Only a miracle can prevent the closure of the activity of the Jewish Agency in Russia.
Contrary to our speculations, the Russian move to cut off the encouragement of aliyah from Russia has already begun, and the order to carry it out was given at the highest level.
This is not an accidental whim, but a Russian initiative that is directly derived from the general world view of the Kremlin leadership.
For two decades of his rule, Russian President Putin pursued one goal - to return his country to the status of a superpower, and to challenge the world order that was formed following the defeat of the USSR in the Cold War. Everything was subordinated to this goal, and all means were put in place to achieve it. Sources Russia's energy rich went to the West Seven in order to link it to Russia with cables of dependence. The generous receipts from the sale of oil and gas were channeled to accumulate military strength, and in part were transferred to the population, so that the gradual denial of freedoms would pass without shocks and mass protests.
At the end of 20 years of careful preparations, Putin decided that the conditions for the great civilizational clash were ripe.
With the ascension to power in the Western countries of leaders, who seemed to him to be weak and lax (led by US President Joe Biden), the gap fell. The Russian army invaded Ukraine in an attempt to quickly surrender and move westward.
In Russia, they recognized the weakness of the West and went to war in Ukraine, photo: Getty Images
For all its brutality, the ongoing war in Ukraine is only the tip of the iceberg.
Underneath it, other tremendous changes are taking place, which did not really interest the public in the free world in general, and in Israel in particular, as long as they did not have a direct impact on us, for example in the area of immigration.
These changes are turning Russia more and more into a mobilized dictatorship reminiscent of the USSR, and the fall of a new iron curtain, which will imprison its inhabitants behind it, is only a matter of time.
A dictatorship simply cannot allow organizations like the Jewish Agency to operate freely in its domain.
Its internal logic demands the extermination of every vestige of freedom, especially if it is the freedom to shape a Jewish identity or to leave Russia in favor of Israel, mercifully.
What appears to us as immigration and return to the homeland, appears to Putin as a plot to take from Russia its human capital: the programmers, the entrepreneurs, and yes - the potential soldiers.
Therefore, the Jewish Agency will not be the only Jewish organization that will be required to stop its activities in Russia.
Immediately after it, other organizations will be closed, and probably also Israeli cultural centers, which are engaged in spreading information about Israel and teaching Hebrew.
But this is just the trailer.
By choosing a confrontation with the free world, Putin set his country on the path of escalation with Israel, and on the way to the inevitable conflict, most of the achievements, built with great effort over 30 years of relations, are expected to be gradually undone.
Only a miracle can stop this: if the Russians come to their senses and refrain from further escalation until a new government is established, perhaps it will still be able to undo the evil of the decree.
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