Russian ambassador Anatoly Viktorov destroys Israeli narrative

…by Jonas E. Alexis, VT Editor

Russian ambassador Anatoly Viktoro nailed it in the Jerusalem Post at the beginning of last month: “The problem in the region is not Iranian activities. It’s a lack of understanding between countries and non-compliance with UN resolutions in the Israel-Arab and Israel-Palestinian conflict.”[1]

The Times of Israel obviously didn’t like that. They reported:

“Referring to airstrikes in Syria, attributed to Israel, that have targeted Iranian military position and arms convoys heading to Hezbollah, Viktorov said that Israel is causing the violence. ‘Israel is attacking Hezbollah, Hezbollah is not attacking Israel,’ he said, adding that Israel should not attack ‘the territories of sovereign UN members.’

“Viktorov also rejected the idea that Israel coordinates such attacks with Russia, saying any warning Jerusalem gives Moscow on such attacks is about the safety of Russian forces in Syria — there to support the regime as it quells a lingering civil war.”[2]

Viktoro made it specifically clear to the world that “There is no way that we are approving any Israeli strikes on Syria, never in the past and never in the future.”[3]

The Times of Israel repeats the same Israeli lie that “Israel, which rarely admits to carrying out the strikes, has kept up a determined campaign aimed at keeping Iran-backed fighters from gaining a foothold in Syria.”[4]

So, that’s why the Israelis are in Syria? Really? Any person with an ounce of common sense would immediately reject that categorical lie. Israel started bombing Syria long before Iran ever set foot in the region. Both Iran and Russia were protecting the Syrian government and population, which both the US and Israel sought to destroy from the beginning. This was one reason why again the Israeli regime supported terrorist organs in the region. If you think this is really far-fetched, then let us bring in former Israeli ambassador Michael Oren again to the equation here.

Oren said back in 2013 that Israeli officials wanted Assad out of Syria since the beginning of the Syrian war—by any means necessary. If that would involve supporting terrorist cells in the region, said Oren, then so be it. Oren unapologetically declared:

“The initial message about the Syrian issue was that we always wanted [President] Bashar Assad to go, we always preferred the bad guys [ISIS and other terrorists in the region] who weren’t backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran.”[5]

The Jerusalem Post, citing Oren, reported: “This was the case, he said, even if the other ‘bad guys’ were affiliated to al-Qaida.” Michael Oren again:

“We understand that they are pretty bad guys. “Still, the greatest danger to Israel is by the strategic arc that extends from Tehran, to Damascus to Beirut. And we saw the Assad regime as the keystone in that arc. That is a position we had well before the outbreak of hostilities in Syria. With the outbreak of hostilities we continued to want Assad to go.”[6]

The logic is pretty clear here: Israeli officials were and still are willing to move heaven and earth in order to remove Assad from power. This was one reason why they gave “secret aid to Syrian rebels.”[7] This was one reason why they treated “Al-Qaida fighters wounded in Syria war.”[8]

This is one reason why Benjamin Netanyahu himself asked the United States to be more involved in the debacle in Syria. And this is one reason why this man has opposed virtually every ceasefire in the region. He has told the media ad nauseam that he opposes any ceasefire in the region because a ceasefire will strengthen Iran’s capability.[9] A categorical lie.

Assad, as Bloomberg itself reported, is not an anti-Semite. “‘Assad sees the rebuilding of Jewish Damascus in the context of preserving the secularism of Syria,’ said Josh Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. ‘This is an effort by the regime to show its seriousness and an olive branch to the Jewish community in America, which they have been wooing.’”[10]

So, Viktoro was telling the truth. As we have argued in the past, Israel is a problem child, and that child needs to get some spanking. Really.

• [1] “Iran not destabilizing Mideast, Israeli-Arab conflict is, says Russian envoy,” Times of Israel, December 8, 2020.
• [2] Ibid.
• [3] Ibid.
• [4] Ibid.
• [5] Herb Keinon, “’Israel wanted Assad gone since start of Syria civil war,’” Jerusalem Post, September 17, 2017.
• [6] Ibid.
• [7] Roy Jones, Noam Raydan, and Suha Ma’ayeh, “Israel Gives Secret Aid to Syrian Rebels,” Wall Street Journal, June 18, 2017.
• [8] “Report: Israel treating al-Qaida fighters wounded in Syria war,” Jerusalem Post, March 13, 2015.
• [9] “PM opposes Syria ceasefire, says it will strengthen Iran,” Times of Israel, July 16, 2017.
• [10] “Syria Seeks Secular Image as Jews Restore Synagogues,” Bloomberg, February 7, 2011.

Jonas E. Alexis, Senior Editor

Jonas E. Alexis has degrees in mathematics and philosophy. He studied education at the graduate level. His main interests include U.S. foreign policy, the history of the Israel/Palestine conflict, and the history of ideas. He is the author of the book, Kevin MacDonald’s Metaphysical Failure: A Philosophical, Historical, and Moral Critique of Evolutionary Psychology, Sociobiology, and Identity Politics. He teaches mathematics in South Korea.

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