusalem.

More than 50,000 Russian and Ukrainian Jews have moved to Israel since the outbreak of war in Ukraine in late February. Many are anxious to leave Russia because of rising anti-Semitism, the economic crisis and their concern that the repressive policies of the Soviet Union are returning, says Pinchas Goldschmidt, the former chief rabbi of Moscow who was forced into exile.

"The number one reason is the fear of the closing of the Iron Curtain. It means that one day in the near future, it will be impossible to leave Russia. This fear exists among many members of the Russian Jewish community."

The wave of emigration is managed by the Jewish Agency, a quasi-governmental body that helps Jews from around the world return to Israel. But Russia recently threatened to shut down the Jewish Agency's operations in Moscow and take the organization to court, alleging that it violates Russian law by collecting information on Russian citizens.

According to ex-Soviet dissident and former Jewish Agency director Natan Sharansky, Russian pressure to close the office is more about politics than anything else.

"Russia, which is almost completely isolated from the free world, is looking for ways to break its isolation. It is looking at how to put pressure on different countries. They are trying to pressure Germany so that people start dying of cold in the winter. And they started to put pressure on us for the Jewish Agency".

Israeli analysts say Russia is not happy with new Prime Minister Yair Lapid's policy on the war in Ukraine. His predecessor, Naftali Bennett, was careful not to criticize Russia and even went to Moscow early in the war with an offer to mediate.

"Yair Lapid, while he was still Minister of Foreign Affairs and with the transition to the post of Prime Minister, has followed a less balanced approach. He has more clearly identified Russia as the aggressor, and this is largely a rhetorical shift more than anything else, but in this conflict, rhetoric matters."

He says that Russia is too busy with the war in Ukraine and does not want a full-scale diplomatic confrontation with Israel. And it is likely that Russia will find a way to ease tensions and continue to allow Russian Jews to emigrate./VOA


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