Israel's Holocaust museum is so dependent on a Russian oligarch that it wants to protect him from...

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/02/israel-russia-oligarch-yad-vashem-ukraine/

No paywall
https://archive.ph/9g8Rl

TEL AVIV — Yad Vashem, Israel’s official Holocaust memorial and museum, is embroiled in controversy after attempting to intervene in planned sanctions against Israeli Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, owner of the Chelsea Premier League soccer team and a longtime supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In a letter to U.S. Ambassador Tom Nides, Yad Vashem, together with the country’s chief Ashkenazi Rabbi David Lau and Sheba Medical Center Director Yitshak Kreiss, asked that the United States not sanction Abramovich, a major donor to the memorial and other Jewish causes.

They said that sanctioning him would cause harm to Jewish institutions that rely on him for donations, said Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan. He said Abramovich was the museum’s second-largest private donor, after the late Sheldon Adelson and his widow, Miriam.

“Mr. Abramovich has contributed to worthy causes for more than a decade,” Dayan said. “As far as I know, Mr. Abramovich doesn’t have any links to Mr. Putin.”

Israel has walked a diplomatic tightrope in its response to the war in Ukraine. Israeli officials have said they support Ukraine, a country with the only other Jewish head of state in the world and what they call a liberal democratic ally. But they are wary of provoking Russia, which backs the Syrian regime on Israel’s northern border and has unofficially allowed Israel to carry out strikes against efforts to transfer weapons to Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Shiite group, in Lebanon.

*snip*

[gab13by13]

1. Former ambassador to Russia, McFaul,

said today we are making a big mistake lumping all the oligarchs together. He says some of them made their money honestly and Putin hates them. He said we should be selective in sanctioning them.

[ColinC]

2. Because he probably isn't much of a threat

Oil and gas oligarchs, as other posters have pointed out, are the real threat in this scenario.