Russia has invited over a dozen Palestinian factions to Moscow at the end of February for a summit aimed at producing a unified front as Hamas struggles to survive in the face of an Israeli counteroffensive following the October 7 terror attack.
The Jerusalem Post reported Monday:
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said over the weekend that Russia had invited Palestinian factions to meet in Moscow, according to Al-Ain media in the UAE. Russia’s state news TASS said it could take place from February 29 to March 2. The invitation is the latest Russian move to try to increase its influence in the wake of the October 7 attack on Israel. Moscow hosted a Hamas delegation in October and Hamas has sought to do outreach to Moscow.
…
According to Russian state media TASS, Moscow has invited up to 14 Palestinian groups to attend. These include those that are members of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and Moscow has reached out to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
…
Hamas has done outreach to Russia in the wake of the October 7 attack. Moscow has also not condemned the massacre and it appears Moscow saw October 7 as a welcome distraction from the war in Ukraine. The war in Gaza has required similar types of 155mm shells the Ukrainians use, and the focus on Gaza means that Russia has been able to slowly build up its forces in Donetsk, possibly for a spring offensive. Ukraine had to withdraw from a key town near Donetsk over the weekend, and reports say the Ukrainians are outnumbered and outgunned on the front.
Russia appears to be reprising the role that the Soviet Union played during the Cold War, when it provided arms, funding, and ideological support to anti-Israel terrorist groups, including the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and to Arab states.
Anti-Israel sentiment appears to go hand-in-hand with pro-Russia sentiment among developing nations. Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, or Lula, compared Israel’s response to Hamas to the Holocaust — then defended Russia over the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Likewise, South Africa, which has led the charge against Israel at the International Court of Justice, has also taken a pro-Russia stance in the Ukraine war, refusing to condemn the Russian occupation of Ukrainian lands.
“No countries should have diplomatic relations with Hamas, just as no country should have diplomatic relations with ISIS,” said Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy on Monday, saying that Russia and other countries should shun Palestinian terrorists.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.