Naftali Bennett says he accepted phone apology after Russian foreign minister claimed Hitler had Jewish origins
\n LONDON
\nVladimir Putin has apologised to the Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett, for his foreign minister\u2019s claims that Adolf Hitler had Jewish blood, Israel has said.
\nBennett said he had accepted the apology from Putin, a rare concession from the Kremlin leader and a strong rebuke of his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. Putin may have feared that Israel could change its neutral stance on Russia\u2019s invasion and join in sanctions and provisions of lethal aid to Ukraine.
\nLavrov claimed this week in an interview that Hitler \u201chad Jewish blood\u201d and that \u201cthe most rabid antisemites tend to be Jews\u201d. The incendiary remarks sparked outrage in Israel.
\nAn Israeli account of the call on Thursday said that the two \u201cdiscussed Russian foreign minister Lavrov\u2019s remarks. The prime minister accepted President Putin\u2019s apology for Lavrov\u2019s remarks and thanked him for clarifying his attitude towards the Jewish people and the memory of the Holocaust.\u201d
\nRussia\u2019s readout of the phone call made no mention of the apology. It said that Putin and Bennett had a \u201cthorough exchange of views on the situation in Ukraine\u201d and \u201cstressed the special importance\u201d of the Victory Day holiday set for 9 May, as well as the importance of \u201ccarefully preserving the historical truth about the events of those years and honouring the memory of all the fallen, including the victims of the Holocaust\u201d.
\nBennett also said he asked Putin to consider allowing the evacuation of the besieged Azovstal steelworks in the Ukrainian port of Mariupol. The Israeli prime minister said he made the request after an earlier conversation with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and that Putin had promised to set up a corridor for civilian evacuation.
\nThe phone call followed a diplomatic row over Lavrov\u2019s remarks that Israeli media said had threatened to upset Israel\u2019s careful stance on the Russian invasion.
\nOn Monday, Israel summoned Russia\u2019s ambassador, with the Israeli foreign minister, Yair Lapid, calling Lavrov\u2019s remarks \u201cunforgivable and outrageous \u2026 as well as a terrible historical error\u201d. Lapid wrote: \u201cJews did not murder themselves in the Holocaust. The lowest level of racism against Jews is to accuse Jews themselves of antisemitism.\u201d
\nOn Tuesday, Russia\u2019s foreign ministry doubled down, accusing Lapid of \u201cantihistorical\u201d remarks about the Holocaust that \u201clargely explain the course of the current Israeli government in supporting the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv\u201d.
\n\u201cUnfortunately, history knows tragic examples of Jewish cooperation with the Nazis,\u201d the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
\nSince the war broke out, Israel has set up a field hospital in western Ukraine, provided humanitarian supplies, and protective vests and helmets for the Ukrainian army. It has so far refrained from sending more substantial military aid or imposing sanctions on Russia. Israel has a delicate relationship with Russia, as both have military interests in Syria.
\nIsrael remains one of the few western countries willing to engage with Russia, and Putin has expended considerable political capital in his two decades as the Kremlin leader to cultivate Israel as an ally.
\nMeanwhile, another close ally, Alexander Lukashenko, appeared to criticise the Russian war as he said he didn\u2019t expect the 10-week-old conflict to \u201cdrag on this way\u201d.
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\nIn an interview with the Associated Press, Lukashenko said: \u201cI feel like this operation has dragged on.\u201d
\nHe also spoke out against the potential use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine, a prospect that has been discussed in Russian media as the conflict appears to have come to a deadlock.
\nLukashenko said using nuclear weapons in Ukraine was \u201cunacceptable because it\u2019s right next to us \u2013 we are not across the ocean like the United States.\u201d
\n\u201cIt is also unacceptable because it might knock our terrestrial ball flying off the orbit to who knows where,\u201d he said. \u201cWhether or not Russia is capable of that is a question you need to ask the Russian leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Naftali Bennett says he accepted phone apology after Russian foreign minister claimed Hitler had Jewish origins LONDON Vladimir Putin has apologised to the Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett, for his foreign minister\u2019s claims that Adolf Hitler had Jewish blood, Israel has said. Bennett said he had accepted the apology from Putin, a rare concession from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258990,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5381,3432,1430,633],"class_list":{"0":"post-258970","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-apologises","9":"tag-foreign-minister","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-vladimir-putin"},"yoast_head":"\n