On November 14–21, 2012, the Israel Defence Forces undertook the Pillar of Defense operation, aimed to cripple the terroristic infrastructure of HAMAS and other extremist groups in the Gaza Strip. In October and the first decade of December, different terroristic groups intensified their rocket fire on Israeli territory from the Gaza strip and their attacks on Israeli military personnel near the Gaza Strip border. For example, on November 10 alone some 3 dozen rockets were fired at Israel.

The operation itself showed both the high effectiveness of the new Israeli air defense system Iron Dome and that the terrorists improved their arsenal of rockets over four years.

According to official information provided by the IDF, over a thousand and a half rockets were launched from Gaza during the operation, and approximately the same number of strikes on terroristic infrastructure were made by the Israeli military aviation. Six Israelis perished (two military and four civilians) and 177 people on the Palestine side (120 of whom were militants according to Israeli information).

As the Pillar of Defense operation was fairly short-term, with (relatively) few victims and a great precision of strikes on the side of Israel, which led to a minimum of losses among Palestinian civilians, it did not provoke such an outburst of anti-Semitic activity as the larger Cast Lead operation, which took place in December 2008 – January 2009. However, it was still cause for a number of anti-Israeli statements in the media, some of which included direct anti-Semitic clichés. Evidence also began to appear that FSU Muslims are beginning to listen to anti-Israeli propaganda.

The overwhelming majority of Russians were relatively disinterested in the conflict. According to the FOM questionnaire held on November 24-25, 66% did not support either side. 13% were sympathetic towards Israel (28% in Moscow), and only 5% were sympathetic towards Palestinians (11% in Moscow). 25% said they viewed Israel in general positively (in Moscow and other large cities this number was as large as 34-37%), 6% viewed Israel negatively (8% in cities of about a million residents and smaller), and 61% viewed it indifferently. When talking about possible Russian Federation policy on the aggravation of the conflict between Israel and Palestine, 32% said that Russia should support neither, 12% spoke out for Russia being a mediator for peace, 2% said that Russia should support Israel, 1% - to support Palestine, and 1% each proposed to either support both sides or just interfere directly into the conflict.

This is largely due to the demonstratively neutral official stance of Russia. Even though the comments of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Information and Press Department, published on November 15-19, did contain reproachments towards Israel for a disproportionate use of force, those same comments expressed an absolute certainty that rocket fire upon the south of Israel from the Gaza Strip is unacceptable. Both sides were called to “restraint.” That same party line was firmly held on to during the meeting of the MFA Minister S. Lavrov and the Israel Minister of Internal Affairs Avigdor Lieberman, which took place on November 16, and the meeting with the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Palestinian Autonomy Riyad Al-Maliki on November 18. Russian Federation representatives in the UN also prepared a resolution to regulate the Gaza Strip crisis which included a demand for an “immediate, strong and completely adhered to termination of violence, which should lead to a restoration of the peace.” As the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Vitaliy Churkin said, the Russian Delegation was ready to vote for the version of the resolution proposed by Marocco, which doesn't even mention the rocket fire from the Gaza Strip on Israel.

The only federal media with an anti-Israeli position was the Russia Today television channel, whose correspondent reported from the Gaza Strip. He was the one who disseminated information on the alleged use of white phosphorous rounds by the Israelis. He also stated that the Israelis are interfering with the Palestinian's right to self-definition and the right of Israeli Arabs to have equal rights.

The most active person for anti-Israeli statements was journalist Maksim Shevchenko. He reported on the St. Petersburg TV channel TV-5. On the “Echo of Moscow” and “Russian News Service” radio stations, his texts were published in the Internet news journal Russia.ru, as well as the pro-government Internet newspaper Vzglyad and Shevchenko's own website “Caucasian Politics.” He actively used several theses in arbitrary order: the disproportionate response of Israel (“throwing bombs at the problem”), the alleged expulsion of Arabs from their lands, the treatment of Arabs as “barely human” by the Israelis, and the use of the Pillar of Defense operation to stop Palestine from becoming an observer state in the UN. Shevchenko stated that the actions of HAMAS are “a legal protest against this kind of Neo-Nazism.” At the same time, Shevchenko said that HAMAS was interfering with the rocket fire on Israel, restraining “activists” who launched rockets.

