No more excuses: Israel must stand with Ukraine

During my appearance on an Israeli television news program in February 2022, I made many enemies for myself. The subject was whether Israel should support Ukraine in its resistance to the Russian offensive that had just begun.

All the panelists argued that Israel should not support Ukraine, a country notorious for its antisemitism and which had always voted against Israel at the UN. Furthermore, they insisted, supporting Ukraine would trigger the Russian forces stationed in Syria to fire on Israeli Air Force jets operating against Iranian bases in the region. "Israel must remain completely neutral," they all concluded — except for me.

I, unlike everyone else, argued that Israel should stand by Ukraine, a democracy whose parts were occupied by a totalitarian ally of Iran. While no one could deny Ukraine's antisemitic past, I said that the country had elected a Jewish president, and among all the former Soviet bloc countries, it had the best pro-Israel voting record at the UN.

Finally, I predicted that the Russians would not dare to fire on our planes, knowing that we would fire back and destroy their air defense systems.

"If we do not support Ukraine, how can we expect the West to support us in our struggle against Iran's totalitarianism? How could we ever look at ourselves in the mirror again?"

When I said these words, the other participants in the panel accused me of risking the lives of our pilots by supporting Ukraine — the country that was absolutely certain to lose the war.

Today, four and a half years later, the war in Ukraine continues, but a Ukrainian defeat is far from certain. In fact, the Ukrainians' technological innovations, especially in the field of drone warfare, have brought the war deep into Russia's territory and population centers. There is no longer an Iranian threat from Syria, and there is no danger that the few Russian soldiers still stationed there will fire on our planes.

Those same Russian air defense batteries that Israelis feared in the past were easily destroyed by our Air Force in Iran. Most importantly: Kyiv has now taken military action against Tehran by attacking an Iranian weapons ship on its way to Russia in the Caspian Sea. All these changes have occurred, but Israel's policy toward Ukraine has remained largely unchanged.

Israel today has almost nothing to gain from maintaining its neutral policy toward Ukraine, and it has much to gain from public and unconditional support for it. Ukraine is our natural ally against Iran and could help us protect our soldiers from the threat of Hezbollah's UAVs.

Supporting Ukraine will bring our policy closer not only to Europe's policy, but also increasingly to the policy of the Donald Trump administration. Supporting Ukraine will allow us, the citizens of the democratic and Jewish State of Israel, to look in the mirror.