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"On the one hand, Israel is being accused of aggression, and on the other hand, the world community is ignoring Arab regimes' killing of their own and other countries' people," said Yevgeny Satanovsky, president of the Russian Jewish Congress.
Satanovsky said Israel was one of the only countries to support Russia's military campaign in Chechnya, and that now it is time for Russia to return the favor by supporting Israel's campaign in the West Bank. Both operations, he said, are targeting terrorists. The Russian military insists it is fighting international terrorists in Muslim Chechnya, though the Chechens say they are fighting for independence.
The Jewish leaders also said many of the victims of Palestinian suicide bombings are Russian Jews who emigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union, and that Russia has a deep connection to the ongoing violence in the Middle East.
"My friends, my colleagues and I are always running to the phone to find out if a loved one has been killed," said Mikhail Chlenov, president of the Federation of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Russia.
The Jewish leaders, representing three different organizations, said they were united in their support of Israel, and played down a persistent internal dispute over who represents Russia's chief rabbi.
Two rabbis claim the title: Berel Lazar, who heads the ultra-Orthodox Chabad Lubavitch movement in Russia, and Adolf Shayevich, Russia's chief rabbi since the 1980s. President Vladimir Putin waded into the dispute last year, replacing Shayevich with Lazar on a government advisory council, prompting accusations of Kremlin interference in Jewish affairs.
Sergei Gitman, a member of the Russian Jewish Congress, which supports Shayevich as chief rabbi, said the situation with Israel is uniting religious Russian Jews, but cautioned that many issues remain unresolved.
"The conflict in the Middle East is a major cementing influence. I hope it will bring our positions closer together, but the differences are rather profound," he said.
Rabbi Lazar played down the dispute entirely. "The problems that were reported in the press last year are in the past. If you look around the country, Jewish communities are flourishing," he said.
Rabbi Shayevich led more than 200 people in prayer at Moscow's Choral Synagogue to mark Israel's 54th Independence Day on Wednesday evening.
Earlier this week, Rabbi Lazar held a service at Moscow's Marina Roshcha Synagogue to commemorate Memorial Day, a tribute to the hundreds of Israelis killed in suicide bombings and clashes with the Palestinians.
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