Should Ukraine be Disappointed with Israel?

  By Henry Srebrnik, [Saint John, N.B.] Telegraph-Journal

Israel has just held yet another election, and we shall see how this will affect its relations with Ukraine and Russia. The country seems to have been singled out – I think unfairly – by Kyiv for not providing more military aid to Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials have consistently pressed Israel on the issue since the Russian invasion on Feb. 24.

Though it has sent shipments of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, Israel has repeatedly rebuffed Kyiv’s requests for defence weapons, specifically the highly effective Iron Dome missile defence system which could help protect against rockets, drones, and some types of missiles.

Israel’s refusal is seen as an attempt by Jerusalem to maintain working ties with Moscow, due to Russia’s control of Syrian air space, where Israel’s air force has carried out hundreds of sorties against alleged Iranian arms shipments and in order to keep groups backed by Tehran from establishing a foothold.

Meanwhile, Zelensky’s chief of staff held a virtual meeting Oct. 20 with leaders of Jewish organizations and prominent Russian-speaking Israelis, asking them to push Jerusalem to provide Kyiv with air defence systems.

Andriy Yermak pointed to Russia’s expanding use of Iranian drones to argue that Israel can no longer remain on the sidelines of the eight-month-long war. Iran is Israel’s arch-enemy, and Ukrainian officials have expressed dismay that Israel’s stance has not changed even as Iranian weapons play a growing role in the fight.

Zelensky did announce a week later that Israel had started sharing with Ukraine intelligence on the Iranian drones now used by Russia. Nonetheless, on Oct. 30 Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuk said his country wants the United States to step up pressure on Israel. “The Americans are the only country that Israel is listening to,” he argued.

He also reported that he holds weekly meetings with his American counterpart, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides, as part of a process to push Israel to send defence equipment to Ukraine. “I’m joking, but I’m calling him our secret weapon” to bring Israel in line, he added.

Yair Lapid, then the Israeli Prime Minister, was frustrated by the pressure. Addressing supporters at an Oct. 22 election rally, he told listeners that he had asked Washington in return “why the American Air Force is not bombing the Russian forces in Kherson.”

Benjamin Netanyahu, who has snatched victory to become the new Israeli leader, has been a strong supporter of Israel’s ties with Russia. He doesn’t hate Russia and isn’t impressed with the idea of helping America fight for “democracy.”

 Still, in an Oct. 21 interview, Netanyahu said that if he returns to power, he will “look into” supplying weapons to Ukraine. “We will try to help Ukraine regarding Iranian involvement and regarding the relationship between Russia and Iran.”

Russia has said it would respond if Israel passed along air-defence systems directly or through a third party to Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s support for a United Nations General Assembly resolution passed Oct. 30, calling for a nuclear-free Middle East, has also been a source of tension with Israel.

The resolution noted that Israel is the only country in the Middle East and one of the few among the UN’s 193 member states, which has not signed the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty. This was harshly criticized in Israel, with Israelis pointing out that Kyiv was “demanding aid from Israel while at the same time voting against it at the UN.”

The Chief Rabbi of Ukraine, Moshe Reuven Azman, even sent a letter to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, saying the vote was a “terrible mistake that undid months of cooperation, support, and dialogue. It could sabotage the efforts of all those who worked for the expansion of Israeli aid to Ukraine. In Israel, the vote is viewed as a hostile action and even as a knife in the back.”

But Ambassador Korniychuk claimed that at no point did any representative of Israel contact Ukraine’s UN delegation in advance of the vote. If Jerusalem wanted a change, “then it should have said something.” The ambassador also noted that Israel has refrained from recognizing Russia as an aggressor state after Ukraine asked all members of the General Assembly to do so.

Many Israelis also criticize the pressure from Washington to aid Ukraine with weaponry. Americans, they assert, should not hold Israel to a standard the United States is unwilling to follow itself. After all, Washington has not provided the Patriot Air and Missile Defence System to Ukraine – because it needs it to protect U.S. troops.

And the missile threat to Israel is, after all, not theoretical. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have already rained rockets into Israel in recent confrontations. And Lebanon-based Hezbollah has about 150,000 rockets and missiles and an estimated 2,000 drones.

What if Russia captured an Iron Dome system sent to Ukraine and then provided the system and its information to Iran, which might develop capabilities to circumvent it?

It is, at the very least, unseemly to guilt-trip Israel this way. After all, 30 NATO countries, including three nuclear-armed powers, are already providing massive military aid to Ukraine. Why browbeat an Israel surrounded by enemies? And did Ukraine ever ask Israel if it needed help when it’s been periodically attacked?