Russian-Israeli tensions escalate over Ukraine, Holocaust
Jerusalem and Moscow continue to exchange accusations following the Sunday statement by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that Hitler was of Jewish descent.
Russian and Israeli foreign ministries have been entangled since Sunday in a Twitter war over a statement by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov comparing Ukraine to the Nazi regime. More accusations were traded between Moscow and Jerusalem this morning.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has tried to link it to World War II. Russian President Vladimir Putin said, for instance, "The purpose of this operation is to protect people who for eight years now have been facing humiliation and genocide perpetrated by the Kyiv regime. To this end, we will seek to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine." In an interview May 1 with the Rete Italian television, Lavrov was asked how can Russia accuse Ukraine, with its Jewish President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, of being antisemitic. "When they say 'What sort of Nazification is this if we are Jews,' well I think that Hitler also had Jewish origins, so it means nothing. … For a long time now we've been hearing the wise Jewish people say that the biggest anti-Semites are the Jews themselves," responded Lavrov.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said after the interview that the Russian ambassador in Israel, Anatoly Viktorov, would be summoned for "a tough talk." Lapid called Lavrov's statement "unforgivable and scandalous and a horrible historical error,” adding, “The Jews did not murder themselves in the Holocaust. The lowest racism against Jews is to blame Jews themselves for anti-Semitism.”
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said, "Such lies are meant to blame the Jews themselves for the most terrible crimes in history and thus free the oppressors of the Jews from their responsibility. No war today is the Holocaust or is like the Holocaust."
