Mediapart: The war in Ukraine .. Why is Israel committed to neutrality?

An article in the French Mediapart believes that the government of Israel, no matter how the situation develops, will avoid any clash with Russia and will not accept joining Western sanctions or supplying Ukraine with weapons. Historic.

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by Joseph Konfavro, who explained that Israel did not exceed the summoning of the Moscow ambassador when Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that it was not surprising that his country accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of being a Nazi (although he is a Jew) because Hitler himself had Jewish blood, thus raising an old secret stating that he is a Nazi. That Hitler's Jewish origin was concealed that provoked his hatred of Jews.

A Nazi, even though he's a Jew

Ukraine had described the Russian accusation of its president as "blatant and unforgivable, and a terrible historical mistake", so that outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett intervened and settled the matter by claiming that he had received an apology from Russian President Vladimir Putin for Lavrov's statements during a phone call, before Kremlin spokesman Dmitry wrote Peskov's press release relating to the conversation contains no sign of the aforementioned apology.

The writer also says that Israel saw in Lavrov's statements an explicit message addressed to it and to Moscow's desire for Israel to maintain a diplomatic balance between the warring parties, especially since neutrality achieves its interests.

87 Ukrainian Jews arrived in Israel hours before the start of the Russian invasion (Al-Jazeera)

The article referred to Israel's tacit agreement with Russia to let it strike Iranian bases in Syria, and to keep the large Jewish communities in Ukraine and Russia, where there are about 1.5 million Jews in Russia and about half a million in Ukraine.

balanced position

However, this neutrality, according to the writer, does not satisfy Moscow nor Washington, whose administration has demanded that Israel join the Western sanctions against Russia, and it does not satisfy Kyiv, whose president said that "it is possible to mediate between two countries, but not between good and evil," insisting - and he is the president. The only Jew outside Israel and Lithuania - that the invasion of Ukraine was a tragedy for "Jews and for the world," criticizing Israel's "indifference" and refusal to deliver air defense weapons to his country.

The article added: If Israel claims that the Iron Dome is not technically suitable for Ukraine, the Moscow-born researcher Alexander Greenberg, who today defines himself as a “Russian-speaking religious Orthodox Zionist Israeli Jew without being Russia” finds an excuse not to supply Kyiv with weapons, because Israel's balanced position is in line with the priority of ensuring its security on the borders with Syria and Lebanon, where Russia is a major player. Even Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said before the war, "We have a common border with Russia."

Scapegoat and double standards

As for the Israeli Nina, who emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1990, "there is a high level of anti-Semitism in Russia, where there are large Jewish communities, and we don't know what could happen," says Kirill Fefferman, a professor at Ariel University. "The situation is explosive. If he loses One of the two countries is war, it is likely that a scapegoat will be sought. My research has shown me enough that it was our historical role, and that there was no better scapegoat than the Jews."

The article concludes that the Ukrainian war raised another issue on the other side, in Palestine, where the activists of the Palestinian cause, since the beginning of the Russian invasion, have been emphasizing the issue of "double standards" regarding the international community's reaction to the military occupation of the land by a foreign power, especially That there is a similarity also affects the political will of Israel, which cannot condemn the Russian military actions very clearly.