One of Shevchenko's most important ideas was a quote by Russian journalist L. Radzikhovsky, twisted by Shevchenko. Radzikhovsky said in 2098 that the targeted eliminations of terrorists are akin to “cutting the nails and hair of terror.” Shevchenko presented the quote as if Radzikhovsky was speaking approvingly of the murder of Palestinian children. On the basis of this twisted quote, Schevchenko accused Israelis and Russians who were supporting the Pillar of Defense operation of racism, neo-Nazism and xenophobia (in his Twitter he even used the term “Isranazis”). In the Echo of Moscow radio program Special Opinion (hosted by Olga Bychkova, “Osoboye Mneniye”), Schevchenko stated that “mass murder of Palestinians and their political leaders once in three or four years is normal for them,” “he made the murder of political opponents a norm of political life.” He also said that Israelis provoke Islamophobia in Russia. Schevchenko wrote on November 20 in his Twitter that “Isranazis” incite hatred between Caucasians and Russians by proposing the Caucasians to unite with the Jewish against Russians and to the Cossacks – to fight together against Muslims, and all to destroy Russia and seize power in its ruins. He repeated these accusations during a discussion at the “Russian News Service” radio on November 20, and in Bychkova's program.

In an article published on November 15 at the Internet news portal Vzglyad.ru, Maksim Shevchenko said that the Russian Federal Security Service, allegedly in tight cahoots with the Security Service of Israel, looked unfavorably upon the Islamist Hizb Ut-Tahrir Party because its program includes an article on the “fight against the occupation of Palestine.”

Shevchenko's theses were actively used by other representatives of the small group of journalists who published materials to demonize Israel. The only new thesis, not provided by Shevchenko, were statements on the “election campaign” use of the Pillar of Defense, which had been allegedly organized to raise support for the right-wing coalition in power in Israel at the time.

Shevchenko's wife, N. Kevorkova, wrote in her Twitter on November 16 that Israel “is waging war against gardens and unarmed farmers.”

The “Osobaya Bukva” website published an article by I. Volkov titled “Class 'Promised Land – Air' Rockets,” in which it had been stated that the rockets fired upon Israel from the Gaza Strip “were not really dangerous and are really largely symbolic,” which Israel's retaliation had turned out to be “far more frightening.” S. Gafurov, an Eastern Studies scholar stated in an interview for this article that as Israelis “came to someone else's land and threw the people out,” the war between Israel and the Arabs will continue. “Israelis will continue to die while four million Palestinian refugees exist,” Gafurov stated and proposed that the Israelis commit to a “reverse aliyah.” It later turned out that far harsher passages had been excluded from the article such as “for the love of a weighty shekel, Russian mothers with Jewish heritage freely insert their children into the line of fire of Quassam (and newer) types of missiles, all for the profit of 'Rotschild' banks,” and accusations that Israelis were “buying stolen goods,” meaning land from Arabs (this is a thesis Gafurov has been defending for some years now).

An article by D. Sedov “Operation 'Pillar of Defense' Against Granting Status to Palestine,” published on November 19, states that Pillar of Defense was an attempt by Israel to demonize Iran in the eyes of global community and to make certain Palestine is not approved as a UN observer.

The anti-Semitic Jew I. Shamir published a column in the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, in which he stated that the Israelis like to make war on Gaza because it is absolutely safe. “Until the Palestinians are able to make fighting them very expensive for their opponent, the Jews will continue to bomb them for economic reasons,” Shamir wrote. He also accused Israel of attacking Gaza for goals related to the election campaign and to stop Palestine from entering the UN and to test the new Egyptian government for weaknesses. From his soapbox, Shamir spun a sob story that rockets were only fired upon Israel only “as a response to the regular murders of citizens of Gaza.” He said that children who were playing soccer were killed in an Israeli attack on November 8 and 10, and that was the main reason for the conflict (however, according to the media, the incidents which took place on November 8 and 10 were not quite so clear cut: one was plainly dubious and the other concerned the death of an adolescent during a confrontation between IDF soldiers and Palestinian militants, not an attack on children playing soccer). Shamir painted an apocalyptic view of the life of a million and a half Palestinians, demonizing Israelis, who were supposed to be “too used to shooting, starving, and keeping Palestinians behind barbed wire.”

The editor-in-chied of the Zavtra (“Tomorrow”) newspaper A. Prokhanov published a front-page article titled “Long Live Gaza,” in which he painted a rather apocalyptic scenario of the attack of Israelis on Gaza. “Once more Israeli bombers, these black dragons of doom, swoop down upon the Gaza strip. Vacuum bombs flatten twenty-story buildings, grinding women, children, and the elderly to a bloody pulp. Hard-core bombs penetrate multi-storied buildings down to their lowest floors, frightening explosions turn entire city blocks into blazing fireballs.” He expressed support for the “brave fighters of HAMAS” and hoped that, should a ground operation take place by the IDF, Israeli tanks will be burned by Russian “Cornet” missiles. “The Israeli enemy shall not pass! Victory will be ours! Long live HAMAS! Long live Gaza!” wrote Prokhanov.

