Dmitry Kiselev: Our time is running out, but we have not yet talked about a crucial issue: the Gaza Strip. Israel has announced that the war will go on for months and that they are supposedly destroying Hamas, although the Americans have been flirting with them.
A year ago, you wrote an
article for Izvestia about possible scenarios. What has happened as a result? Was the Hamas attack on Israel a false flag operation? How can we assess it? Some people even think that the destruction of Gaza is a special operation aimed at building a parallel Suez Canal from Eilat across the Negev Desert. The route is 300 kilometres long, which is not difficult to accomplish with modern technology and money. What is it? What is the essence of this geopolitical process?
Sergey Lavrov: There are many conspiracy theories.
The other day, our television and social media again reprinted a report posted in a Western media outlet by Western investigative journalists (I believe that Seymour Hersh posted it too), according to which intelligence services warned the Israeli authorities about plans for a major terrorist attack a year before October 7, 2023.
If this is true, I find it hard to believe that no preventive measures were taken, especially since I know that the Israeli army and security forces have the know-how and are always ready to launch preventive strikes.
This reminded me of another conspiracy theory, when terrorists attacked the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, following which a war was launched in Afghanistan and the Greater Middle East project was initiated.
There were other less bloody conspiracy theories, like the Moon landing, which still has not been laid to rest, although many people should have been aware of the real events in all three cases. However, these issues remained unresolved. This is strange.
I do not want to assume that normal people would be willing to sacrifice hundreds of their own citizens to create a pretext for destroying a terrorist organisation they hate and want to eliminate or to gain some economic or logistical benefits.
You said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Hamas must be destroyed as a whole and as a military force. It sounds like demilitarisation. He also said that extremism must be eliminated in Gaza. It sounds like denazification. However, I do not understand the reaction of the previous Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Yair Lapid (he was foreign minister before becoming prime minister), to our special military operation. His reaction surprised me. He said that Russia had no right to use force against civilians or to annex Ukrainian territories.
This was unfair. We discussed this with him. I do not know what he thinks and how he describes the current developments, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not criticised Russia despite the numerous critical statements [about his actions] made around the world and the fact that he is in a serious predicament. He has had two telephone conversations with President Vladimir Putin (
1,
2). Just like Egypt, Israel helped us evacuate our citizens who were held captive or wanted to leave Gaza.
We should be very careful about our shared history with Israel, particularly our history of fighting Nazism. This is the main element that unifies us in terms of history. It is a fundamental element of our genetic code, so to speak.
The Holocaust and the extermination of the multinational Soviet people are comparable, but the numbers are different: six million people killed during the Holocaust and over 20 million Soviet people were killed during World War II.
A year ago, during a news conference on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Israeli ambassador in Kiev did not say anything when he was asked about the glorification of Bandera, Shukhevich and other Nazis in Ukraine and the use of Nazi symbols. When asked about Israel’s attitude towards this, he answered that it had not changed and added that Israelis still considered them to be Nazis and that this perspective would never change. However, he acknowledged that Ukraine had a complicated history, and said that he understands Ukrainians’ connection to these individuals and political organisations. This is truly alarming.
