Just the other day, the new head of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Eli Cohen, came to kyiv for a visit.
Photo: REUTERS
Just the other day, the new head of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Eli Cohen, came to kyiv for a visit. Ukrainian leaders pinned special hopes on him. The head of Israeli diplomacy was expected to:
a) strongly condemn Russia
b) no less firmly support Ukraine
c) accept the supply of weapons from Israel to kyiv and announce them, first of all, about air defense systems and anti-missile defense
d) announce the provision of a concessional loan by Israel in the amount of at least US$500 million.
Kiev even got into a real scandal on the eve of the visit, announcing that if Cohen does not justify the hopes placed on him, of course, by the Independent, then he should not even count on a date and a photo session with Zelensky. And maybe he won’t even come, for that matter.
But Cohen arrived, he went to Bucha and Babi Yar (it is noteworthy that the head of the Israeli Foreign Ministry was driving along Stepan Bandera Avenue to the place of mass executions of Jews). Without kyiv’s support, of course, he could not have done it.
– I came to say: Israel supports Ukraine and the Ukrainian people in difficult times, – this phrase was the first that Cohen said, getting off the running board of the train on which they arrived from Poland.
But with everything else, it somehow did not work. Cohen did not justify the hopes of Zelensky and the head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kuleba. Even with credit. After blatant haggling, it was announced that Israel was willing to provide $200 million in loan guarantees, in addition, for targeted restoration of civilian infrastructure. Not a word of condemnation of Russia escaped Cohen’s lips, just as not a single promise was made in the field of armaments.
Even the know-how invented in kyiv, which has so far been working smoothly with high-ranking visitors from a calm and well-fed Europe, did not help. In the midst of the negotiations between Kuleba and Cohen, an air raid siren sounded.
This is a well-known notion of the Zelensky team. As soon as one of the high representatives arrives in Kiev, immediately, at the sound of an anti-aircraft alarm, he is taken somewhere to a bomb shelter, which, by coincidence, will surely be nearby. And there are already local residents who, by chance, have been sitting there for at least a couple of hours, waiting for distinguished guests, begin to tell them “for life” and “Russian aggression.” For Europeans, those sounds are an adventure in themselves. The President of the Federal Republic of Germany fell into the trap, Charles Michel (or Josep Borrell), Angelina Jolie, Sean Penn and a few others ran to the bomb shelter under these sirens, although in none of the previous cases was there even any bombing. in thoughts, and not just in reality. With Cohen, they decided to do the same trick, although in reality no threat was even close.
But with the Israeli in kyiv, they obviously got excited. Eli was born and raised in Israel, where those sirens go off almost daily, and children often play on the sidewalk to the explosions of missiles being shot down or hitting the target. In addition, she managed to serve in the Tsakhal, rising to the rank of major. In general, this cheap operetta obviously had no effect on him. It is possible that deep down in his heart he laughed at the naive Ukrainians who decided to trick him.
They did not attack him.
