A dispute about a ship full of stolen grain has lifted the veil on a geopolitical reality that has persisted for years but is rarely mentioned in western capitals or noticed by western media: the curiously friendly relationship between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took to X to complain that a Panama-flagged ship was preparing to unload 25,000 tonnes of wheat and barley stolen from his country in Haifa, Israel. An investigation by Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz suggests the Panormitis was at least the fifth ship so far this year to carry grain taken from occupied Ukraine to Israel.
“In any normal country, purchasing stolen goods is an act that entails legal liability,” Zelenskyy wrote. "This is not — and cannot be — legitimate business. The Israeli authorities cannot be unaware of which ships are arriving at the country’s ports and what cargo they are carrying.”
Ukraine has shown a willingness to glaze anyone who might help them.
As far as why Israel has support, that probably has a lot to do with external interests in keeping the middle east divided. They want to promote enough competition in the region to prevent a global superpower from emerging, and they’d prefer to have to biggest regional power be as non Muslim as possible. If a middle eastern power or alliance could control most of the middle east, it would be one of if not the most powerful entity on earth. Israel promotes the chaos that prevents an Islamic alliance that many middle eastern powers have toyed with over the past century. An explicitly non Muslim ethnostate would never join such efforts, and would likely be perpetually outnumbered and unable to become that middle eastern superpower themselves.