Spotlight: Israeli-Russian ties still under weather months after Russian plane downing in Syria

Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 17:30:13|Editor: Yurou
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by Keren Setton

JERUSALEM, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Two months after the accidental downing of a Russian plane by the Syrian air defense system targeting an Israeli fighter jet, relations between Israel and Russia remain strained.

The incident, which resulted in the death of 15 Russian servicemen, occurred during an Israeli airstrike against targets in Syria.

For nearly two years, it is estimated that Israel has carried out hundreds of attacks against what it says are Iranian targets in Syria, most of them unconfirmed by Israel.

Iran, Israel's arch-foe, has increased its presence in Syria in recent years, and is believed to have thousands of operatives in the country in an effort to help along the regime of President Bashar Assad.

For Israel, Iranian presence so close to its northern border poses a major threat to the Jewish state.

While the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) regretted the September downing incident, a statement by the IDF on Twitter held the Assad regime, "whose military shot down the Russian plane," fully responsible for the incident.

As a rare admission of Israeli action inside Syria, this statement testified to the understanding that this incident could serve as a potential game-changer.

Russian President Vladimir Putin initially adopted a conciliatory attitude in the immediate aftermath of the incident, despite harsher response from defense officials in Moscow.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had boasted of his close relationship with Putin, is now feeling the freezing temperature from the Russian leader.

Israeli media reported that Netanyahu's office has been trying to schedule a meeting with Putin after the incident, but to no avail.

Two weeks ago, the two leaders held a hasty meeting at the sideline of the Armistice Day commemoration events in Paris, but it was hardly what Netanyahu had hoped for.

Nevertheless, it appears that Israel has significantly reduced its activity over Syrian airspace since the incident, as what local media anonymously quoted defense officials as saying on several occasions.

"Putin has not granted the formal meeting that Netanyahu repeatedly said was about to occur. The Israeli airstrikes are not going on at anywhere near the frequency as they did previously," said Gideon Remez, a researcher of the Truman Institute at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

"Either Israel has found other ways to combat Iranian forces in Syria or Israel has simply acquiesced to it, for the time being, without risking an all-out clash with the Russian forces in Syria," Remez explained.

Since 2015, Russia has been heavily involved in the Syrian civil war, working to consolidate Assad's hold on the country. Thousands of Russian military personnel have been sent to the soil.

Russia and Israel have established a deconfliction system meant to prevent such incidents in the crowded airspace in Syria, as the long-existing status quo, which allows for Israeli airstrikes against Iranian targets, was based on the mutual interests.

In addition, the verbal agreements between Putin and Netanyahu also included a Russian guarantee to not supply the Syrian army with the more sophisticated S-300 air defense system, as such system would hamper the freedom of movement of the Israeli air force in Syrian airspace, according to Dina Lisnyansky of the Political Studies Department at the Bar Ilan University.

However, the convergence of Israeli-Russian interests is now gone, and the downing of the Russian plane became the perfect excuse for Russia to supply the system to Assad's army.

In fact, Iran now shares more common ground with Russia than Israel.

"If Israel takes poke at Iran now, it will not be in Syria," Remez said. "The risk is enormous. This will not happen in the foreseeable future."

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