Israel leads secret talks as mediator and Bennett could travel to Kiev if Ukraine-Russia dialogue progresses

Israeli diplomacy has been active in recent weeks. Naftali Bennett, Israeli Prime Minister, has constant meetings and telephone conversations with the main actors in the conflict that has Europe in absolute tension and is devastating Ukraine. The invasion ordered by Vladimir Putin on February 24 has set off the alarms of NATO, which strengthened its eastern border as it has not happened since Cold War times. But it is also leaving an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in which millions of people had to flee the country in the face of the siege of bombs against civilians in major cities.

In constant talks with Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky, Bennett tries to be a mediator between the two sides to find a path to a permanent ceasefire. And in what would be a high-stakes move, Israeli government sources assured NBC News that the prime minister could even travel to Kiev to hold a meeting with the Ukrainian leader. “Bennett would also be willing to travel to besieged Kiev, if necessary, once the talks have reached a serious level, according to a report confirmed by a spokeswoman for her office,” the US news network reported.

Ukraine has also highlighted Israel's role as mediator in the conflict through its ambassador Yevgen Korniychuk. The diplomat has separately said that the Jewish roots of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy give him a special emotional bond with Israel. For his part, Zvi Magen - a former Israeli ambassador to Ukraine and Russia - revealed that Putin asked Israel to be an interlocutor because he is “accepted by the international community” and, according to the Russian despot's vision, “he is not part of an anti-Russian bloc.”

Israel's advantage is that it maintains a correct and direct relationship with Moscow and that it also has a historical and close link with the United States, without being part of NATO, a military body that Putin sees as an enemy of Russia. Thus, it is the most conducive channel for building bridges between Washington and the Kremlin. That would differentiate Bennett from another actor seeking to establish itself as a mediator: the Beijing regime, which has its own hidden interests in contention.

In this regard, Michal Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, pointed out that during his years in the US capital (2009-2013) Israel was known as an accepted channel for Kremlin messages. “Washington officials frequently asked me about Putin's thinking and politics, because Israel was much better communicated with Putin than the United States,” he told NBC News, adding: “Israel negotiated with the Russians an agreement in which the Russians withdrew much of Assad's chemical arsenal from Syria. We did that. We resolved that conflict. We didn't solve it very well, because Assad then used chemical weapons again. We were able to do it because we had an open channel with Putin.”

The head of the presidential cabinet of Ukraine, Andrei Yermak, said that he considers the city of Jerusalem as one of the “priority” places for a forthcoming meeting between Ukraine and Russia in the framework of the peace talks between the two nations. “We also consider Jerusalem to be one of the priority locations for the future meeting of Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky with Russian President Vladimir Putin,” Yermak said during a conversation with Israeli media.

In this regard, he welcomed the mediation of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who has spoken with the Ukrainian president again, and said that the country could be a guarantor of Ukrainian security, as reported by the Israeli newspaper The Times of Israel. Speaking to Israeli journalists via Zoom, Yermak asserted that Ukrainian officials “are impressed by how deeply aware of the situation Israeli officials and Prime Minister Bennett, in particular, are.

Censorship in China

The Chinese regime led by Xi Jinping censored a document that analyzed Russia's invasion of Ukraine and referred to the possible advantages that Beijing could gain from becoming the mediator that managed to bring positions between the two belligerent nations closer together achieving a definitive ceasefire. The blockade was announced by the Financial Times in its edition this Thursday in an article in which it exposes the different positions being debated within the central power of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“The think-tank China Strategy, a website backed by Beijing academics, argued that the conflict creates a strategic opportunity for China. 'The longer the fighting continues, the more they will exhaust Europe, the United States and Russia, and in general this benefits China, 'said the article, which has been withdrawn without explanation. Its authors argued that China should stay out of the war and that it could emerge as a mediator or even as a ruler in a new order,” the newspaper notes in a note signed by Kathrin Hille.

China has maintained an ambiguous position - which some analysts believe is favorable to the Kremlin - regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine. At first he spoke of the importance of respecting the sovereignties of nations, including Ukrainian sovereignties, although he avoided condemning Moscow's brutalities in the neighboring country. Beijing insists that it maintains neutrality in the face of conflict.

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