The False Narrative of Israeli Neutrality in Russia’s Ukraine Invasion By Lahav Harkov
The nation is not ‘sitting on the fence,’ but is playing an important mediating role.
Jerusalem — “We condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Israeli foreign minister Yair Lapid said this week, during an official visit to Romania. “[The invasion] has no justification, and we call on Russia to stop the shooting and the attacks and solve the problems around the negotiating table.”
Additionally, Lapid said, “Israel will not be a route to bypass sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States and other western countries.”
But Israel’s prime minister, Naftali Bennett, has been a bit vaguer in his messaging. He’s spoken about “solidarity with the people of Ukraine” and is careful not to mention Russia when he talks about the war. In fact, he doesn’t talk about war; his messages speaking out against the bloodshed mostly say “the situation” — which is a more commonly used catch-all in Hebrew than in English, but still fairly weak — and recently, “the fighting.”
Israel also hedged at the U.N. when the war in Ukraine began. The U.S. gathered signatures for a Security Council resolution from countries that are not on the council in order to show a united front against the Russian invasion, even though Moscow would inevitably veto it. Israel declined to sign. Days later, Lapid said that Israel is “on the right side of history,” and announced that Israel would vote in favor of the resolution against Russia in the U.N. General Assembly — and it did.
As a result of that initial reaction and more, Israel has been accused of not taking a side in this conflict that has united the West in opposition to Russia. However, Jerusalem has pushed back against the claim that it has been neutral or silent on Ukraine. Indeed, the situation is more complex than some Western media reports have suggested and reflects Israel’s being in a unique position to play an important mediating role, even if the messaging has at times been muddled.
Lapid, notably, has condemned Russia twice this week, in addition to several other times before that.
“We are not sitting on the fence; we are clearly on the side of the West. . . . That is an incorrect description. We are doing a lot, more than most countries,” Israeli health minister Nitzan Horowitz, who orchestrated an Israeli field hospital in western Ukraine, told Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan. “We declared that we are unequivocally with Ukraine and against the Russian invasion.”
When asked about his alleged fence-sitting, Bennett told Israel’s Channel 13 that “what is described in the media is wrong,” because “the different players want us in a place in which we can hold dialogue with everyone.”
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That dialogue has become a key element in Israel’s response to the war on Ukraine, which became much clearer after Bennett jetted to Moscow and Berlin to meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin and German chancellor Olaf Scholz on March 5, violating the Sabbath that he normally observes, because of the exemption in Jewish law for saving lives.
In the ensuing 24 hours, Bennett spoke with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky three times, Putin again, and French president Emmanuel Macron. He has been in touch with all the aforementioned players repeatedly since then.
Israel’s involvement in Ukraine-Russia talks goes back to last February, when Zelensky asked then-prime minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu to help him speak with Putin, who had been snubbing him. That evolved into Zelensky wanting a summit with Putin in Jerusalem. Netanyahu tried twice, once directly with Putin and once with officials in his office, and was rebuffed. Zelensky asked Bennett for assistance communicating with Putin after Bennett took office, and the new Israeli prime minister brought up the matter in his first meeting with the Russian president in October; Putin reportedly called Zelensky a Nazi. Bennett figured that was the end of that.
But Kyiv continued appealing to Bennett to serve as mediator. After Russia invaded Ukraine, the Israeli prime minister agreed to try again.
Someone briefed Israeli diplomatic analysts on the talks last week, which included a description of the Russian position, some musing about Zelensky’s position, and a consideration of how hard it would be to make any concessions in the current environment. One of those analysts, in a major newspaper, unkindly took that message and spun the narrative as: Zelensky the actor has fallen in love with the role of Che Guevara, “and he knows very well how Che Guevara ended up.”
Some Ukrainian Israel-watchers understandably treated that report with abject horror in off-the-record conversations. They didn’t seem to have paid as much attention to the end of the article when the analyst said: “It’s not about being Chamberlain or Churchill; Zelensky’s dilemma is real and no one will pressure him to compromise or fight. This is about the fate of Ukraine and only Ukrainians can decide.”
That is my theory of how we ended up, several days later, with a report in Axios citing one anonymous Ukrainian official saying that Bennett is pressuring Zelensky to surrender to Putin. The official thought the Che comparison was coming from Bennett’s office; it wasn’t. And the reported pressure was not consistent with most of what Ukrainian officials were saying on the record, under their own names. But that didn’t stop the story from being picked up widely.
Jerusalem and Kyiv rushed to deny the accusation, and the following day, Zelensky himself said he was “generally positive” about Bennett’s mediation efforts and he wants Jerusalem to host negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.
