Vladimir Putin has apologized to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett for allegations by his foreign minister that Adolf Hitler had Jewish blood, Israel said.
Bennett said he had accepted Putin’s apology, a rare concession from the Kremlin leader and a strong rebuke from his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. Putin may fear that Israel may change its neutral stance on the Russian invasion and join sanctions and provide deadly aid to Ukraine.
Lavrov said in an interview this week that Hitler “had Jewish blood” and that “the fiercest anti-Semites are usually Jews.” Inflammatory speeches have sparked outrage in Israel.
An Israeli account of Thursday’s conversation said the two had discussed Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov’s remarks. The prime minister accepted President Putin’s apology for Lavrov’s speech and thanked him for clarifying his attitude toward the Jewish people and the memory of the Holocaust.
The phone call reported by Russia does not mention the apology. It said Putin and Bennett had “an in-depth exchange of views on the situation in Ukraine” and “emphasized the particular importance” of Victory Day, 9 May, as well as the importance of “carefully preserving the historical truth about events of those years and honoring the memory of all those who died, including the victims of the Holocaust. “
Bennett also said he had asked Putin to consider evacuating the besieged Azovstal steel plant in the Ukrainian port of Mariupol. The Israeli prime minister said he made the request after an earlier conversation with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and that Putin had promised to create a corridor for the evacuation of civilians.
The phone call sparked a diplomatic dispute over Lavrov’s remarks, which Israeli media said threatened to upset Israel’s cautious stance on the Russian invasion.
On Monday, Israel summoned Russia’s ambassador, and Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid called Lavrov’s statement “unforgivable and outrageous… as well as a terrible historical mistake.” Lapid writes: “Jews did not commit suicide in the Holocaust. The lowest level of racism against Jews is to accuse the Jews themselves of anti-Semitism.
Russia’s foreign ministry doubled on Tuesday, accusing Lapid of “anti-historical” remarks about the Holocaust, which “largely explain the current Israeli government’s course in support of the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv.”
“Unfortunately, history knows tragic examples of Jewish cooperation with the Nazis,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
After the war broke out, Israel established a field hospital in western Ukraine, provided humanitarian supplies and protective vests and helmets for the Ukrainian army. So far, it has refrained from sending significant military aid or imposing sanctions on Russia. Israel has delicate relations with Russia, as both have military interests in Syria.
Israel remains one of the few Western nations willing to engage with Russia, and Putin has spent significant political capital in his two decades as Kremlin leader to cultivate Israel as an ally.
Meanwhile, another close ally, Alexander Lukashenko, appears to be criticizing the Russian war, saying he does not expect the 10-week conflict to “stretch that way”.
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In an interview with the Associated Press, Lukashenko said: “I have a feeling that this operation has dragged on.”
He also spoke out against the potential use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine, a prospect that is being discussed in the Russian media as the conflict seems to have reached a dead end.
Mr Lukashenko said that the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine was “unacceptable because it is right next to us – we are not overseas like the United States”.
“This is also unacceptable because it could bring down our globe, flying out of orbit to who knows where,” he said. “Whether Russia is capable or not is a question you should ask the Russian leadership.
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