Illustrative Image
One of the reasons why Kiev will not receive Iron Dome batteries lies on the Levant.
Written by Uriel Araujo, researcher with a focus on international and ethnic conflicts
Recently, influential US Senators Chris Van Hollen (Democrat) and Lindsey Graham (Republican) sent a letter to the US Senate Armed Services complaining about the fact that Israel is blocking the transfer of American US Iron Dome batteries to Ukraine. Meanwhile, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, published on June 28, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave his explanation on why his country will not allow Kiev to have such missile defense batteries.
Iron Dome is a joint Israeli-American project and thus any deal with a third party regarding a sale or transfer must be approved by both countries. So far, the Jewish state has been vetoing the system’s transfer to Kiev. In the aforementioned interview, Netanyahu had this to say: “We are concerned with the possibility that systems we would give to Ukraine would fall into Iranian hands and could be reverse-engineered, and we would find ourselves facing Israeli systems used against Israel itself. And, by the way, that is not a theoretical threat because Western systems, anti-tank systems for example, did exactly that journey, and we now find them on our borders, with Hezbollah.”
Asked on what size the Jewish state stands on the current confrontation, he replied that “we’ve expressed our sympathy” (to Ukraine), but said that “there is a limit: limitations we have and concerns and interests that we have”, also adding that “our pilots are flying right next to Russian pilots over the skies of Syria in order to block the attempts of Iran to establish a second Hezbollah front in Syria.”
Despite all talk about it, one should keep in mind that the Iron Dome, for one thing, was not designed to intercept large, guided missiles – but Kiev insists the system could at least offer some protection against Grad and other smaller rockets, as well as Russian drones. The same way Western air defense systems cannot really protect Ukraine that much, Kiev’s wishful thinking aside, the truth is that any Iron Dome transfer would mostly be symbolic: Russian weaponry is of course much more sophisticated than the Palestinian rockets which the Dome routinely shoots down with such a high rate of success in Israel. To have a huge military impact, Ukraine would in fact need dozens of Iron Dome batteries, which do not even currently exist.
A country such as Israel is thus basically “bullied” by its Western partners to sort of “pledge allegiance” to Kiev’s cause by making concessions which, from the point of view of Israeli national interest, are just pointless.
On June 25, the Ukrainian embassy in Tel Aviv, employing an unprecedentedly harsh tone against its partner, criticized what it described as the Jewish state’s “pro-Russian” position, a label which today, in the Russophobic West, seems to be the ultimate insult, and went on to accuse Tel Aviv of “blatant disregard for moral boundaries.” The Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuk was predictably summoned and reprimanded for that. In response, Israeli Foreign Minister Cohen insisted his country is pro-Ukrainian, citing its votes at the UN General Assembly (UNGA), the dispatch of humanitarian aid, and some military cooperation.
Tel Aviv in fact has even turned a blind eye to Ukraine’s ongoing glorification of Nazi collaborators since the 2014 Maidan revolution – which is quite remarkable, considering how sensitive the issue is to Israelis and considering that the matter of far-right Ukrainian nationalism even hampers Kiev’s bilateral relations with Poland and Greece.
The Israeli position on the matter of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, in any case, has had its nuances. For example, shortly after the current Russian-Ukrainian conflict broke out in February 2022, Israel’s then-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett acted briefly as a neutral mediator. One of the reasons why, despite all the American and Ukrainian pressure, Tel Aviv has never “turned its back” to Moscow lies in the Levant.
Whether one likes or not Bashar al- Assad, the truth is that, by cooperating with Assad’s Syria, Russia has, by Syrian invitation, played a major role in fighting terrorism in the region, notably by neutralizing the so-called “Islamic State” or Daesh terrorist group bases in Syria – infamous for their plundering and barbaric acts. In doing so, Moscow has certainly promoted peace and stability in the area. At the same time, it has been reported that Russia has turned a blind eye to some anti-Iranian Israeli actions there. Regarding Russian-Israeli relations, neither power wants to upset the other one too much so as to maintain cooperation and good pragmatic relations in a number of spheres.
Kiev’s biggest qualm with Tel Aviv lies, as anyone can see, on the fact that the former has insistently demanded that the latter provides it with weaponry, especially air defense systems – already in October 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, in an interview with French TV5 Channel, that “I don’t know what happened to Israel. I am in shock, because I don’t understand why they couldn’t give us air defenses.” Tel Aviv in turn has indeed consistently denied all such demands and requests, limiting its assistance to non-lethal equipment and humanitarian aid.
