Israeli and Russia warm up together, US concerned?

GERTZ:

The United States has been increasingly concerned over Israel’s rapproachment with Russia.

Analysts said the administration of President Barack Obama has been worried over a growing Israeli alliance with Moscow. They said the concerns intensified in April 2014 in wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine’s Crimea.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, second left, chats with Russian President Vladimir Putin as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, left, and Israeli President Shimon Peres, right, sit beside them. Reuters

---

"Nothing can harm the good relations between our two countries, as long as another power doesn’t intervene," a leading Russian parliamentarian, Alexander Romanovich, said.

In a briefing in Jerusalem on May 19, Romanovich, vice chairman of the Duma International Affairs Committee, cited a strategic dialogue between Moscow and Jerusalem. He also indicated an understanding between the two countries regarding such Israeli adversaries as Iran and Syria.

In April, the State Department expressed surprise that Israel refused to back the U.S. condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Crimea. The analysts said Israel did not vote on the United Nations resolution amid reports of anti-Semitic attacks endorsed by the new government in Kiev.

Israel’s pro-Russian policy has been attributed to Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Lieberman has argued that Israel needs alternatives to the United States, seen as withdrawing from the Middle East.

The analysts warned of a U.S. backlash to any Israeli alliance with Russia. They said Washington still retains leverage over Israel, particularly through the $3 billion in annual American military aid.

"Israel must show the United States the same respect it shows Russia and China for reasons of national security," former Mossad director Efraim Halevy said.

The PAK-T50 Russian (Sukhoi) stealth fighter (the USA refused to sell Jerusalem, Tokyo and Canberra the F-22).

(JUST ADD ELBIT OR RAFALE AVIONICS AND SWAP FOR AIRFRAMES).. what are we thinking about in Washington? Other nations will not sit still while we ‘lead from behind’ and crawfish on being who we have been since AT LEAST 1865.

"If Jerusalem treats U.S. President Barack Obama with the same respect reserved today for the presidents of Russia and China, and if the Israeli government ministers limit their visits to Washington to only a double of their visits to Moscow, we will have the best of both worlds, instead of bowing down to our rivals and degrading our friends."