Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on March 5, 2022

Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraines comedian-turned-president, sure can tear up the dance floor. The fancy footwork he put on display in 2006when hewonthe debut season of his countrys version of Dancing with the Starscontinues to serve Zelensky well today, as he marshals local and global resources to try and repel a Russian invasion of his country. Israel could desperately learn a few artful steps from the worlds newest poster child for inspiring leadership.

Cold War 2.0 has found the government of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett torn between the tug of realpolitik and the imperatives of morality. But straddling the fence has become an increasingly untenable position for Israel, where this conflicts inflammatory rhetoricRussian President Vladimir Putins claims of denazification has met Ukrainian comparisons of Putin to Adolf Hitlerhas resonated particularly loudly among Israelis, who are well aware that Zelensky is Jewish. Harsh realities have forced an evolution of thought among Bennetts cabinet, which is inching too slowly toward the only decision that makes sense for Israel.

If Israels special relationship with the United States has been the solid rock of its security, Russia represents the hard place sandwiching Israel from the other side. In an era when the U.S. government is taking great pains to extract itself from the Middle EastU.S. President Joe Bidenswithdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan last summer was the most salient data point in recent memoryRussia is very much present in Israels immediate backyard. Israel is not indifferent to this predicament.

Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraines comedian-turned-president, sure can tear up the dance floor. The fancy footwork he put on display in 2006when hewonthe debut season of his countrys version of Dancing with the Starscontinues to serve Zelensky well today, as he marshals local and global resources to try and repel a Russian invasion of his country. Israel could desperately learn a few artful steps from the worlds newest poster child for inspiring leadership.

Cold War 2.0 has found the government of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett torn between the tug of realpolitik and the imperatives of morality. But straddling the fence has become an increasingly untenable position for Israel, where this conflicts inflammatory rhetoricRussian President Vladimir Putins claims of denazification has met Ukrainian comparisons of Putin to Adolf Hitlerhas resonated particularly loudly among Israelis, who are well aware that Zelensky is Jewish. Harsh realities have forced an evolution of thought among Bennetts cabinet, which is inching too slowly toward the only decision that makes sense for Israel.

If Israels special relationship with the United States has been the solid rock of its security, Russia represents the hard place sandwiching Israel from the other side. In an era when the U.S. government is taking great pains to extract itself from the Middle EastU.S. President Joe Bidenswithdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan last summer was the most salient data point in recent memoryRussia is very much present in Israels immediate backyard. Israel is not indifferent to this predicament.

Putin is the primary benefactorof Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose decaying country functions as a staging ground for Iran, Israels mortal enemy; Assad has tendered hissupportfor Putins Ukraine campaign. Rolling Israeli Air Force operations to prevent the entrenchment of Iran and its terrorist proxies in Syria demand criticaldeconflictionwith Russian pilots in that theater, lest Jerusalem come into open confrontation with Moscow.

The potential for such a clash escalated dangerously in January when Russian and Syrian fighter jets began flyingjoint patrolsover the Golan Heights, which lies between Israel and Syria. A Russianelectronic jamming systeminstalled on the Hemeimeem Air Base in Latakia, Syria, further compromises Israels long-held air superiority in the neighborhood. Russia also plays an outsized role in the Vienna negotiations to revive the Iran nuclear deal, which is seen by many in Jerusalem as having ominous implications for Israels security.

Caught between its historic allegiance to the United States and its need for coordination with Russia, Israel has been struggling awkwardly to remain on the Ukraine wars ever-shrinking sidelines and preserve its credibility with all parties. Bennett instructed his ministers tomaintaina low profile and keep the chatter to a minimum. He has spoken multiple times with bothZelenskyandPutin, even proposing tomediatea cease-fire between them. (Bennett was careful to firstrun the ideaby the Biden administration.)

Israel has dispatchedhumanitarian aidto the region butrefrainedfrom rendering any military assistance, even, according to unconfirmed reports,scuttlinga U.S. bid to transfer Iron Dome defensive missile batteries to Ukraine. Complicating Israels situation further is the presence of established Jewish communitiesand more than a few Israeli citizensin both Ukraine and Russia whosewelfareand, in many cases,extractionIsrael seeks toguarantee.

