Israel Improves Its Ties with a Beleaguered Ukraine

Despite the burdens of history—and Israel’s desire to maintain good relations with Moscow—the Jewish state is fostering better economic and military ties with Ukraine. David Daoud writes:

Israel has been sending military aid to Ukraine, much to the chagrin of neighboring Russia. Israel reportedly began exploring the expansion of arms trade with Ukraine after Moscow lifted a ban on the sale of the advanced S-300 missile-defense system to Iran, a move it has long opposed. Israel has also offered to assist Kiev diplomatically in its conflict with Moscow over Crimea, which Russia invaded and then annexed in 2014.

Trade between Israel and Ukraine now totals $1.3 billion dollars, and includes cooperation in the hi-tech sector, where Israel is a world-leader. . . .

“The people of Israel understand what it means to fight for their own state,” said Oleg Vishnikov, a Ukrainian businessman who was given the title of Israel’s honorary consul [in the city of Lviv]. “The people of Israel are experts at security, and I want this expertise to be shared with Ukraine.”

Read more at Algemeiner

More about: Israel & Zionism, Israel diplomacy, Russia, Ukraine, War in Ukraine

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