Putin pushes on while Israel watches

Once again the world’s attention is on Ukraine and the Israeli media is no different. The papers watch every move that Russia’s President Putin makes and ponder what the West’s reaction will be.

Haaretz goes for a straight headline, “Despite Obama’s warnings, Russia sends soldiers and controls the Crimean Peninsula.” The paper dutifully recounts the latest updates, including an analysis by Anshel Pfeffer, who calls it “An invasion by invitation.” Pfeffer points out the West doesn’t have a lot of leverage against Russia aside from freezing assets of Russian oligarchs that are held in Western banks. But there is one ace in the hole – Syria. Lifting the restrictions on sending advanced weaponry to the Syrian rebels, Pfeffer believes, may be the only way the West can effectively strike back at Russia.

Israel Hayom’s Boaz Bismuth disagrees slightly with Pfeffer, as he thinks the West has more options than it thinks. But ultimately it’s Putin alone on this world stage who is making the decisions. Despite America’s ability to send the 6th fleet to the region, or granting financial assistance to Ukraine, in the end the only real threat that is being talked about is a boycott of Russia at the G-8 conference this June in Sochi.

Bismuth is critical of President Obama’s lack of immediate decisions. “Eventually maybe Obama will decide to do something — but in the meantime Putin sings solo in Russian, while John Kerry relaxes and says don’t expect Rocky IV.”

Yedioth Ahronoth calls the whole situation a “Russian invasion” and gives four pages of coverage to the crisis (with the Yedioth writers taking full advantage of the crisis to riff on their favorite clichés like “The Empire Strikes Back,” “The Russians are coming,” “From Russia, without love”). Aside from the puns, the paper offers the opinions of two Ukrainian-born Israelis, one pro-Russian invasion and one against it.

Rina Greenberg says that she’s for the Russian invasion because “a civil war in a country with nonconventional weapons is very serious and dangerous.” She says the only option is for “Russia to enter and settle things down.”

On the other side is Dimitry Ordelov who thinks the Ukrainian people need to decide their fate, not the Russian military. “The heroes of the revolution never dreamed that the political instability would threaten the territorial integrity of the country,” he writes. While he concedes the possibility that Ukraine might split into two countries, that should be for the people alone to decide.

Maariv takes a slightly different view of the whole situation, writing that Putin’s goal is to conquer Ukraine without firing a shot. Matan Drori writes that the real intention of the Russian moves over the past couple days has been to send a message to America and Europe to stop interfering in Kiev. Drori also reminds the readers that despite the rhetoric, Russia and Ukraine are still very much intertwined economically and that despite the best intentions of the Europeans and Americans, Russia will always interfere in Ukraine.

Million man march

While the world is on edge about the situation in Ukraine, a little closer to home the papers are worried about a massive demonstration by the ultra-Orthodox community against the draft law that is set to take place in Jerusalem today. Israel Hayom predicts that up to one million demonstrators might show up at the entrance to the city, shutting it off from the rest of the country. The paper says it is part protest, part prayer session to protest the bill for draft equality, which would send draft dodgers to jail.

In the world of peace talks, Maariv reports that the White House is considering publishing a framework agreement even if both sides don’t agree with it. John Kerry has been pushing to publish the agreement by the end of March. “There are decisions being made in the government right now,” a government source told the paper. “Whether to go along with it or refuse it. The problem is there isn’t a Plan B and if both sides reject the plan, everything will blow up.”

Yedioth echoes the Maariv report, noting Netanyahu is set to meet with Obama on Monday in Washington. The paper reports that the prime minister doesn’t expect to be able to close the gaps with the Obama administration about a framework agreement. Another complicating factor is the timing of the PM’s visit, as sources expect Obama to be preoccupied by the situation in Ukraine.

Finally, in the opinion pages, Haaretz’s editorial takes to task the Israeli government’s non-response on Uganda’s anti-homosexual law. While the American government quickly condemned the law and the World Bank froze aid to the country, Israel remained silent. The paper blames the government’s silence on economic ties (including weapons contracts) and the fact that Uganda is the destination for Israel to expel asylum seekers. “This is how Israel has always acted,” the paper writes. “All principles and values bow to its interests.” Instead, Israel should stand up for its values and announce that, in light of the law, Israel will reexamine its ties to Uganda. “Even realpolitik has its boundaries.”