Rainbow 6 Siege community questions why Ubisoft dropped Israel for Year 2

Rainbow Six Siege is now on Year 7, bringing mega changes to the competitive shooter. But you know gamers — once the updates are finally here their attention immediately drifts elsewhere. Year 7 Season 1 is cool and all, but what happened to an Israeli operator coming in Year 2? 

Year 2 occurred from February 7, 2017 to March 6, 2018. That's four years ago but players haven't forgotten hints from all those years ago at what was to come in Rainbow Six Siege... but never did. 

On Reddit, one Rainbow Six Siege player showed a screenshot from an older Rainbow Six Siege video that shows the Israeli flag flapping along with Spain, Hong Kong, and South Korea. 

"Remember when Israel was supposed to come in Year 2 ? One of the countries with the most competent CTUs in the world and it's still missing," the player mused. 

Of course, many fans pointed out that Ash is Israeli. But others responded that Ash is Israeli but her history doesn't include anything about Israel's counter-terrorism unit, Yamam. Instead, Ash is largely American and works for the FBI. Ash was also on the roster since launch, meaning no Israeli operator was ever added since. 

So what happened? Why did Ubisoft abandon this plan? 

Seeing how Ubisoft has responded to the conflict in Ukraine, it's very possible that the publisher wants to avoid controversy. Around the time of Year 2, Israel was often in the headlines for the conflict with Palestine. This sensitive topic has continued to surround the country since then, leading not only to strained relations with Israel over the conflict but anti-semitism within the United States. 

Others speculated that it was just a matter of Ubisoft changing their content road map, not anything specifically targeted at Israel. At one point, Ubisoft had the years listed as: 

• Spain
• Hong Kong
• Poland
• South Korea

But then Operation Health took Hong Kong's spot, moving Hong Kong to Poland's spot. This was confirmed by developers in an AMA at one point but still is a bit confusing to fans. It's possible that Ubisoft just truly decided to switch around their content roadmap, but many gamers are suspicious that Israel was purposefully removed.