Bennett spoke with Putin and Zelensky again on Monday.
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One of the reasons Zelensky believes that Bennett is an appropriate mediator and Jerusalem is a good place for talks with Russia is because Israel has had good relations with both countries in recent years.
There is a fair argument to be made that Macron and Scholz are involved in negotiations, but they took Ukraine’s side much more vocally than Bennett, who made the argument that he has to keep his comments subtle in order to be able to mediate.
But neither France nor Germany has the Russian Army sitting on its border — Israel does.
The Russian Army has been the dominant force in Syria since 2015, thanks in part to American unwillingness to get involved and enforce its “red lines” in the war-torn state that shares a border with Israel.
The other major force in Syria is Iran, whose leaders regularly threaten to destroy Israel.
In “the war between wars,” the Israeli Air Force has struck at Iranian bases and weapons convoys in Syria to prevent the Islamic Republic from entrenching itself too close to Israel’s border or arming Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group also bent on Israel’s destruction.
But before Israel does that, it contacts the Russian military so that it can get its soldiers out of the way. Russia doesn’t support Israel’s strikes, but it doesn’t want its men dying unnecessarily.
The “deconfliction mechanism,” as its originator, Netanyahu, named it, has worked well most of the time. If it breaks down, Israel could risk a military confrontation with Russia.
So far, Russia hasn’t taken Israel voting against it at the UNGA or otherwise condemning its invasion of Ukraine too badly. Israel’s ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Moscow, but the deconfliction mechanism remains intact. Still, it’s not a risk Israel wants to take.
In addition, Israel is in a unique situation in that there are hundreds of thousands of Jews and their descendants in Ukraine and Russia who qualify for Israeli citizenship. In fact, Israel has already prepared a plan for up to 100,000 of them, in anticipation of a major wave of immigration.
Israel, as the Jewish State, tries to be sensitive to the situation of Jews worldwide and is concerned about its actions putting them in danger. Ukraine and Russia are both places in which Jews have a very bloody past.
The potential negative consequences for Jews in Russia, where an iron curtain appears to be descending once again, is great. Antisemitism is rampant in Russia. Putin has been described as philosemitic, and he certainly is friendlier to Jews than any Russian leader before him, but Jews have a long history of being protected by rulers only to be persecuted when they change their minds or are replaced by someone else.
Complicating matters even more, about 10 percent of Israelis come from across the former Soviet Union, many of whom have extensive familial, cultural, and economic ties to Russia and to Ukraine.
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So what is Israel doing?
Israel sent over 100 tons of humanitarian aid, mostly for refugees crossing Ukraine’s western borders, at the beginning of the month. That aid included 17 tons of medical equipment and medicines, such as antibiotics, dressings for wounds, and hospital supplies. It also included emergency water-purifying kits, 3,000 tents, 15,000 blankets, 3,000 sleeping bags, and 2,700 down coats.
The cabinet approved funding for a field hospital to be constructed in Ukraine that will include pediatric and maternity wards, as well as a telemedicine center, so that doctors located in Israel can help with the efforts.
Israel is also ready to accept a huge number of refugees. As mentioned, Israel has prepared to absorb up to 100,000 new immigrants from Ukraine and Russia. In addition, Ukrainians who do not qualify to immigrate will be allowed to seek refuge temporarily if they have friends or family in Israel.
Considering Israel’s small size — in both land and population — and its location, far from the warzone, it’s doing a lot to help.
There are always arguments to be made that Israel could be doing more.
In light of its sensitive position, Israel has declined to send any military aid to Ukraine. The calls for Israel to give Ukraine an Iron Dome show a lack of understanding of this war, the missile-defense system, or both. It defends against much cruder rockets and missiles than the ones Russia is using. Plus, Israel doesn’t have enough to cover its own small territory, transporting Iron Dome batteries from one location to another at wartime, so how can it cover a country that is 27 times larger?
Approving more relevant requests from other countries that want to give Israeli weapons, such as Spike anti-tank missiles, to Ukraine would probably cross a dangerous line that could risk a conflagration in Syria.
However, the Israeli government could be sending protective gear to the Ukrainian army, such as helmets and ceramic vests, which the ambassador to Israel has emphasized are needed, and still toe the delicate line with Russia. And Bennett can say more; no one can seriously believe that he doesn’t agree with Lapid’s condemnation of the invasion at this point.
But the pernicious message, echoing through social and traditional media, that Israel is neutral or silent in this war just because it doesn’t sound the same as the U.S. is simply false.
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