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Natan Sharansky Discusses Putin and Trump
(Jerusalem Post) Noa Amouyal - As far as Natan Sharansky is concerned, walking away from heading the Jewish Agency for Israel after nine years is not an end. "I'm not stepping down from anything. I'm changing one title to another. After all, from 1982, for 36 years, I've being doing the same thing, strengthening the connection between Jews and the State of Israel," he said. "If there's a place where the warmness of Russian-Israeli relations is proved, it is Syria," Sharansky noted. "Putin gave a green light to [Israel to] have the broadest operations in Syrian skies in 45 years. The fact that we have the relative freedom to act against Hizbullah and Iran is extremely important." "I was an activist of two movements; of human rights in the Soviet Union and of the Jewish movement. As a Jewish activist, I can say a lot of good things about Putin. As an activist of the human rights movement, I can say nothing good about Putin. But it is unique that in a thousand years of Russian history, the leader of Russia is not anti-Semitic. On the other hand, he's not a democrat, and yet the attitude toward Israel is good, but he sees it as a Russian-speaking Jewish country." Regarding U.S. President Trump, Sharansky said, "Now there is a president who made it very clear, and said to the Palestinians, 'If you are not going to negotiate peace, we are not going to support you.' After he said that, I though, my God, it's so elementary, it's so obvious. Why should anyone in the world be prepared to pay (them) large sums of money if they're not prepared to negotiate peace? He said it and he's absolutely right."