Naftali Bennett, the Prime Minister of Israel towards the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, says the West “blocked” a ceasefire he was helping to broker early in the war.
Bennett attempted to give a fair hearing to this alleged move by the West to block a ceasefire, noting the “downside[s] of the war going on” including the casualties on both sides, rising energy costs, impact on food exports to the Middle East — Ukraine and Russia both being major food producers — and the potential of a renewed migrant crisis in Europe if Africa, for example, is gripped by hunger, but conceding that Western governments may have other “legitimate” considerations.
“I have one claim, I claim there was a good chance of reaching a ceasefire, had they not curbed it,” Bennett said, while conceding that he could not say for sure whether they will prove to have been right or wrong to have done so over the long term: “Maybe [a ceasefire] would have conveyed the wrong message to other countries.”
“As early as 200 years ago they didn’t want France and Britain there: ‘Don’t come here.’ And to a degree that’s Putin’s perception: ‘Don’t come here, this is my backyard,'” he explained. “He likes Jews very much. He had Jewish neighbours who raised him as a kid,” Bennett said, going on to reference a story about the Russian leader buying an apartment for a former teacher of his who now lives in Israel.The Israeli also said that Putin had been implacably opposed to meeting with Zelensky when he passed on a request from the Ukrainian for a
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