Two Muslim activists made anti-Israeli statements.

President of the Islamic Committee of Russsia Geydar Dzhemal spoke on November 16 in the program “Russian News Service” and stated that Israel's actions are an attempt to raise the government's ratings before the election as well as to provoke Iran into cruel actions and to thus involve the USA in a war against Iran. He also stated that Israel is a state which “has a long and impudent history of refuting all international norms, which has trampled more than 70 UN resolutions, which is a society of open apartheid.” Dzhemal also said that the Gaza Strip was a “concentration camp” and accused the Israelis of “permanent, everyday, wanton attack.” He also called for Russia to support the Palestinians.

On November 19, Russian Federation Public Chamber Member, First Deputy Chairman and Head of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the European Part of Russia Damir-khazrat Mukhetdinov published an article in his blog, which was later re-published by the Internet media Vzglyad.ru, titled “The Bloody Pillar of Defense.” He wrote, “One cannot watch the tragedy unfurling in the holy land of Palestine without worry and fury. The Israeli ruling regime impudently bombs its neighbors in the Gaza Strip, threatens them with a ground invasion – and all of this while the world and the 'democratic community' watches, while 'human rights defenders' and 'adherents of freedom' are utterly paralyzed.” Mukhetdinov sees the IDF operation as “a slap in the face to Russia and its media, to the peacemaking efforts of the Orthodox Patriarch.” He also says that Israel's acts incite anti-Semitism in the world and “interfere” with the efforts of Russia's traditional religions in international cooperation. Mukhetdinov even went so far as to state that “anti-Zionism is good for true Hebrews and real Jews who love their people”; to support his thesis Mukhetdinov mentioned the infamous “Neturei Karta” group, whose members visited the President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinenjad, thus “sanctifying” a forum of Holocaust denialists with their presence. As others did, Mukhetdinov believed the reason for the Pillar of Defense operation to be an attempt by Israel to stop the Palestinian Autonomy from becoming a UN General Assembly Observer state,

“We need to raise the UN's authority and use the peaceful methods of global diplomacy to achieve peace and the restoration of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. And those guilty of aggression, the murderers and their cohorts in the media must be punished, but not by vigilante justice, but by international courts, by true adherents of democracy, freedom, and human rights,” Mikhetdinov summarized.

It is regrettably notable that the outwardly calm or indifferent stance most Russians take towards Israel shouldn't obstruct the presence of a great number of carriers of anti-Semitic phobias. According to that same FOM questionnaire, 17% each supported the views on Palestinians as either freedom fighters or terrorists. And even though in Moscow and other large cities far more people see Palestinians as terrorists – 26 and 22% correspondingly – but the presence of 17% who see them as freedom fighters is cause for concern. One could make a presupposition that a great number of this group are Russian Muslims. Even though the number of statements by Muslim leaders over the course of Pillar of Defense was minimal, the first ever public event took place which showed “Muslim solidarity” based in anti-Israelism is seeping into the midst of Russian Muslims. On November 22, at the Moscow “Locomotive” Stadium, the fans of the Makhachkala soccer club Anji hung a banner reading “For Free Palestine” at the stadium's ninth sector during a match with the Italian club Udinese.

In other CIS countries, the reactions towards the Pillar of Defense operations were limited to separat statements, mostly made by representatives of Foreign Affairs Ministries.

Notable, one-sided critical statements were made towards Israel by the leaders of the Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan Ministries of Foreign Affairs. In his speech on November 15 at the 39 meeting of the Foreign Affairs Ministries leaders of the Organization for Muslim Cooperation (SMID OIS) in Djibouti, Kazakhstan Minister of Foreign Affairs Erlan Idrisov stated that he condemns the air strikes made by Israel on the Gaza Strip. Nonetheless, having said the ritual phrases about civilian deaths and the inability of a repressive policy to secure the safety of Israel, Idrisov did note that both sides need to act to prevent the conflict from aggravation. During a meeting with the head of the Palestinian delegation at that same meeting on November 19, Azerbaijan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Elmar Mamedyarov criticized the actions of the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip and stressed the necessity of an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council and a reaction of all of the countries in the world to these attacks. The criticism inherent to these statements was in many ways due to the audience to which the representatives of the two FSU republics were speaking of – the OIS is mostly anti-Israeli. Interestingly, the statement made to the APA press service on November 21 by MFA Press Service Department Head Elman Abdullayev was far more careful. Preferring not to state any sympathies or antipathies for either side of the conflicts.

