Opinion

Why are we surprised?

OPINION PIECE BY ROBERT FESTENSTEIN

In 2014 Russia annexed the Crimea and for some years now has been backing fighters in the Eastern part of the Ukraine who claim autonomy over an area with a significant number of ethnic Russian residents. When Russia, after some period of sabre-rattling invaded Ukraine there were cries of shock and surprise. Why?

Putin had made his position clear about Ukraine and many commentators have said that the invasion was on the cards for some time. What has made matters worse is the revelation that Russia is not only a substantial trading partner for many European countries, but that much of Europe’s oil and gas comes from there. The UK Government have said it will take until the end of this year to find replacement oil supplies in place of that coming from Russia. In other words, the UK is and will be for some time to come, be funding the war against Ukraine.

All this could have been avoided. The politics of personality have been much in evidence over the last decade. Donald Trump in the USA, Angela Merkel in Germany and Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel. All of these have stamped their personality on history. The longevity of some leaders has in some countries had a significant impact.

Germany under Angela Merkel cheerfully agreed to buy substantial amounts of gas from Russia, despite the knowledge that Putin has been running Russia as his own club since 2012. He is not alone. Victor Orban, the right-wing leader of Hungary who has been criticised heavily for re-writing history about the conduct of his country in the Second World War has been in power since 2010. Recep Erdogan has been increasing his authority as President since 2014. All this time, other than a few well-informed observers, little comment has been made on this worrying trend of personality politics in Europe. Sadly, the warnings from the Baltic States concerning Putin have it seems, largely fallen on deaf ears.

What then is the message to take away from this appalling lack of vision and insight? For us, there are two messages – one here and one in Israel. In the UK, as this column has observed previously, the communal leadership’s refusal to acknowledge the danger facing Jews of Muslim antisemitism is putting us all at risk. There is a view that the Board of Deputies have done a fine job calling out the BBC over their reporting of the attack on the ’Chanukah Bus’ last December.

Maybe, but it is only half a job. None of this would have happened but for the attack itself, and because this appears to have been perpetrated by at least one Muslim man the BoD and other organisations have been as silent as the grave on the subject. Similarly with the progressive and left-wing attitudes to Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. The reason there is violence in Israel, Gaza and Judea & Samaria is all down to Israel, no-one else.

And there lies the connection – wilful blindness. The West has largely ignored the warnings from Putin, Orban and Erdogan. Russia has invaded Ukraine, Hungary is absolving itself from any responsibility in the murders of their Jewish citizens and Turkey is becoming closer and closer to Iran month by month. And the Jewish leaders are ignoring the facts before their eyes and hoping, like the West did with Russian expansion, that if they excuse the Jew haters because they don’t know any better, all will be well. We know now there is a problem with Russia. Now, more than ever, the Jewish community needs to open its eyes to realities of appeasing our enemies.

Putin had made his position clear about Ukraine and many commentators have said that the invasion was on the cards for some time.

Robert Festenstein is a practising solicitor and has been the principal of his Salford based firm for over 20 years. He has fought BDS motions to the Court of Appeal and is President of the Zionist Central Council in Manchester which serves to protect and defend the democratic State of Israel.

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