MOSCOW — Russian media have been interested in following the developments of the "Al-Aqsa Flood" battle since its first day, which has often been the most prominent topic, marking the first time that coverage of the Ukrainian war in the Russian media has declined in favor of an external topic.
While the official position overshadowed the formulation of the editorial policy of newsrooms and editorial boards of the media and official channels, a certain margin that was prominent in this coverage was left open to criticize Western policies towards the Palestinian issue and the way Western media covered Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, which Russian media saw as "clearly biased towards Israel."
vestige
It is noteworthy that Israel's position on the Ukrainian war and the West's bias towards Tel Aviv have had an impact on the approach of many Russian media to the recent developments in the Palestinian territories and Israel.
The newspaper "Izvestia" published an interview with the head of the Russian delegation to the negotiations in Vienna, on military security and arms control, Konstantin Gavrilov, in which he said, "The aid that the United States intends to provide to support Ukraine may go to the Jewish state, and that for Russia, this will be a positive element, as the Kiev regime will not be able to survive for a long time without the support of the West."
"This does not mean that the West will abandon the Ukrainians, but the volume of aid will decrease," he said, adding that Abrams' planes are now likely to go to Israel instead of Kiev.
Gevorg Mirzoyan: While Russia's official position was anticipating, public opinion chose to support the Palestinians (Reuters)
Indirect support
Political writer Yevgeny Diomin published an article on the Aura website. Rowe said Putin's assertion in his remarks during the meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Moscow's support for the establishment of a Palestinian state is "indirect support for the Palestinians in the war with Israel," according to Diomin.
Regional affairs analyst Gevorgh Mirzoyan said in an article on the Regnum website that the official Russian position was characterized by anticipation, caution and a call to sit behind the negotiating table, while Russian public opinion chose to support the Palestinians.
Opinion polls indicate that a majority of Russians support Hamas and the Palestinians in general in this conflict, and wish Israel would be defeated.
Mirzoyan believes that the position of the Russian street is "emotional", and that it is caused by the most prominent reasons: Israel's practice of apartheid policy against the Palestinians, Tel Aviv's provision of weapons and trainers to Kiev, lack of gratitude for the role of the Russians in eliminating Nazism, as well as not doing anything to condemn neo-Nazism in Ukraine, as he put it.
Russian writer: Opinion polls indicate that the majority of Russians wish to defeat Israel (Anatolia)
De-escalation
The newspaper "Kommersant" highlighted the possible Russian role in the ongoing conflict, and published an interview with academic Dmitry Drize in which he pointed to "the existence of a serious and dangerous movement in the Middle East," promising that the Russian role at the present time will be "focused on preventing the process of escalating the conflict, and the entry of other parties to it, such as Iran and the Western alliance."
Drizze asserts in the same newspaper that the Middle East is now more important to the West, and that this will not affect the continuation of Western aid to Kiev, which is taxes taken from profits from the employment of frozen Russian assets.
Drize adds that the presence of Russian forces in Syria will take on another character, if Moscow's main ally in the region, Bashar al-Assad, is exposed to new challenges if the confrontation between Damascus and Tel Aviv escalates into a direct clash.
In the context of its coverage of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, TASS interviewed Grigory Lukyanov, a researcher at the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who stressed that Israel's preoccupation with resolving the Gaza Strip issue will reduce the degree of Israeli support for Ukraine.
Review
Lukyanov stressed that Benjamin Netanyahu's government's policy of providing support and assistance to Kiev — though not on a large scale — would be revised to benefit Israel's own interests.
NewsEve published an article attributed to an unnamed political analyst, in which he said that Israel "has absolute freedom of response because the brutality shown by Hamas fighters is shooting themselves in the feet, and world public opinion is on the side of the Israelis, creating the conditions necessary to completely defeat Hamas and other Palestinian factions."
The US aircraft carrier group led by USS Gerald R. Ford, now heading to the eastern Mediterranean, "will force Syria and Hezbollah to think twice about whether to participate in an attack on Israel," the spokesman said.
Diomin: Putin's assertion of support for Palestinian statehood is indirect support for Palestinians in war with Israel (Reuters)
campaign
The Gri Zone website, which is classified as close to the Wagner Group, launched a campaign against Tel Aviv, focusing on publishing images showing destruction and civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip.
The same website said, among other things, that "the founder of the Alpha Group, the Jew Michael Friedman, who left Russia after the start of the military operation in Ukraine and went to the United Kingdom, and later to Israel, returned yesterday to Moscow due to the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and the Gaza Strip."
Grey Zone claimed that Friedman condemned the Russian war in Ukraine and launched through his Alpha Bank an application to support Ukrainian forces, which he advocated on the bank's social networks.
Friedman and his longtime Jewish partner, Peter Avin, donated 150 million euros to the Ukrainian Armed Forces Relief Fund.