On November 21 he stated that “Azerbaijan is extremely concerned by the conflicts in the Near East and regrets that civilians are harmed as a result and that innocents people are dying.” He stressed that Azerbaijan was always in favor of dialogue and a peaceful diplomatic resolution to confrontations.

A neutral position was also taken up by representatives of Armenia and Georgia. Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduard Nalbandyan said on November 19, during his visit to Kuwait, “Armenia, as the global commuity in general, is deeply concerned with the growing tension surrounding the Gaza Strip. The show of force, which led to dozens of victims among civilians, is seriously damaging the situation in the region, which is unstable as it is. The threat of force or its application needs to be halted. We are deeply certain that there is no alternative to peaceful negotiation.”

During a meeting with the Ambassador of Israel to Georgia Yuval Fuchs, Prime Minister of Georgia Bidzina Ivanishvili expressed his concern with “the death of civilians in Israel and Palestine. The situation needs to be defused as quickly as possible lest it aggravate further; the peace processes need to be restored.” At the same time, he noted that Israel, like any state, has the right to protect its citizens from rocket strikes and that a necessary condition to begin negotiations would be a termination of rocket fire on Israel.

Interestingly, it was in Tbilisi that the only FSU protest rally against Pillar of Defense was held on November 20. Some 20 people gathered before the Embassy of Israel in Georgia with posters in English, reading “Freedom For Palestine,” as well as with leaflets in Arabic and Hebrew, which read “The System must be destroyed.”

Islamist oppositional partiest also decided to restrict themselves to statements. The Tajikistan Islamic Renaissance Party made anti-Israeli statements on November 19, following a meeting of its leaders. The statements spoke about the “political threat” of Israel to the “peaceful Palestinian peoples” and of “Israeli crimes” that had allegedly taken place. A call to the government and people of Tajikistan to not stand aside during this crisis was also included.

On November 21, the Deputy Chairman of the pro-Iran Islamic Party of Azerbaijan Natiq Kerimov stated, “The mass murders of Palestinians committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip are a result of injustice and impunity. Nobody condemns the criminals despite the mass murders, and the defense of Israel by the American President is a demonstration of an unjust attitude towards the entire Muslim world.” He called for all of the Arabic states and the peoples of the Muslim world to unite against Israel.

In the statement of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Director for the Department for Informational Policy Oleg Voloshin stated that Ukraine strongly condemns the rocket fire on Israel by Palestine. “At the same time, we are hoping that Israel will be able to restrain itself from escalating the conflict in the region further, both due to the general safety situation in the Near East and the fact that there is a significant number of Ukrainian citizens in the Gaza Strip,” Voloshin added. Interestingly, the Ukrainian ministry did not mention the Ukrainian citizens who hold dual citizenship with Israel and were thus in the territories under fire.

The most emotional reaction in Ukraine was by Muslim organizations. The Alraid Association and the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Ukraine 'Umma' adopted an address in which they sharply criticized “Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip.” Their address stated that most of those harmed in the Gaza strip were “women, children, and the elderly” and that “the children weren't always accidental victims.” The goal of Israel, according to these Ukrainian Muslim organizations, is “the complete destruction of Gaza.”

Notably, this address, aimed at a wide audience, Israel is called a 'state,' and its name is not placed into quotation marks, as it is usually done in Alraid and Umma materials, which usually deny Israel's right to exist.

During Pillar of Defense, the Alraid Association held an “informational campaign” on its websites, which attempted to show that “Israeli aggression against peaceful Palestinians” are not “an act of retaliation” as it is shown in the “Zionist disinformation campaign.”

Some anti-Israeli publications appeared on Crimean Islamist websites (mostly oriented towards Hizb ut Tahrir) and some anti-Israeli materials, though fairly tame, were published in the media. But in general, partially due to the complex and eventful political life in Ukraine itself (a new cadence of the newly-elected parliament had just begun), the events in the Near East did not attract much attention.

In general it can be summarized the Pillar of Defense did not become a trigger for a massive anti-Semitic campaign in post-Soviet territory. But it did provoke the appearance of a new cliché that demonizes Israel and the Jews, depicting them as the “New Reich,” in leading Russian media (which spread far beyond Russia itself). This anti-Israeli oratory did not receive any resistance during the pronouncements itself as they were made, which served to additionally increase the trust of readers and listeners towards these statements. It is also alarming that for the first time in many years, Muslim football fans were involved in anti-Israeli propaganda.