The Palestinian Cause and Russia's Calculations Toward Israel

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

At the outset, it must be stressed that there is no solution to the Palestinian cause so long as the Palestinians keep searching for a solution to their cause in the pockets of others, for great international causes are never resolved by proxy or delegation — others can, at most, lend a helping hand by providing diplomatic and logistical facilitation.

If the Palestinians want to reclaim any of their fixed national rights, they have no choice but to rely on themselves — that is, to accumulate strength so as to deter their enemies. This is not an easy path, but it is far shorter than the path of relying on others.

Russia’s Constants. Some Palestinians look to Russia to play a role in restoring some rights to their rightful owners by pressuring the Zionist entity — an aspiration no different from the aspiration of several Arab states that once looked to the Soviet Union as a savior from the clutches of the Zionists. But the Soviet Union never did so, and Russia will not do so either.

Anyone following Russian policy toward the Palestinian cause finds that Russia has no independent vision or plan for establishing peace in the Arab-Islamic region through resolving the Palestinian cause. There are no Russian proposals independent of American and Zionist proposals, and there is no Russian vision regarding the Palestinian rights that must be restored to the Palestinians.

And despite the many grave circumstances surrounding the establishment of the Zionist entity, the enormous pressure America exerted on numerous states to vote for the partition resolution on Palestine, and despite the displacement of the Palestinians in the wake of the brutal, bloody massacres the Zionists committed — Russia lifted not a finger regarding the establishment of Israel, the war crimes committed against the Palestinians, or the question of the legitimacy of partitioning a country at the expense of its own people… and so on.

Like the European states, and the Western ones especially, Russia recognizes the Zionist entity and accepts it as a member of the United Nations, even though the Zionists never honored their commitments before the international organization to return the displaced Palestinians to the homes and properties from which they were expelled.

Russia views the Zionist entity as a sovereign state entitled to respect under international law. Someone might say that Arabs and some Palestinians themselves recognize the Zionist entity, and that we should not ask the Russians to do what we ourselves do not do.

That is true, and I am not asking that of the Russians. Rather, there are duties and tasks required of great powers to establish justice in this world, and Russia is a great power that understands perfectly well that the absence of justice means the absence of peace and security at the global level.

Does Russia realize that severe injustice has been inflicted on the Palestinian people because of this usurping Zionist entity? Does it realize that wars have never stopped in the Arab-Islamic region since the establishment of the Zionist entity, and are not expected to stop despite the scale of Arab concessions?

Zionist Superiority. Westerners — foremost among them the leading colonial powers France, Britain, and the United States — always insist on the necessity of the Zionists retaining the military upper hand in the region. They insist that the Zionists must possess military power sufficient to surpass the combined and individual strength of the Arabs, and that this power must be deterrent enough that the Arabs would never dare attack the entity.

And indeed, the Zionist entity has continued to receive the newest and most advanced Western weapons, especially from the United States, which is why the Zionist air force has remained superior, and the Zionists have been enabled to develop nuclear bombs and the missiles to carry them.

During the era of the Soviet Union, the Arabs tried to obtain advanced Soviet weapons to overturn the military balance prevailing in the region, but the Soviet Union was not willing to go along with that, and it did not even supply the Arabs with effective defensive weapons except after tremendous effort.

So it was, for example, with the SAM anti-aircraft missiles. Zionist warplanes roamed freely over Arab skies unchecked, and the Arabs were not supplied with missiles capable of downing aircraft until the early 1970s.

The matter is no different with Russia. It withholds support from the Palestinian resistance and the Lebanese resistance, and it withholds the weapons Arab states need to break the balance now prevailing, which is tilted in favor of the Zionists. Indeed, the very definition of “balance” in the region is a strange one — it means preserving Zionist military superiority.

This superiority is the Zionists’ guarantee of remaining in the region as a state. How many times has Syria tried to obtain weapons that would break the Zionists’ aerial dominance over the region, only for Russia to hold back the necessary support?

This is true as well of the S-300 and S-400 missile systems. There is now talk of Russia’s intention to hand these missiles over to Syria, and the entity’s leaders continue their meetings with Russian officials to dissuade them from doing so. The Russians handed these missiles over to Iran, but there is great doubt as to whether they will hand them over to Syria.

Russia supports the preservation of the Zionist entity’s security and does not support any attempt to threaten it, regardless of who poses that threat. And so long as Russia is committed to Zionist military superiority, it is certainly committed to Zionist security — but not to the security of the Palestinians or other Arabs.

It does not call for pursuing the Palestinians or endangering their security, and it is not greatly troubled by the Zionist occupation of Arab land, even though that occupation is a threat to Arab security and to global stability.

It coexists with this occupation even though it regards it as a violation of international law, a diminishment of the sovereignty of states that have lost part of their territory, and a violation of Palestinian rights. Russia’s rejection of the occupation is in no way equivalent to the United States’ support for it.

Absence of Vision. Russia does not appear to stand behind the right of return of the Palestinian refugees, for it is not active within international bodies working to establish this right. It is active regarding the return of refugees from various countries around the world, but it has not developed a position embracing this right, one guaranteed by every international law and by the United Nations Charter itself.

It is clear that Moscow regards the Palestinian right of return as a violation of Zionist sovereignty and an infringement on Israel’s existence. The return of Palestinian refugees would upset the demographic balance of the Zionist entity, and this constitutes a threat to that entity’s existence. In other words, on this question, Russia flees the logic of justice in favor of political balances and interests.

As for the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, Russia supports it only to the extent that it does not threaten the existence of the Zionist entity. It holds that the Palestinians have a right to self-determination like any other people on earth, and that an independent Palestinian state should be established, provided that this right does not threaten the entity’s continued presence in the Arab region, and provided it is agreed to by the entity itself. This is why Russia never opposed the Oslo Accord, which so gravely violated international laws and norms.

Russia has no vision of its own for resolving the Palestinian cause. It largely backs the American approach to a settlement and supports the two-state solution, and it does not contradict the negotiating track between the Zionists and the Palestinians. It has not worked to develop an approach of its own that would pressure the Zionist entity to respect international law regarding the occupation of others’ land, the violation of human rights, and to cease committing war crimes.

America typically takes the initiative in convening meetings with the various parties, and constantly puts forward new ideas designed to circumvent Palestinian rights, while Russia continues to watch from a distance, never opposing American ideas.

On the whole, Arab resistance has developed in Gaza and southern Lebanon, and the fighters of the resistance have come to understand the importance of relying on themselves, and that a right is only ever seized by those who hold it. They are not opposed to aid coming from others, but they no longer have the patience to place their fate, and the fate of their peoples, in the hands of others. They would certainly welcome Russian support for their approaches and aspirations, but they will not wait for it.

Source: Originally published in Al Jazeera on 2018-06-03. Translated from the original Arabic, “القضية الفلسطينية وحسابات روسيا تجاه إسرائيل”.