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Russia-Israel Ties in Spotlight In Wake of Syria Deal

The Helsinki conference on a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East will be a window into the state of Russia-Israel relations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin attend a news conference at the Bocharov Ruchei state residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, May 14, 2013. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday it was important to avoid actions that might aggravate Syria's civil war, a veiled warning against foreign military intervention or arming anti-government forces.  REUTERS/Alexei Druzhinin/RIA Novosti/Pool (RUSSIA - Tags: POLITICS) ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS B
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Among the confidential documents declassified by the Israeli State Archives on the 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War is a fascinating letter sent in September 1972 by Prime Minister Golda Meir to German Chancellor Willy Brandt. In the document, which for some reason has not attracted much attention, Meir refers to the decision by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in July of that year to expel the 20,000 Soviet advisers from his country. Meir wrote that the Russian presence in Egypt was to prepare the army for a war with Israel, but that Sadat may have thought it would also force the United States to cooperate with the Soviets in pressing Israel to agree to a diplomatic solution on “Egypt’s terms” (i.e., withdrawal from territory Israel captured in the 1967 war). Meir assumed that with the departure of the Soviet advisers, “the grounds for the realization of these options have greatly diminished.”

The ouster of the Russian bear lifted the threat of war and the danger of peace from Meir’s shoulders. Today, as well, the average Israeli and the common politician rank Russia at the bottom of Israel’s fan club, between the European Union and the Arab states.

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