The Jewish State and the Russian Federation have an informal “de-escalation” or “deconfliction” agreement regarding the Levant since the end of 2015 and also cooperate on several areas.
To sum it up, Tel Aviv sees Moscow as a great power, with which it must engage in a number of issues in the Middle East and beyond. Russia and Israel, for one thing, have a working relationship today in the Levant, and, from an Israeli point of view, there is no reason to damage bilateral relations.
there are many jews born and living in russia. it’s impossible to make them hate the country they grew up, used to love
that’s probably the stupidest thing ive read today, apart from that retarded copy-paste edit troll…
no kidding. the wailing of “those who idenfity as jewish” in north america about their mistreatment at the hands of the wicked russians is relentless. look at degenerate creeps like anne applebaum or any of the neo-con mouth-pieces.
exactly, or bhl, glücksmann and cohort in france, regularly spinning the russian = bad narrative, citing the pogroms as evidence
these weapons can reach certain radical groups whether sunni, shia, wahhabi, deobandi or barelvi. houthis are not radical though, more moderate. hezbollah is a bit radical.
strange, israel had no issues selling the iron dome to the wahhabi headchoppers in ryadh though…
those in riyadh are madkhalis. madkhalis are pro-sisi and pro-haftar for example.
the very essence of “two-faced”… palestine and syria live!…
this just proves that pootie-poot serves two masters and is not about a multi-polar world!?…
when he tells his dual national(s) living in i$rael and f-u.k.u.$. that they have a choice. come home now!… or stay in those second homes never to return to russia ever again!… that and the announcement that they will be leaving the current un to build their own “house” independent of the current hou$e that russia still belongs to while it’s men and women fight and die for their country fighting i$rael in syria and ukraine!
then and only “then” will russia turn the corner!…
there is no case for dual citizenship. period. you’re either israeli or american. and if you’re jewish, you should not even be given the choice.
rubbish. it proves that the israelis continue to re-jig their relationship as a client state with the us.
you are absolutely right.
lol like the squatters ever had moral boundaries
the isreali apartheid regime are already pushing their luck in syria. the regime knows that russia could flatten the place in a few days if it really had to. it would also have the support of most of the surrounding countries who all have a bone to pick with the regime in isreal.
the isreali apartheid regime also knows that the tides they are a changing in the middle east and they don’t want to miss the boat. soon, it could be bye bye america and thanks for all the fish. bankrupt countries don’t give good business. maybe netty might steal a few more us secrets before that happens.
iran surely must know that the cultural connection israel shares with russia which causes this invisible but inviolate alliance will never be available to iran. if iran and israel go to war putin will ensure israel survives. no doubt.
what cultural connections are those, hasbarat? why would putin have to ensure the survival of the most aggressive, militarist colonial state in the middle-east, one which has had nuclear weapons for over fifty years?
why does he let isf kill iranians and iranian proxies at will in syria. come on clyde, i know your harnessed to the kremlin talking points, but surely you understand that israel is populated to a large extent by russians. bebbi and vlad can converse in russian, yiddish or hebrew. they’re tight as ticks.
idf not isf
i didn’t know that putin was supposed to protect iranians operating in syria. israel is populated to a large extent by russians? i thought the whole reason that they went to israel is because they’re not russians. sorry, there are some aspects of your identitiarianism that i just can never quite sort out. i doubt netanyahu speaks russian nor yiddish, but as he is “culturally” connected to the united states, and not to russia, we know he speaks english.
stressing out about loyalty tests clyde. don’t be coy. you know putin lets the israelis have free access over syria.
are you implying that the russian state has the capacity to control israeli actions over syria?
yes, netanyahu is culturally connected to america. are you nuts or something? netanyahu is from poland. and what identitarianism? netanyahu never said that he is superior or something. he just fights the terrorists.
poor golden shower child, always fact-free. netanyahu was born in the jewish supremacist colonial settler state in palestine, and raised for the most part in the united states.
watch your mouth you faggot because if i ever find you i will kill you. enough is enough.
could you be more pathetic, golden shower child? you spout baseless sentiments and patently false claims, and whine about it, then, like an eleven-year-old cod-player, you make internet death threats to people you’re never going to meet. suicide is always an option for you, golden shower child.
the only jews in russia are left over from the bolshevik days. they are not white russian’s and never will be.
