Russia insulted by Israeli political ad

Moscow (Feb. 22)--An Israeli campaign ad featuring President Vladimir Putin's image has sparked outrage from the Russian government, leading to an official complaint from the Foreign Ministry and an apology from former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The ad, titled "Red Dawn," was released on the Internet and in movie theaters by the opposition Likud party last week. The ad used Putin's decision to invite Hamas leaders to Moscow to criticize Israeli Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
"It wasn't Putin who gave Hamas the right to participate in elections in West Jerusalem," the ad's voiceover says, while a portrait of Putin is ripped away piece by piece to reveal Olmert's face. "It wasn't Putin's chief adviser who opened talks with Hamas. And it certainly wasn't Putin who gave Hamas 250 million shekels [$53 million]."
The screen fades to a group of masked and armed militants marching through the streets.
"It was Ehud Olmert who rolled out the carpet for Hamas. Putin only dyed it red," the voiceover says, as the screen turns red.
Likud pulled the ad from its web site and from movie theater trailers on Friday after Russian Ambassador to Israel Gennady Tarasov telephoned Netanyahu, the Likud leader, to complain, a Russian Embassy spokesman said Monday.
"We believe the ad was unethical and inappropriate," spokesman Anatoly Yurkov said by telephone from Tel Aviv.
"Any country has the right to criticize President Putin's decisions or policies, but to use his image alongside Prime Minister Olmert's in this way is quite clearly inappropriate."
Likud spokesman Dmitry Shimelfarb said that Netanyahu apologized for the ad, calling it "a mistake," but Shimelfarb insisted the ad was in no way intended to insult the Russian president.
"The text of the ad states in clear, plain language that Putin is not to be blamed" for Hamas' electoral success, Shimelfarb said by telephone from Tel Aviv. "We had no problem removing the ad because we had no desire to say that Putin was responsible."
The ad has not aired on television, as Israeli election law allows television and radio ads only during the final three weeks of the campaign. Elections to the Knesset, Israel's 120-member parliament, are scheduled for March 23.
Putin drew criticism from the United States and the European Union earlier this month when he issued the invitation to Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that won a surprise victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections on Jan. 25. Washington and Brussels have called for the isolation of the group, which has carried out nearly 60 suicide bombings in Israel since 2000, until it renounces violence and recognizes Israel's right to exist.
Netanyahu sent a personal letter to Putin earlier this month protesting the invitation, Shimelfarb said.
In response to the criticism, Putin has said Hamas came to power in free, democratic elections and that the choice of the Palestinian people must be respected.
A Hamas delegation is due in Moscow in early March.
With Likud running far behind Olmert's recently formed Kadima party in polls, Likud's ad was a clear attempt to turn anger over Putin's invitation against Kadima, Tel Aviv-based political commentator Gil Hoffman said Monday.
"There is a lot of animosity against Putin" over the invitation, "both among Russian immigrants and non-Russians," Hoffman said by telephone from Tel Aviv. "To associate Olmert with that is the ultimate way of alienating voters."
Olmert has been acting prime minister since the current prime minister, Ariel Sharon, suffered a debilitating stroke on Jan. 4.
Though polls show Olmert's personal popularity declining, his party's position remains strong, with a Feb. 16 poll by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz giving Kadima a projected 40 seats out of 120, and Likud only 13.
Lily Galili, a senior writer for Haaretz, disagreed with Hoffman's assessment, saying that both the ad and politicians' reactions to Putin's invitation had been intentionally cautious.
With Russian immigrants making up almost one-sixth of Israel's population of 6.3 million, "Israelis are interested in good political relations with Russia," Galili said by telephone from Tel Aviv.
"Everyone dealing with Putin is quite cautious. There are over a million people here with friends and family who are still in Russia.
Those people aren't interested in a scandal between their new homeland and their old one," Galili said.
She also noted that Likud recently hired the Russian PR firm Imidzh-Kontakt to work on the campaign, a fact that was confirmed by Shimelfarb.
"No one in Likud wants to alienate the Russians," Galili said.