Love him or hate him, Russian President Vladimir Putin's military intervention in Syria unquestionably upended Middle Eastern politics. Putin supported Syrian President Bashar Assad, established several military bases in Syria, created a de-facto Russian-Shiite axis, confronted Turkey and forced the West to re-engage with him.
While all the region's major players feel the influence of Russia's military campaign, one country overlooked by commentators analyzing Russia's Syrian campaign is Israel. Israel's interests vis-a-vis Russia run wide and deep, and are impossible for Jerusalem to ignore.
The history of the Israeli-Russian relationship is complicated, to say the least. The Soviet Union supported the creation of Israel in 1948, but then tilted toward the Arab world in the early 1960s and even threatened to attack Israel in both the 1967 Six Day War and 1973 Yom Kippur War.
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