While Israel was busy with its fateful, charged election campaign, the heads of Hamas went to the Kremlin March 2 for a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. This visit received almost no media coverage in Israel. Still, it is likely that even if the visit had taken place under normal, non-election circumstances, neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz would have censured Russian President Vladimir Putin for hosting the heads of an organization defined by Israel — as well as by the United States, the European Union and additional organizations — as a terror entity. We can only guess at how senior Israeli figures would have reacted if such a visit had taken place in a European, Asian or Latin American state. But when Putin opens the Kremlin gates to Hamas, Netanyahu chooses to remain silent.

The Hamas figures in Moscow included head of the Hamas political bureau Ismail Haniyeh; his deputy, Saleh al-Arouri; and Moussa Abu Marzouk, another member of the political bureau. In a tweet, Abu Marzouk boasted about the official and fruitful talks underway and even included a picture of Haniyeh and himself presenting a modest gift to Lavrov — a painting of Al-Aqsa Mosque and a dove (the dove of peace?) hovering overhead.

This was not the first time that Hamas heads were received warmly in Moscow. Former head of Hamas’ political bureau Khaled Meshaal visited Moscow in March 2006, heading a delegation of Hamas seniors from Gaza and Damascus. This visit took place only a few weeks after Hamas won the elections of the Palestinian parliament and Haniyeh was appointed prime minister. At first, Meshaal was supposed to meet with Putin, but at the last minute, the rank of the visit was downgraded. The Hamas delegation had to make do with meeting the foreign minister in a meeting in the chambers of the Foreign Ministry in the city. Only the next day did the Hamas leadership conduct their publicized tour of the Kremlin.

That visit in 2006 could have perhaps changed the sad state of Gaza and Hamas; the latter searched for international recognition that would extricate it from the isolation and partial closure imposed by Israel on the Strip (that was the era before the uprising carried out by the movement in June 2007). But instead of acting like a calculated diplomat, Meshaal found refuge in his mantra that hadn’t changed and declared to Lavrov, “We will never recognize Israel.” Even the compromise formula that Moscow offered Hamas was rejected by Meshaal. Thus, the latter returned to Damascus with empty hands and a closure on isolated Gaza that has continued to this very day.