Russian bombs have fallen on Uman, Ukraine, where the tomb of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov has been a popular Jewish pilgrimage site, and in the vicinity of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center. Zelensky referenced both cities specifically in a Hebrew-language Facebook appeal to all the Jews of the world, whom he beseeched to raise their voices against the killing of Ukrainians because Nazism was born in silence.

These tenuous circumstances have prompted Israel to employ a haphazard playbook. On Feb. 23, Israels first official communique on the crisis upheld the territorial integrity and the sovereignty of Ukraine but conspicuously avoided any mention of Russia as the guilty party trampling on Ukrainian independence with its full-scale invasion.

An Israeli official, championing this questionable language,rationalizedthat the United States and the world understand the complexity of our situation. By the next day, Israel had pivoted to a good cop, bad cop footing. Bennett, speaking on Feb. 24 to graduates of the Israel Defense Forces officer academy,declinedto rebuke Russia by nameinstead pray[ing] for peace and calm and expressing solidarity for the embattled people of Ukrainewhile Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid lashed out that same morning against the Russian attack, which hecondemnedexplicitly as a serious violation of the international order.

The middle ground is collapsing. The United States, via its ambassador to the United Nations, conveyed itsdispleasureat Israels refusal to join 87 other countries in sponsoring last Fridays Security Council resolution that denounced Russias incursion into Ukraine. Putin has put Israel on notice as well. Were concerned over Tel Avivs announced plans for expanding settlement activity in the occupied #GolanHeights, which contradicts the provisions of the 1949 Geneva Convention, Russias U.N. missiontweetedon Feb. 23, taking a shot across Israels bow after the United States already recognized Israels rights to the Golan Heights in March 2019.

Israels ambassador in Moscow was also summoned and reprimanded by Russias deputy foreign minister, who took exception to Lapids words. Even UkrainecriticizedIsrael for not doing enough on its behalf. Nobody has been fooled by Israels attempt to talk out of both sides of its mouth.

Time has run out for the Bennett government to get with the program and stop equivocating. Although it cannot neglect the definite repercussions for its delicate ties with Russia, Israel has never had a realistic option other than to join Team America. Realpolitik cuts both ways: The strategic depth provided by U.S.diplomatic,economic,andmilitarybacking is considerably more vital for Israel than anything Russia will ever propose to deliver.

The U.S.-Israel special relationship has withstood the challenges of domesticpartisanship, proving far more dependableowing also to the executive branchs accountability to public opinion in U.S. politicsthan Putinscapricious effortsto accommodate Israel. Additionally, as a democratic nation and in light of the Jewish peoples particularly tragic experience with brutality, Israel is morally bound to speak out vigorously against unprovoked Russian aggression.

Jerusalem is starting to get the message. On Feb. 27, Lapid warned his fellow ministers against extendinghelpto Russian Jewish oligarchs who either have been or may yet be the targets of international sanctions. Later in the week, on March 2, Israel voted in favorand signed on as a co-sponsorof a U.N. General Assemblyresolutioncensuring Russias assault on Ukraine. Old habits die hard, however. Remarks made by bothBennettandLapidjust one day earlier feigned neutrality once again, as if Russia bears no responsibility for the atrocities being perpetrated in Ukraine.

At a time when Bennett is banking on the United States to stand by his side in confronting Iran, he should be laser-focused on Bidenscommitmentof unwavering support for Israels security and freedom of action. Allowing bad blood to build up in the Oval Office threatens to undermine that pledge.

After then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Biden on his 2020 election victory in a backhanded fashionnot referring to the fact that Biden had actually defeated incumbent Donald Trump in the 2020 electionBiden waitedalmost a full month from his inauguration to return Netanyahus call. Bennett cannot afford to have the White House switchboard put him on hold.

Israel is not the only regional actor striving tohedge its bets. In fact, Washington should pay close attention toand take measures to rectifythe erosion of Pax Americana in the Middle East, which poses great risk to U.S. interests. (Examples of this phenomenon include the abstention of the United Arab Emirates during last Fridays vote at the U.N. Security Council, of which it is currently a member, and Saudi Arabias refusal to increase OPEC+ oil production quotas.)

Meanwhile, as the United States and a possibly expanding NATOunite in an effort to send Russias economy back to theDark Ages, Israel needs to eliminate all lingering doubts that it might not be playing on the right team.

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Israel Shouldn't Be Neutral in Russia-Ukraine War

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