opinion
Israel Should Stay Out of the War
in Ukraine
BY JONATHAN S. TOBIN
ight months into Russia’s brutal and illegal
invasion of Ukraine, two things are clear about
the confl ict.

One is that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s
launching of the largest land war in Europe since
1945 was a crime that has largely united the civ-
ilized world in revulsion. Another is that no one
seems to have any realistic idea of how it can be
brought to an end.

Note that I used the word “realistic.” By this I
mean a solution that doesn’t require the com-
plete military defeat of a nuclear power that is
unlikely to accept abject humiliation. That would
also rule out a policy predicated on an attempt
at regime change in Moscow, a reckless notion
with unknowable and possibly catastrophic con-
sequences. Of course, Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy, whose courageous leadership has
helped Kyiv mount a resolute and surprisingly
successful resistance to the onslaught, does have
a vision of how the war will end. He says Ukraine
will keep fi ghting until a military victory chases the
Russians off of every inch of soil that his country
controlled in February, and perhaps even those
areas it lost to Russia in 2014.

In pursuit of that goal, he has obtained the kind
of massive military and intelligence assistance that
is reminiscent of the West’s commitment to the
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Biden adminis-
tration had already committed itself to spending
$54 billion on aid to Ukraine, with the implicit
promise of continuing that fl ow.

But that isn’t enough for Zelenskyy and his
admirers. Not only does he want even more
American weaponry, the supply of which has
already stripped active U.S. forces of most of their
reserves of armaments; he is also continuing to
clamor for Israel to join the confl ict by sending Kyiv
some of its most sophisticated weapons systems.

Pressure on Israel
There is a growing chorus of criticism of the Jewish
state for its attempt to chart a middle course
between pure neutrality and becoming an open
participant in the fi ghting. Israel has sent consider-
able humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and taken
in refugees, yet has stopped short of military aid or
involvement. Former Prisoner of Zion and Jewish
Agency head Natan Sharansky has chided the
Jewish state for “being afraid” of Russia. He’s right
about that. But Israel has good reason to worry
16 OCTOBER 27, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
about escalating tensions with Putin.

There is a sizable Jewish population that still
lives in Russia which, up until this year, seemed to
enjoy Putin’s protection. The war has called that
into question.

Moscow’s heavy-handed eff orts to signal Israel
that it would pay a price if it did more to help
Ukraine has included threats against the Jewish
Agency’s operations in the country.

Russia also has a large military presence in
Syria. Putin has acquiesced to Israel’s military
carrying out strikes against Iranian, Hezbollah and
other terrorist targets inside that state without
repercussions. This would be put at risk if Israel
joined Ukraine’s war.

More important than Sharansky’s stand is the
criticism coming from Congress. A number of
lawmakers have attacked Israel for its position on
Ukraine. They, like Zelenskyy, dismiss the fact that Israel
has done a lot to help Ukraine, even off ering it an
early-warning system that could help it defend
its population against Russian attacks. Like the
Ukrainian leader, they want Israel to “get off the
sidelines.” It’s worth questioning why, ever since the fi ght-
ing started, Israel’s position is the focus of so
much interest. With the U.S. and Europe on its
side, Ukraine doesn’t need Israel.

However, Zelenskyy, in particular, seems to
have devoted an inordinate amount of attention to
pressuring Israel. That included a virtual speech
to the Knesset, in which he falsifi ed the history
of the Holocaust by claiming that Ukrainians had
stood with the Jews during the Shoah, instead of
being the most enthusiastic of collaborators with
the Nazis in helping to kill hundreds of thousands
of Jewish victims.

Had any other European leader uttered such an
appalling lie, he or she would have been roundly
condemned and treated like a pariah by world
Jewry. But Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, and is seen
as a 21st-century version of Winston Churchill by
many otherwise sober observers, got away with it.

And the pressure on Israel, which is always judged
by a double standard on any issue, continues to
grow, That’s because support for Ukraine transcends
the usual sympathy that underdogs elicit. Despite
the lionization of Zelenskyy and the justifi ed admi-
ration for his country’s resistance, Ukraine is far
from a model of democracy and human rights. In
fact, it is arguably as corrupt as most former Soviet
republics. The impulse to romanticize it as a uniquely noble
cause involves more than a belief that sovereign
nations should not be invaded by larger neigh-
bors, and goes beyond outrage over Russian
atrocities. The accusation that Russia helped steal the
2016 presidential election for former President
Donald Trump — a myth that many still believe,
despite the collusion charges turning out to be a
hoax — helps fuel anger at Moscow. Without that,
and the fact that a conversation with Zelenskyy
was the excuse for the Democrats’ fi rst attempt
to impeach Trump, it’s possible the American
reaction to Putin’s invasion would have resem-
bled the passive indiff erence on the part of the
Obama administration to his seizure of Crimea and
Eastern Ukraine in 2014.

At the same time, many traditional foreign-policy
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