Although Vladimir Putin has aligned himself with a nationalist and authoritarian Russian political tradition that more often than not has been entangled with anti-Semitism, and has also sought to repair the reputation of Communist anti-Semites like Stalin, he has shown few if any indications of personal animus toward Jews. To the contrary, he has made a point of cultivating good relations with Jewish leaders where possible. But since the war with Ukraine began in 2014, state-sponsored anti-Semitism has begun to reemerge from the margins. Ben Cohen discusses this resurgence with the historian Ksenia Krimer:

Jews are [often] presented [by state-sponsored media] as exercising a sinister, unaccountable power. Krimer quoted [the] instance, . . . from 2016, when Maria Zakharova—now the spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry—declared on a TV chat show that to understand why Donald Trump won the election that year, “you have to talk to the Jews, naturally.” Adopting a faux Brooklyn accent, she added: “They told me: ‘Marochka [a Russian diminutive for Maria], you understand, of course, we’ll donate to [Hillary] Clinton. But we’ll donate twice as much to the Republicans.’ That was it! The matter was settled, for me personally.”

The host of that show, the Kremlin loyalist Vladimir Solovyov, has continued to push anti-Semitic themes in his output, Krimer said. In one episode following the March 2022 massacre of hundreds of civilians by Russian forces in the Ukrainian city of Bucha, Solovyov—who acknowledges his Jewish origins and has even accused Ukrainian “neo-Nazis” of trying to assassinate him—nevertheless ranted against journalists and pundits with Jewish names, [calling them] agents of “Russophobia” who had failed to show genuine gratitude to the Russian liberators of Nazi concentration camps in the closing stages of World War II.

A soldier’s manual published in October 2022 with the approval of the Russian Ministry of Defense attempted to justify the invasion to those tasked with carrying it out by claiming that “all power [in Ukraine] is concentrated in the hands of citizens of Israel, the United States, and the United Kingdom. They orchestrated the genocide of the native inhabitants. . . . Today, all of us, Russian Orthodox and Muslims, Buddhists and shamanists, are fighting against Ukrainian nationalism and the global Satanism that supports it.”

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.