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Comment and Opinion

Haaretz: Trump’s perverse appeasement of Putin will rebound on Israel, Daniel B. Shapiro

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If you believe in diplomacy as a means to solve, or at least mitigate problems, it generally means welcoming even eyes-wide-open diplomacy conducted with adversaries.

So it is perfectly natural for the President of the United States to meet with the President of Russia, even one as troublesome and cynical as Vladimir Putin. Presidents from Eisenhower to George H.W. Bush met with Soviet leaders throughout the Cold War. But what is not natural at all is the degree to which both sides seem to want to use such a summit to serve Russian interests.

Administration spokespeople, in discussing President Donald Trump’s upcoming meeting with President Putin in Helsinki, have offered scant indication of what Trump wants to achieve from this summit, what interests of the United States he seeks to advance. He wants a “good relationship” with Putin, we are told.

Meanwhile, it is perfectly clear what interests of Russia Putin aims to advance. First, he wants to ease pressure and sanctions on Russia imposed in response to its aggression against Ukraine. And sure enough, at the G-7 summit in Canada last month, Trump advocated including Russia in the gathering, and went so far as to justify Russia’s illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula – because there are many Russian speakers there. In recent days, he has refused to rule out U.S. recognition of Russia’s land grab.

Read the full article at Haaretz.