Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu could not have dreamed about better timing for his visit to Israel. He arrived Oct. 16 only a few hours after the especially severe incident that occurred over the Syrian skies between the Israeli air force and the Syrian anti-aircraft deployment. Two days later, Iranian Military Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri threatened Israel that his country won’t accept Israeli attacks against Syria anytime it wants.
Indeed, Gen. Shoigu’s visit could not have come at a better time. He came exactly when the entire Middle East had its eyes on the airspace between Damascus and Beirut — which is crowded with Israelis, Russians, Syrians, Americans, Lebanese and air forces from many other countries. One would have expected that the hotline between the Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli Air Force (IAF) with the Russian army and its expeditionary force would be burning up. Yet the Russian defense minister himself arrived in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in real time, met with Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman one day and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the next day (in Liberman’s presence), and he didn’t even skip the traditional visit to Yad Vashem.