Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett surprised the international community last week when it was revealed that he had taken an clandestine trip to Moscow in order to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in an apparent peacemaking effort. According to sources, Bennett had apprised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelesky and French President Emmanuel Macron of his trip to Moscow before it had become public knowledge. After 3 hours of deliberations in the Kremlin, Bennett then traveled to Germany to meet with Chancellor Olaf Scholz to discuss the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war among other issues.
Bennett's coincided with on-going ceasefire talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials in the last couple of weeks. The confluence of those diplomatic engagements resulted in the first tangible offer from Russia to conclude the conflict when Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declared that Putin offered to end the war if Ukraine if they fulfilled 4 conditions. According to Peskov, the terms offered by Putin were
- the end of any military action against Russia,
- recognition of Crimea as Russian territory,
- the acknowledgement of the sovereignty of the Luhansk and Donetsk people's republics, and
- amending Ukraine's constitution to solidify their standing as a neutral state serving as a buffer between Russia and NATO member states in eastern Europe.
Ukraine and the international community balked at Putin's supposed olive branch, citing the enormous secession of territory to Russia as being unfathomable. In the days of continued bloodshed since the initial peace terms were put on the table, Bennett has surprisingly departed from the sentiment echoed by that international response. According to the Times of Israel, the Jerusalem Post and Ukrainian sources, the Israeli Prime Minister spoke with Zelensky again on Tuesday and advised the Ukrainian President to agree to the terms offered by Putin. The Prime Minister’s Office denied the claim.
Sources breaking this news from Ukraine stated that Bennett initiated the phone call with Zelensky in which he pleaded for him, saying "If I were you, I would think about the lives of my people and take the offer."
Zelensky did not take well to the proposal, responding with a brief "I hear you."
[Doug here: Those terms of surrender are terms exactly what Putin has been asking for all along. This entire invasion was entirely unnecessary except for all the brain dead politicians and Nato idiots. The West is beyond salvage!]
I'm infinitely more ignorant than you on the Crimea issue and as to whether or not Zelensky should have just let Crimea go, but your blog post goes to show everyone that there was always more to this war than the mainstream media (I'm including Fox) was letting on. We can't even question of Zelensky did anything remotely wrong or else we're the new Nazis.
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