It wasn’t as surprising or unexpected as it was sad and shameful.
On Monday, Israel joined such bastions of democracy as North Korea, Nicaragua, and Sudan in supporting the US and Russia in voting against a UN General Assembly resolution that strongly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the war’s third anniversary and reaffirmed Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
Ninety-three countries voted in favor of the resolution, compared to 18 that voted with Russia and 65 that abstained.
The decision to abandon Ukraine by voting against it for the first time since the war began was probably a no-brainer for Israel, following US President Donald Trump’s placing the blame for the war squarely on the head of Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump brazenly called Zelensky a dictator and challenged his legitimacy as Ukraine’s leader.
Until now, Jerusalem had to walk a thin line between its moral stance supporting Kyiv, and it needs to maintain civil ties with Moscow, due to its potential influence on Syria, Iran, and many other enemies of Israel.
Trump's unequivocal support
However, Trump’s unequivocal support of Israel in its war against Hamas and in efforts to retrieve the remaining hostages in Gaza, in essence, has forced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government into being Trump’s hostage.
Netanyahu dares not risk the wrath of the powerful and erratic leader of the free world, lest he impulsively change his mind and begin imposing restrictions and demands on Israel, as opposed to the carte blanche it has received since Trump came to office to handle the situation in Gaza as he deems fit.
Which begs the question: Does Netanyahu believe that Trump’s stance on Gaza and the hostages could be altered by a vote at the UN that doesn’t jibe with the US position?
If Trump really believed that supporting Israel is the right thing to do, or if Israel thought that he was sincere in his position, then what would it matter which way Israel voted at the UN on Ukraine and Russia?
Netanyahu must think that Trump would be willing and capable of abandoning Israel just as quickly as he abandoned Ukraine. So there wasn’t much of a choice besides lining up behind the US in refusing to condemn Russia.
In doing so, Israel bows before Trump, thus assuring his continued support in Israel’s efforts to free the hostages and defeat Hamas. And it also keeps Russia happy, with Moscow hopefully also able to wield influence on those issues.
Ukraine doesn’t have the political currency to do those things, so for Israel’s interests, the vote made sense. But should political expediency be the primary driver behind Israel’s decisions regarding who and what to support?
As former prisoner of Zion Natan Sharansky wrote this week in The Free Press, “Ukraine’s struggle against Russia’s imperial ambitions protects the future of the free world.” It’s a shame that Israel chose to side with the imperialists. What will Jerusalem be forced to do next to keep Trump satisfied?