Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky openly complained last weekend that his country was getting far less military support from Western allies needed to fend off fierce Russian bomb and missile attacks than Israel got last weekend during one night of drone and rocket bombardment from Iran.
The Ukrainian leaders noted that the United States as well as the United Kingdom directly took part in helping Israel defend itself during the Saturday night assault. NATO has taken no such step to deter Russia.
“I want to ask you a question: Is Israel part of NATO?” he said to an internet interviewer. “Israel is not a NATO country. The NATO allies have been defending Israel. They showed the Iranian forces that Israel was not alone.”
He added heatedly, “When Ukraine says that its allies should not turn a blind eye to Russian missiles and drones, we mean action is needed. A bold one.”
On one level, Zelensky’s tone seemed churlish, given the billions in military and humanitarian aid already poured by the West into Ukraine. But his frustration tellingly erupted during a dark moment for Ukraine in its two-year-old war with Russia.
High expectations for last year’s counteroffensive against Russian forces collapsed in a heap of failure. As Russia hit back this winter, Western allies dithered in supplying the new weaponry needed to counter Moscow’s rain of missile, drone and artillery attacks on Ukrainian towns.
Hints of war-weariness have echoed through Europe. Delivery of fresh American aid has run afoul of domestic legislative disputes that seem petty in comparison with Ukraine’s sacrifice of dead and injured soldiers and civilians, and the ever-expanding panorama of destroyed buildings and industrial infrastructure.
And now, wandering Western eyes have shifted to Israel’s problems. “Everything we are asking from partners, even if you cannot act the way you act in Israel, give us what we need and we will do the rest of the job,” implored Dmitro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister.
Fears that Western allies consider Ukraine’s war a second-tier Calvary are not new. In 2014, when Russia first invaded eastern Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula, sanctions on Russia were light and few spoke of arming Ukraine to fight back. At the time, Germany opposed sanctioning Russia altogether.
In February 2022, when Russia invaded and hoped to occupy all of Ukraine, Westerners thought the war would last only a few days. Ukraine surprised everyone by fighting back.
But even after battlefield successes, supplies of US and Europe aid were halting and disjoined. Western allies also declined to meet Zelensky’s request for weapons he considers key to military success, including jet bombers to cover infantry advances and long-range artillery to suppress Russia’s array of big guns.
In Western eyes, Zelensky’s notion that Ukraine can and should try to expel Russia entirely from the country seems ill-considered.
Just before his retirement last November, General Mark Milley, the top US general, suggested Ukraine would have to negotiate an end of the war. He repeated his opinion this spring.
“If the end state is Ukraine is a free, independent, sovereign country with its territory intact, that will take a considerable level of effort yet to come. That’s going to take a long, long time,” Milley told reporters in Washington. “But you can also achieve those objectives — maybe, possibly — through some sort of diplomatic means.”
Zelensky refrains from directly blaming Washington and NATO for the disparities, taking every opportunity presented to express unqualified gratitude while pleading for more help.
Other Ukrainians are not so reserved. Ukrainian lawmaker Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze voiced an especially harsh criticism this week. “The whole Western policy up until now has been to provide us with the weaponry and ammunition calculated to ensure Ukraine doesn’t lose but not necessarily win,” he said.
“During Iran’s attack against Israel, some Western countries contributed to protecting Israeli skies as an important act of solidarity. Kiev keeps requesting the same type of protection from the same group of countries for more than two years now,” remarked Gabrielius Landsbergis, foreign minister of NATO-member Lithuania.
It has not been necessary for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be as diplomatic as Zelensky. He has frequently clashed with US President Joe Biden and flatly rejected US calls to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza and to set up post-war peace talks designed to create a sovereign Palestinian state. Netanyahu once complained that Washington was trying to treat Israel like a “banana republic.”
Yet, there have been no negative concrete repercussions for Israel as the Biden administration steadily sends Israel key military supplies.
Aaron David Miller, a former advisor to the US government on Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, said that despite public expressions of anger, Biden has yet to make Israel pay real costs for failing to cooperate.
“Six months into the war, the administration has still been unwilling – unable – to impose a single cost or consequence that you and I, as normal human beings, would describe as real pressure.”
The difference in responses to Ukraine’s and Israel’s desires ought not to come as a surprise. Israel has built a security arrangement with the US and close relations with much of Europe that span decades. Successive Israeli governments have relied on pro-Israeli lobbyists and friendly politicians to support its positions in Washington.
In any event, the US Congress plans on taking up military aid packages totaling about US$96 billion, most of which is to be divided between Israel and Ukraine. A vote on everything is scheduled for this weekend. The Israeli package, as ever, will pass easily; Ukraine aid will likely face greater scrutiny and negativity.
Ukraine is not a member of NATO, as much as Zelensky likes to talk about Western “allies.” While Israel is also not a member of NATO, it has many Jewish and non-Jewish supporters in the U.S. and that country’s Congress. The U.S. needs to figure out a way to get both Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table. But given what Putin sees in terms of the loss of American influence in the Middle East (and recent Russian gains in Africa), he probably has little incentive for talks.
Israel is puppet master, Ukraine is just puppet, how can Ukraine demanded the same treatment?