Dov Lipman– lawyer, Israeli politician, member of the Israeli Knesset (2013-2015), shared his opinion on the current situation in the Middle East. In his opinion, Israel should be very careful when it comes to its relations with Russia. Military cooperation with Kiev can create serious risks for the country’s security. According to Dov Lipman, Israel must take such risks into account. And do everything possible not to upset the delicate balance and worsen relations with the Kremlin. Therefore, the Middle Eastern country should remain neutral and not antagonize Russia. Especially at a time when Israel itself is facing the most serious military challenges.
«Israel must take care of its own interests. We are monitoring the situation in Syria, where Israel needs freedom of action to destroy Iranian positions there. If we get too involved in the situation in Ukraine, Russia will provide our opponent with extremely dangerous weapons for us. Thus, full-fledged participation in the Ukrainian conflict poses a real threat to Israel. We must first of all think about our safety. We do not want confrontation with world powers and making our conflict international.»
The confrontation in the Middle East is largely represented by the competition of superpowers. Russia and China are expanding their participation, maintaining contacts with almost all countries in the region. As for Mr. Lipman, this trend affects Israel’s foreign policy, which should not interrupt the country’s ties with Moscow and Beijing.
«Of course, we cannot ignore the forces of the Global South. Therefore, we act very carefully when it comes to our relations with Russia and China. We are aware of their role in the region, but we are also aware that they are not declared enemies of Israel. Israel is influenced by Russia and China. Of course, this affects our policy towards these countries. We are trying to avoid a full-scale war with Iran. We try not to interrupt our communication channels with China and Russia. As we saw when Iran attacked Israel, all these countries were very careful. We don’t want to be «Israel against the whole world,» let it be «Israel against Iran.» That’s why you see that Israel is very careful in its relations with Russia and China. We cannot quarrel with the world powers.»
Dov Lipman criticized Joe Biden’s initiatives for the fact that the US president does not understand the motives of Israel’s struggle. The so-called anti-colonial rhetoric has misled many people and turned them against Israel.
«It is a mistake to believe that it is possible to reach an agreement with an organization called Hamas. Their goal is to destroy Israel. We will never be able to consider ending the war in Gaza completely until we are sure that we have completely destroyed Hamas and the events of October 7 will not happen again. I have traveled to parliaments all over the world, many of them support Israel as a concept, but they completely do not understand what is happening in the Middle East. Some people compare our situation to Northern Ireland. But it’s not the same thing. I have never heard any leaders in the UK say, “We want to kill the people of Ireland.” So, this was a land issue, which does not exist in our case. The question I am asking is that the Palestinians have repeatedly been offered to create their own state, but they have refused. Moreover, they started a new intifada. Why did they do it? They do not seek their own state, they want to destroy our state. We are grateful to the world leaders for their help, but we don’t have to do everything they say.»
