Israel's New BFF: Russia?

A follow up on yesterday's post, Israel Finds New Friends, in which a jilted Israel, tired of getting bitch-slapped by Barack Obama (while simultaneously being forced to profess their undying love for him), reaches out for love elsewhere.  And finds it.  In China.  And Russia.  And India.  And maybe Greece and Rome as well...

TWS goes a bit deeper into the developing relationship between Israel and Russia...and simultaneously between Netanyahu and Putin, who just made his second visit to the Jewish state to be present at  the unveiling of a memorial to the Red Army.

Yup, you read that right:

Strange bedfellows they certainly are, and Putin and Netanyahu may not be personally simpatico, but that is hardly the point. They are both pragmatic politicians who have clear and simple bottom lines: in Putin’s case, the return of Russia to superpower status, and in Netanyahu’s, the preservation of the state of Israel. The monument at Netanya symbolizes the intersection of these lines, as Russia sees an opportunity to expand its sphere of influence at the expense of the United States, while Israel, concerned at the steady erosion of American engagement in the Middle East, sees a new, albeit unlikely, source of support.


Against this backdrop, the monument to Soviet soldiers on Israeli soil begins to make sense. It is a symbolic gesture, perhaps, but this diplomatic dance is full of symbolic gestures that have practical repercussions. For example, Putin cancelled his visit to the United States to attend the G8 in May—a trip that was supposed to mark the reset of the reset of the U.S.-Russia relationship—on the grounds he was too busy. But he found the time to go to Israel on the first official state visit of his second presidency. Meanwhile, Obama, who has been in office for three and a half years, has yet to squeeze a visit to Israel into his travel schedule. Netanyahu, it seems, has drawn his own conclusions.

Having survived so many attempts at extermination, however, the Jews know that they do not always have the luxury of choosing their friends. Given that Russia has significant leverage with both Syria and Iran, while the United States appears to have none, it may seem only prudent to celebrate an example of Russian-Israeli friendship at this juncture...The monument at Netanya does not mean the US.-Israel alliance is irrevocably broken. But it is a tangible reminder that we need to take the responsibilities of that relationship seriously, or risk ceding the rights to another—and decidedly unfriendly—party.

A pairing of equals, versus...

A less...cordial relationship?

So where are we, exactly? Europe, unable to un-tether itself from it's ancient Jew hatred, has allied themselves with the Arabs & Palestinians against the Jewish state. So has the United States under the guidance of Barack Obama.  Russia and China, refusing to let anti-Semitism guide their foreign policy, have sided with Israel, and are strengthening economic and military ties at an increasingly rapid pace.

Europe and America teeter on the brink of collapse.  The Arabs nations wallow in the mud, slaughtering each other for the chance to regress from fascist dictatorships to religious totalitarianism.

Meanwhile China surges forward, as the Russian Bear re-awakens.

Anyone else seeing a pattern here?