Israel indignant Lukashenka’s ties with Ahmadinejad
- 20.11.2009, 11:47
Israeli authorities state that only Sudan, Venezuela and Belarus with Iranian president now.
Israeli tourism minister Stas Misezhnikov has recently returned to Israel from his trip to Latin America. He answered questions of NEWSru.co.il, telling about the results of the trip to Brazil and Argentina, and sharing the most vivid impressions.
Telling about the visit to Brazil, the minister expressed discontent over the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to this country.
“On November 15 I witnessed a huge demonstration against Ahmadinejad’s visit to Brazil, organized by Evangelical Christians and Jews. Ahmadinejad has no future, he is in complete isolation… the Brazilian President has told us that he receives Ahmadinejad as, according to him, one should speak primarily with enemies, not with friends. Otherwise Ahmadinejad’s interlocutors would be only leaders of Syria, Belarus and Venezuela. If he is not received by other countries, he would be like a dog held on a leash, which only gets berserk and bites because of that.
At the same time, it is clear for Brazilians and Argentineans that it is more beneficial to deal with Israel, as Israel represents new world outlook, the new world, which united the civilized countries, including the US and the EU. Iran can represent only itself and a few terrorist organisations. But as Venezuela and Ecuador’s influence is rather strong in Latin America, Brazilian President is trying to put up a good front and says that meetings with Ahmadinejad are necessary in order to try to influence his world outlook.
As charter97.org informed earlier, telling about Belarus and its political leader, Israeli mass media emphasized ties of the former Soviet republic with Sudan, Iraq and Iran, which has become a reason for political isolation of this country from the US and the European Union. Thus, in “Haaretz” newspaper of May 26, 2009 it was noted that over the recent months considerably improvement of relations between Minsk and the EU has taken place, however the US still list Belarus among the rogue countries.
Israeli mass media also remind that more than a year ago an emotional statement of Lukashenka caused tensions between Israel and Belarus. In particular, “dictator-antisemite” stated that “Jews turned Babrujsk into a pigsty”. After that the Israeli ambassador was recalled to Jerusalem for consultations. In a few weeks through a special envoy Lukashenka made an apology for the scandalous statement, the dispute was patched up, and the Israeli Ambassador returned to Minsk.
At the same time, reports about demolition of synagogues in Belarus still appear in the press. Thus, recently local authorities in Lyuban destroyed a wooden synagogue, despite of the protests of local dwellers. Before that Yakov Gutman, the Chairman of the World Association of Belarusian Jewry, called upon Alyaksandr Lukashenka to stop destroying of the synagogue of the beginning of the 20t century in the town of Lyuban Minsk region immediately. However, despite of that, the synagogue was destroyed.