wtmartinaggie said:
Kind of an ancillary risk, not invalid but not close to the main issue with the Russo/Israeli relationship... but the real issue is that Israel has an extremely close relationship with Russia.
1 in 9 Israeli residents have direct ties to Russia via dual citizenship or residency. There's an office in Russia the expedites the movement of people between the two countries Russia has said it will 100% close if they get off on the wrong side of the fence. There's also a significant opportunity for them to have social unrest with the significant number of Russian-speakers in the country.
There's also risk of sharing nuclear secrets. Russia sharing nuclear secrets with Iran will start a war between Israel and Iran because Israel will attack before proliferation is allowed to happen. In the current geopolitical environment that leads to a large scale ground war in the ME.
This relationship with Russia has done a great job of keeping Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Eqypt at bay. If that relationship sours the region gets more dangerous immediately.
excellent points.
It may be that the real reason is what you alluded to, that Putin will slam the gates shut of emigration for all Russians, and that would trap 500,000 Jewish Russians inside the country and not allow them to get to Israel.
Or, it could be that the Russians have threatened to unleash Iran in Syria, or Hezbullah in Lebanon.
it's a real life Game of Thrones over there.