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Russia |
Israel–Russia relations refers to the bilateral foreign relations between the two countries, Israel and Russia. Russia has an embassy in Tel Aviv and a consulate in Haifa. Israel has an embassy in Moscow and a consulate-general (to open) in Yekaterinburg.
Russia is a member of the Quartet on the Middle East. For many years, Israel was a sanctuary for many Russian Jews. This was especially the case during the Aliyah in the 70s and the Aliyah in the 1990s.
Israel is also part Russophone. Russian is now the third most widely spoken first language in Israel, (after Hebrew and Arabic) and has the largest number of Russian speakers outside of former Soviet countries.
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From late 1944, Joseph Stalin adopted a pro-Zionist foreign policy, apparently believing that the new country would be socialist and would speed the decline of British influence in the Middle East.[1] Accordingly, in November 1947, the Soviet Union, together with the other Soviet bloc countries voted in favor of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine,[2] which paved the way for the creation of the State of Israel. On May 17, 1948, three days after Israel declared its independence, the Soviet Union officially granted de jure recognition of Israel,[3] becoming only the second country to recognise the Jewish state (preceded only by the United States' de facto recognition) and the first country to grant Israel de jure recognition.
In addition to the diplomatic support, arms from Czechoslovakia, part of the Soviet bloc, were crucial to Israel in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. During the war, the Soviet Union supported Israel when it was attacked by Arab countries that opposed the 1947 United Nations General Assembly resolution for the partition of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state.
A major episode in the Soviet relation to the Arab–Israeli conflict was the Suez crisis, with Egypt negotiating an arms deal with communist Czechoslovakia in September 1955, thereby ending Egypt's reliance on Western arms. Later, other members of the Warsaw Pact also sold arms to Egypt and Syria. In practice, all sales from the Eastern Bloc were authorized by the Soviet Union, as an attempt to increase Soviet influence over the Middle East. The USSR threatened to attack Israel during both the 1956 Sinai Campaign and the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Political relations between the two countries remained poor for over forty years, with the Soviet Union helping Arab states such as Syria, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Algeria and Iraq improve their military capabilities by providing state-of-the-art weaponry and training.[4]
Paul Johnson and other historians argue that November 10, 1975 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 that labelled "Zionism" as "racism" was orchestrated by the USSR. It was rescinded by the Resolution 4686 in December 1991, which coincided with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
The dissolution of the Soviet Union caused a very large immigration wave of Jews from Soviet states. Due to demand from the new immigrants, many Russian language newspapers appeared, and with the development of the multichannel television in Israel during the 1990s, many Russian channels started being rebroadcast in Israel. In November 2002, a new Israeli-Russian channel, Israel Plus, emerged.
In 2006, Israeli troops found evidence of Russian-made Kornet-E and Metis-M anti-tank systems in Hizbullah's possession in southern Lebanon. In 2007, in response to accusations that it was supplying terrorist groups with weapons, Russia said it was conducting inspections of Syrian weapons storage facilities to prevent the weapons from reaching unintended customers. This strained the already-deteriorating relations between Russia and Israel[5]
Russia planned to sell advanced surface to air missiles to neighboring countries in order to dissuade Israel from "offensive adventurism," [6] and condemned Israel's actions in the 2008-2009 Israel-Gaza Conflict.[7][8] Russia also sent 60 tons of tent, medicines, food and other humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.[9][10]
On 6 September 2010, Russia and Israel signed a five year military agreement.[11][12] In October 2010, Israeli Aerospace Industries signed a $400 million agreement to sell UAVs to Russia. The drones will be assembled in Russia.[13]
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