clydie left the world on 1991, he cannot deal that marvellous commie leaders are no more. he is full of grief and he is passing the stages of grief. it depends on what iranian proxies though. hezbollah and fatah (iraq) are proxies of iran while amal and sadrists are not.
says the golden shower child who brings up stalin at every turn. strange that you began referring to me as a commie simply because you could find no evidence whatsoever to support your silly claims about the holodomor.
so you are not a commie. then what are you? at least i am truthful and i say what i am. i am not a basement dweller like you. after all, your whores were violated by capitalists for a couple of pencils back then.
they are both ashkenazis you moron. and yes it is aggressive but it is needed. those palestinian militants are considered terrorist by many countries in the region like egypt, jordan and lebanon. assad regime helps palestinian commies but he fights the palestinian jihadis so they are terrorists also in syria. assad also helped the maronite cause for once.
always with the commies. golden shower child trapped in 1982.
i wasn’t even born in 1982, however, it was nice seeing you losing in afghanistan. try again you faggot.
golden shower child, i wasn’t in afghanistan, and the soviets left there long before you had even formed your magical-thinking, sentiment-driven excuse for a world view. so you absolutely did not see them lose in afghanistan, not from your dad’s rectum where you gestated, nor anywhere else.
those palestinian radicals are mostly puppets of doha and they are also supported by countries like turkey, iran, pakistan and algeria, aka gog magog, for their own interests, despite many palestinians hating turks and shias. they will use them to kill europeans and jews in the end. so yeah.
doha? the forward base for centcom? whose puppet?
hamas mostly, however, they are supported by others.
hamas was created by israeli intelligence to subvert palestinian nationalism. silly li’l golden shower child.
fuck off, idiot. don’t ask for comments dildo.
dry your tears. you’ll be okay.
there is no apartheid in israel. in gaza, however, there is.
your statement is patently false.
your whole existence is patently false
wuz up proffessorrrr abu kuf kuf, bin kuss kuss? askenazi my ass.
israel has small army but good trained. but i don’t know how much it will survive.
turkish goat have a bigger nuts.
strange indeed. they haven’t had any problems to sell this so saudi arabia. this means that these banksters are affraid of russian might, and that they will proove the fact that it doesn’t works. now they’re licking iranian ass, which means hezbollah’s too. pitty these cowards from zionistic wahhabi entity.
were the wahhabis good when they were killing serbians?
there are many serbs who are wahhabis. for example alexander seksan, igor rzhniatovich, whatever his name is, many chetniks are dead fertilizers in syria and so on.
russia you pretcted jesus kingen benjamin kushner netajow … i delcare war on russia —- in 20 years since september 11, military suicides have risen sharply. why? —-
russia suicides decline 30% since 2019—ukraine and usa now epidemic—31 us active military suicide daily
muslims-majority nations, including arab nations should assess their relations with russia. supporting russia in its war in ukraine must be conditional on russia’s support for the palestinians. should never be trusted. russia’s current regime is a zionist regime which supports the israeli neo-fascist regime, including moving the russian embassy to jerusalem.
we suicide by taliban in my oregon ghetto
when all is said and done no matter if the dollar or the multilateral system will win you all know that nothing will change at the top. people who think china has been able to rise to the top without permission are living in a dream. and i have yet to see russia denounce the bolshevic movement and all the terror they caused. from the day the russian tzar was forced to abdicate russia has never again been fully sovereign.
the democrats under biden clearly hate bibi that’s why he’s stepping carefully around russia. too bad the israelis also want to murder iran & syria – which the us currently don’t want – or things would be very clear for the world.
nuke tel aviv! kill them all!
ziomists control putin just like they control biden.
indeed! and where are the voices that have suffered death in the last 8 years in syria with i$rael and f-u.k.u.$. involvement? when do russians recognize treason for what it is with the ex-kgb chief committing it time and again?…
this is why you will never see putin’s offspring giving up their second homes in western europe while daddy plays both sides of the fence at his country’s expense, especially with the rigging of energy and the rouble!
while the zionists murder palestinians day in and day out shame on you putin
so , maybe stop destroying palestinian’s homes and live in jennin camp can help their relations with iran and prevent terrorism , who knows ?
you know what, fuck this comment board, israeli run it.
being on good terms with the racist, terrorist gangsters running israel is nothing to be proud of.
very, very truthful. painfull truth to the bone.