Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel, Yevgen Korniychuk, was summoned to provide answers for his blistering critiques of Tel Aviv’s relations with Moscow, attempting to paint the Israeli government as deviating from a moral path due to its inability to cut relations with Russia. Despite the various means of support that Israel has provided to Kiev, it still finds itself under pressure to go further, but will it commit itself to arming the Ukrainian military?
The Ukrainian ambassador to Israel stirred controversy earlier this week, when he accused the Israeli government of taking a “path of close cooperation” with Russia. Yevgen Korniychuk’s comments sparked a wave of criticism towards Israeli policy and why it has refused to openly provide offensive military aid to Kiev so far. It also adds to mounting pressure on Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to take a stronger stance on the current war in Ukraine by siding with Kiev.
Despite unverified photographs of Israeli made military equipment on the battlefield, in addition to military aid and training that was given to Ukrainian forces prior to the Russian offensive in 2022, so far Israeli aid has been limited to a primarily “humanitarian” and not military effort. Tel Aviv has recently approved the supply of anti-drone equipment and early warning systems to aid Ukraine in its fight against Russia, yet there has been no public commitment towards lethal military aid. According to various reports this year, the US government has applied pressure on the Israeli regime to supply Kiev, the Pentagon even decided to send US arms that were stored inside occupied Palestine to Ukraine. On top of this there have been calls from members of Israel’s Knesset for the Israeli Prime Minister to change course and take a harder line against Russia.
Benjamin Netanyahu is now faced with a Ukrainian attempt to put him in the spotlight and apply public pressure in order to gain more support from the Israeli regime. From the public statements of Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel, we can clearly see that there is an argument articulated which assumes that Israel is a peace supporting democracy and that its refusal to back Ukraine sufficiently will land the “peaceful” “Western” “democracy” a negative place in history. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also repeated this line on Israel, even stating during one of his speeches to the Israeli Knesset that “the threat we face is the same, for us and for you [Israel]…the destruction of a people and even a name”.
Kiev accuses Moscow of committing countless warcrimes, annexing its territory, in addition to being an illegally occupying power. At the same time it sees that the only problem with Israel is its refusal to sanction Russia, call VladImir Putin a war criminal, and supply state-of-the-art offensive military equipment to its military. This is to say, in simple terms, that Ukrainian politicians are either putting on a play for the sake of maintaining their propaganda, or, they are mentally not competent enough to spell their own names. As Israel is one the most infamous illegal occupiers, has illegally annexed territories from Palestine and Syria, and has committed so many internationally documented warcrimes that they are simply too numerous to outline in this article. Needless to say, this is a wildly hypocritical and contradictory stance by Ukraine. It is ludicrous to think that Kiev truly believes their dispute with Israel comes down to any moral crisis. Therefore we must look deeper.
Although Israel has voted against the Russian Federation at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), taken a clearly pro-Ukrainian position in openly standing with them, and has sent aid to Ukraine, it is not exactly performing in the same manner as its fellow Western allies. This is due to Tel Aviv’s location, history, and the current power dynamics of the Middle East. Israel has both a large Ukrainian and Russian Jewish population, both with strong links inside the two waring nations; some of the most powerful Russian oligarchs and even organized crime networks are tied to Israel; and as part of Vladimir Putin’s international balancing act, he has also formed a cordial friendship of sorts with Israel’s current Premier.
Additionally, some of the Ukrainian neo-Nazi groups that Moscow has been fixated on eliminating, have links to Israeli duel citizens. The infamous Azov Movement was for instance co-founded by Israel-Ukrainian duel national, Natan Khazin, who formerly served in the Israeli military and was based inside the Gaza Strip. There have been numerous examples of Israeli ex-military operatives fighting for Ukrainian ultra-nationalist groups too. Although this may not be directly linked to the Israeli government, such groups have not received criticism from Tel Aviv during the current conflict.
When it comes to Russia-Israel relations, the Zionist regime also understands that any break in relations with Moscow could result in consequences for their military in Syria. If Russia puts its foot down and decides that Israeli airstrikes cannot continue on Syrian soil any longer, this would be a huge strategic loss for the Israeli government. Another element to this is Russia’s potential to aid Israeli enemy forces inside the region.
Unlike former Israeli PM, Yair Lapid, who had taken a “neutral stance” that had caused severe verbal disputes with Russia, Benjamin Netanyahu has maintained the position that Israel had to preserve a balance with Russia and ensure it remains an ally. Earlier this June, Russia even announced that it was going to open a branch of its Tel Aviv based embassy in occupied Jerusalem, which was essentially viewed by Israel as further normalizing their occupation of the city. Netanyahu had criticized his predecessor’s stances towards the Ukraine conflict and had opted to remain more neutral, as to not anger Moscow.
None of the above mentioned moves from any side have been taking into consideration moral questions. Rather they are based upon politics, as usual. The most likely reason why Ukraine is using its current line of arguments against Israel, is simply to extract as much aid as possible and to signal to Israel’s Western allies that they should pressure it to do more. However, Benjamin Netanyahu understands the value of Russia to Israeli stability, and as long as it is not losing its special relationship with Washington and the collective West, it is not likely that the Israeli Prime Minister will take the step of sending lethal military aid — at least this will not be publicly announced.
