Zelensky Criticizes Israel for Not Helping Ukraine Fend Off Russia

Volodymyr Zelensky has been delivering roving appeals to democratic governments. Pursuant to that, he decried Israel on Sunday for not doing more to help Ukraine fend off Russia’s genocidal invasion.

It might help to recall the empathy he evoked during his address to the US Congress. Because he did so by lacing it with analogies between Ukraine’s ongoing fight and seminal moments in US history, most notably the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the al-Qaeda attacks of 9/11.

This is why nobody should have been surprised when Zelensky did the same during his address to the Israeli Knesset. He did so in this case by lacing it with analogies to the most seminal moment in modern Jewish history, namely the Holocaust.

Here in part is how the Jerusalem Post reported his address on Sunday:

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Pleading for Israel to impose sanctions on Russian businesses, he asked, ‘Why has Israel refrained from sanctions on Russia? Israel needs to give answers to these questions, and after that, live with them.’…

Criticizing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who has mediated between him and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Zelensky said mediation can be between two sides but not between good and evil. … Sources close to Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said they were surprised by how critical Zelensky was in the address.

Comparing what his country is enduring to the Holocaust, Zelensky said the Russians were using terms like ‘the final solution’ against Ukraine. The February 24 date of the Russian invasion was the same date the Nazi Party was founded in 1920, he said, adding that Ukrainians saved Jews in the Holocaust.

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Frankly, that cabinet ministers across the political spectrum were surprised by Zelensky’s criticisms shows just how lost Israel has become. And only its apartheid-like treatment of Palestinians explains why Israel is wandering in the moral wilderness on this genocidal conflict. Because this treatment has caused Israel to betray not only its democratic values but its special duty to “never forget.”

As it happens, though, I preempted Zelensky by decrying this betrayal in too many commentaries to count. But most notable among them are “Israel Votes to Become more like Apartheid South Africa,” March 18, 2015, “Human Rights Watch: Israel Is a De Facto Apartheid State. Duh,” April 28, 2021, and, more on point, “Israel Shuns Ukraine but Begs US to Spare Russian Oligarch,” March 2, 2022.

Simply put, its treatment of Palestinians means that Israel has more in common with Russia and China than with the United States and other countries rallying to help Ukraine.

Even so, it is too hypocritical for words to see Israel, of all countries, taking pride in trying to get Ukrainians to appease rather than fend off the Russian Pootzis aping German Nazis – who are trying to exterminate them.