Why Israel Can’t Risk Sending the Iron Dome to Ukraine

“The U.S.,” writes Jacob Nagel, “is duty-bound to help Ukraine to defeat the brutal invasion of the Russian president Vladimir Putin, [and] Israel must do its utmost to lend a hand.” What neither country should do, the former Israeli national security adviser goes on to argue, is send Kyiv its most advanced missile-defense systems—despite the repeated pleas of Volodymyr Zelensky and members of his government.

The Iron Dome is capable of getting the job done in Ukraine. . . . That being said, there are four reasons why Israel cannot afford to send the Iron Dome and other systems to Ukraine.

The main and most important reason is obvious: it is almost certain that any system provided to Ukraine will ultimately fall into the hands of the Russians and subsequently transferred intact to the Iranians, even if the Ukrainian forces limit their deployment to the Kyiv area (as they have claimed they would in some cases). The know-how and the combat experience will then be used by Iran to develop capabilities that would overcome Iron Dome’s defense and ultimately lower its effectiveness.

The second reason we should not provide such systems is that Israel still doesn’t have enough interceptors for its own operational needs, especially when it comes to countering the threat on the northern border. . . . Third, even if Israel agreed to send weapon systems, it would still take time—presumably, months if not years—before they could be phased into service in Ukraine after the troops get proper training. These three reasons are as valid for the U.S. as they are for Israel.

There is a fourth reason why Israel should not heed Ukraine’s request: the impact on Israel-Russia relations and the dwindling presence of Russia in Syria, as well as the threat of Iran replacing it. While it is less important, this reason should not be overlooked. The war may have led Russia to take troops out of Syria and deploy them in Ukraine. Still, this seemingly positive development has become a source of concern because Iran seeks to fill this vacuum with the backing of Russia and Syria. Having Israel send systems to Ukraine could create a potential threat by Russia, Syria, or Iran to Israel’s freedom of maneuver.

Read more at Israel Hayom

More about: Iron Dome, Israeli Security, U.S. Foreign policy, War in Ukraine

It’s Time for Haredi Jews to Become Part of Israel’s Story

Unless the Supreme Court grants an extension from a recent ruling, on Monday the Israeli government will be required to withhold state funds from all yeshivas whose students don’t enlist in the IDF. The issue of draft exemptions for Haredim was already becoming more contentious than ever last year; it grew even more urgent after the beginning of the war, as the army for the first time in decades found itself suffering from a manpower crunch. Yehoshua Pfeffer, a haredi rabbi and writer, argues that haredi opposition to army service has become entirely disconnected from its original rationale:

The old imperative of “those outside of full-time Torah study must go to the army” was all but forgotten. . . . The fact that we do not enlist, all of us, regardless of how deeply we might be immersed in the sea of Torah, brings the wrath of Israeli society upon us, gives a bad name to all of haredi society, and desecrates the Name of Heaven. It might still bring harsh decrees upon the yeshiva world. It is time for us to engage in damage limitation.

In Pfeffer’s analysis, today’s haredi leaders, by declaring that they will fight the draft tooth and nail, are violating the explicit teachings of the very rabbis who created and supported the exemptions. He finds the current attempts by haredi publications to justify the status quo not only unconvincing but insincere. At the heart of the matter, according to Pfeffer, is a lack of haredi identification with Israel as a whole, a lack of feeling that the Israeli story is also the haredi story:

Today, it is high time we changed our tune. The new response to the demand for enlistment needs to state, first and foremost to ourselves, that this is our story. On the one hand, it is crucial to maintain and even strengthen our isolation from secular values and culture. . . . On the other hand, this cultural isolationism must not create alienation from our shared story with our fellow brethren living in the Holy Land. Participation in the army is one crucial element of this belonging.

Read more at Tzarich Iyun

More about: Haredim, IDF, Israeli society