UNESCO’s Jerusalem Resolution Shows Why Neither Russia Nor China Can Replace the U.S.-Israel Alliance

When the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) passed a resolution denying the historic connection between the Jewish people and the Temple Mount, China and Russia joined a number of Arab and Muslim states in voting for it. Besides providing more evidence that the Palestinians are more interested in delegitimizing Israel than in establishing a state, writes Yaakov Amidror, the vote also demonstrates that those who imagine Israel exchanging its ties with America for an alliance with Russia or China are deeply deluded:

China is a weak country. It is trying to climb to the top of the global ladder despite fierce opposition, and it needs all the support it can get on the international stage. The Islamic bloc, comprising 57 of the UN’s 193 members, is therefore crucial. . . .

China has nothing against Israel and would like to improve relations in all areas, but cannot ignore the power the Muslim bloc wields at the UN. This is why it cannot change its voting patterns. It has nothing to do with anti-Semitism or the actual diplomatic ties between Israel and China. [Furthermore], there is a gap between the sympathy young Chinese feel for Israel and the views of the older generation, which is still entangled in outdated perceptions and irrelevant historical obligations. . . .

[In] Russia, too, all that matters is the numbers: the Muslim bloc is larger than the bloc of countries that back Israel, so that is the bloc that receives consistent support.

[Additionally], China and Russia share concerns over Islamic extremists, and it is therefore important that they avoid straining their relationships with Muslim countries. . . . This [too] is not a sign of strength but of weakness.

Israelis who cultivate the pipe dream of substituting Israel’s long-term bond with the U.S. with an alliance with China and Russia should take a long, hard look at UNESCO’s resolutions. Moscow’s and Beijing’s policies lack the ethical basis that pervades U.S. policy, and the chances of forging a similar long-term bond with either are slim.

Israel will always be small and will lack sister-states in the international arena. It is much more naturally inclined to foster deep and binding ties with the U.S. than with countries like Russia and China.

Read more at BESA Center

More about: Israel & Zionism, Israel-China relations, Russia, UNESCO, United Nations, US-Israel relations

What a Strategic Victory in Gaza Can and Can’t Achieve

On Tuesday, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant met in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant says that he told the former that only “a decisive victory will bring this war to an end.” Shay Shabtai tries to outline what exactly this would entail, arguing that the IDF can and must attain a “strategic” victory, as opposed to merely a tactical or operational one. Yet even after a such a victory Israelis can’t expect to start beating their rifles into plowshares:

Strategic victory is the removal of the enemy’s ability to pose a military threat in the operational arena for many years to come. . . . This means the Israeli military will continue to fight guerrilla and terrorist operatives in the Strip alongside extensive activity by a local civilian government with an effective police force and international and regional economic and civil backing. This should lead in the coming years to the stabilization of the Gaza Strip without Hamas control over it.

In such a scenario, it will be possible to ensure relative quiet for a decade or more. However, it will not be possible to ensure quiet beyond that, since the absence of a fundamental change in the situation on the ground is likely to lead to a long-term erosion of security quiet and the re-creation of challenges to Israel. This is what happened in the West Bank after a decade of relative quiet, and in relatively stable Iraq after the withdrawal of the United States at the end of 2011.

Read more at BESA Center

More about: Gaza War 2023, Hamas, IDF