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Monday, June 13, 2022

6/3/22 - Shuttle diplomacy. Why this shuttle? You tell me.

 Link. Excerpt:

Before coming to Berlin, Bennett had a three-hour meeting with Putin. Bennett's office said he departed early Saturday morning for Moscow, accompanied by Russian-speaking Cabinet minister Zeev Elkin, who was born in Ukraine. Both men are observant Jews and would not normally travel on the Sabbath.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies they were "discussing the situation in Ukraine."

What are the implications for Israel?

Israel maintains good relations with both Ukraine and Russia, and has offered to act as an intermediary between the two parties.

Russia is also involved in the war in Syria, which borders Israel.

The founding editor of The Times of Israel, David Horovitz, said the trip had "extraordinarily high stakes." He added that "trying to maintain not neutral but warm relations" with both Russia and Ukraine "may harm Israel's standing in the free world."

"Isreal's standing in the free world?" Wtf is that? The guy who said that should be shunned as irremediably duplicitous. It is a term out of 1984, The novel, not the year. Why Bennett? What dynamics are at play?