WarSclerotic

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has traveled to Russia and the U.S. State Department, with the help of the American liberal media cannons, is up in arms. What’s the accusation? Israel could be trying to sabotage the Iran deal. The U.S. hasn’t realized yet that, as far as existential questions go, Israel’s interest shall overcome. Watching the Obama administration sell peace in the West (and in the Middle East) for a pot of lentil stew is another striking element of this issue.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman spoke recently about Israel’s “multi-directional foreign policy,” seeking additional partners and markets outside the U.S. Again, the critics went ballistic. But come on, relax please. Lieberman simply mentioned other directions, not trading alliances. What’s wrong with that?

I’ll tell you what’s wrong with that: Netanyahu’s visit and Lieberman’s statement’s struck a nerve in the old elite, which had gotten used to viewing the U.S. from the perspective of a vassal state. The Israeli Left has been holding out for years for the U.S. to force a political solution on us, something like Secretary of State John Kerry’s menacing interview to Channel 2 news, where he expressed understanding for and presaged a “third Intifada” should Israel fail to hastily sign off an a deal for political suicide.

It’s been twenty years since the great wave of migration from Russia and its satellite states, and yet there are still those among us who view Russian Jews with suspicion. Indeed, this wave of immigration saw mostly mature immigrants move to Israel, who had not undergone the old leftist indoctrination, free from the known politically-correct conditioning. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of such immigrants ended up identifying with the right-wing, conservative and secular stream — certainly a red flag for the wedge-driving forces among us, anxiously eyeing the imposing, intelligent group in society that scorns the defeatism of the Israeli Left’s nationalist policy and fails to see there an intellectual challenge worth answering.

In Russia itself, a nation with vast deposits of natural resources, a huge economy and myriad economic opportunities, a Jewish community of about a hundred thousand has consolidated and, unlike the Jewish Left in the U.S., its connection to Israel is not dubious. There’s almost no Russian Jewish family without close relatives or friends living in Israel. There are bereaved families in Russia whose sons died serving in the Israel Defense Forces. Israel, with its great achievements in science and defense technology, with its historic background, is a source of unabashed pride. The influence of Jews on the culture, economy and government of Russia is enormous, no less than in the U.S. Several of the Russian billionaires on Forbes’ list are Jewish. Unlike in the U.S. though, most of those Russian billionaires do not publicly fight for Israel, preferring to stay behind the scenes where there is a willingness and sincere commitment to help.

In general, the work with the Russian government is very different than the work with the U.S. government. Defiant statements against Moscow will not help us. The Russian political tradition is private lobbying, not campaigning. Access to government leaders is immediate. No unusual hostility has been leveled against us, just economic interests, mostly. The Russian public is not a huge fan of Islam (neither are Russia leaders, though they don’t say so out loud); Israel has scored more credit. But the big money is in Iran and other Muslim countries. Moscow’s support for Israel at the expense of Arab countries won’t be met with opposition by the Russian public.

As far as economic partners go, for the past two decades, Israel’s image has indicated that it’s no fan of Russian businesspeople. Everyone knows the awful stereotype of the Russian Jewish “oligarch,” and the media and legal treatment that comes with it. Such opinions have a negative impact on the connection between Russian Jews and Israel because the community there is structured differently than in the West; often, Russian businesspeople play community leadership roles.

It is in Israel’s supreme interest to encourage the Jewish business community in Russia to start investing in Israel. If Israel facilitates that process, non-Jewish business people will follow suit. Such huge opportunities are impressively missing given the current failure. But it’s not too late. Organizations such as the Russian Jewish Congress and others are just waiting for the signal; they’d be happy to help. Outside regular business affairs, it is possible to be assisted by the Russian Jewish wealthy elite, such as in helping to find the conservative-Zionist answer to the New Israel Fund and other such left-wing organizations that receive financial aid from foreign countries. These are pro-Zionist, pro-Jewish business people totally integrated into the intellectual-academic fields. They understand the power of the public-consciousness arena. Now’s the time to shift the paradigm.