Analyst Tags Israel's Ukraine Policy As A 'Disgrace'

At present, no one is calling for the Israel Defense Forces to be dispatched to Ukraine, but a week into the brutish Russian invasion of a sovereign neighboring country, the picture is clear.

Photo Insert: Russian bombing of a communications tower in Ukraine

Official Israel is stammering, hesitant, frightened, expedient, and deceptive. The Western world that we pretend to belong to is closing ranks while we are sitting on the fence, Uri MIsgav said in an essay for the Israel Haaretz on Mar. 3, 2022.

"We’re walking on eggshells, wary of offending Vladimir Putin’s inflated honor. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was even pulled out of a meeting to take an extended phone call from him. The excuse was that it involved Israeli ‘mediation efforts.’ Instead of hanging up on a psychopathic, ruthless dictator, Israel is acting like a Russian client state, nearly an ally,” Misgav added.

Israel refrained from endorsing the initial UN Security Council resolution condemning the Russian invasion, while prior to the UN General Assembly session on the issue, it was decided to downgrade Israel’s presence. Instead of UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan, Israel was represented by his deputy.

How pathetic. It’s shameful and embarrassing. The truth is that it’s simply an embarrassment to be Israeli these days. Even Israel’s limited humanitarian assistance to the victims of Russian aggression was sent with fear and trepidation.

Bennett put it well: We’re assisting Ukraine, but quietly. And while the countries of Europe are opening their gates to hundreds of thousands of refugees from areas where there is fighting and shelling, in Israel every refugee is being asked to post a 10,000-shekel ($3,100) deposit guaranteeing that they won’t remain in the country. It’s nauseating and buttresses the most malicious anti-Semitic claims about Jewish greed.

“What right does Israel have to preach morality to Russia? Of course, all of this undermines the moral foundation of Israel’s endless claims regarding the world’s inaction during the Holocaust: why the world remained silent, why Auschwitz wasn’t bombed, why the gates were closed to Jewish refugees. And to add ironic insult to injury, on the day Western countries imposed stiff economic sanctions on Russia and its oligarchs, in Israel they were rushing to spare Roman Abramovich because he’s giving tens of millions to Yad Vashem,” an irritated Misgav wrote.

It’s hard to believe: Israel’s national Holocaust remembrance institution is taking it upon itself to prop up the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Its donations are more important to it than the fate of millions of Ukrainians under attack. That’s not how a proud, sovereign country acts, one that is confident in its path and its scale of values. It’s the conduct of a shtetl congregation.

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