Two dates will be forever impregnated on our memories. On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine with the goal of destroying the Ukrainian state and Ukrainian identity. On October 7, the Hamas invaded Israel towards Iran’s goal of destroying Israel. Russian and Hamas forces have committed untold war crimes against Ukrainians and Israelis.
The Anti-Western Axis of Evil, led by Russia and Iran, represent existential threats to Israel and Ukraine. The US and NATO should encourage Israel to forge a bilateral security alliance with Ukraine and provide military backing. U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said ‘Russia, China, and, to some extent, North Korea seek to strengthen mutual ties as they grow dissatisfied with the rules-based world order.’ Kirby believes they are unhappy with the rules-based order the U.S. and the West established after 1991, adding ‘We still believe that that rules-based order matters and that there are certain nations that would like to act in ways inimical to that order.’
Russian and Iranian goals of destroying Ukraine and Israel are closely interlinked. Russia has used its war against Ukraine to cement an Anti-Western Axis of Evil that brings together dictatorships with the goal of destroying the so-called US-led unipolar world. Russia and Iran openly state they are fighting Ukraine and Israel which are described as Western ‘puppet states’ occupying historically Russian and Arab lands.
Moscow and Tehran seek to wipe Ukraine and Israel off the face of the earth. The anti-Israeli genocidal chant of ‘From the River to the Sea’ is matched by Russian nationalist calls to eradicate Ukraine and murder millions of Ukrainians.
Russia and Iran have been military allies for decades, including the Kremlin assisting Tehran building its nuclear programme. Their military alliance has deepened since summer 2022 when Iran joined Russia’s war against Ukraine. Military equipment has been sent both ways. Russia has procured additional military supplies from North Korea.
Nuclear proliferation is of no concern to Russia if the countries that acquire nuclear weapons are anti-Western. Ukraine gave up nuclear weapons in the 1990s in return for worthless security guarantees that Russia violated. Russia has no compulsion in providing nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea, and other anti-Western countries. Nuclear Iran would be welcomed by Russia and China in their fight for a so-called multipolar world.
Although Russia and Iran represent existential threats to Ukraine and Israel respectively, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has until now refused to support Ukraine in the war with Russia. Israel has refused to even supply defensive military equipment that could be used to defend Ukrainians against Iranian Shaheed drones.
This is surprising.
After all, Ukraine is led by a Jewish-Ukrainian president whose family suffered in the Holocaust. Ukraine has experienced the biggest Jewish revival in Europe in the last three decades and each year the city of Uman hosts the largest Jewish festival in the birthplace of the founder of Hasidism.
Netanyahu courted Russian President Vladimir Putin as a populist nationalist ideological ally, pandering to pro-Putin Jewish voters who have emigrated from Russia. Netanyahu is a Putinversteher, a German word used to describe politicians and businesspersons who seek to work with Putin. In recent Israeli elections, billboards showed Netanyahu and Putin embracing, smiling, and hugging.
Israel intelligence services ignored the growing Russian-Iranian military cooperation, presumably at the behest of their political masters keen to maintain good relations with Russia. Netanyahu was so confident of his personal relationship with Putin that he never expected him to ditch Israel for Iran and its terrorist proxy Hamas. This is what has happened since the Hamas attack.
Russia’s realignment with terrorist groups in the Middle East and the Kremlin’s forging of an Anti-Western Axis of Evil requires a robust response from the West in an Israeli-Ukrainian military alliance.
Strong support exists in Ukraine for such a step. A new opinion poll found Ukrainians to be far more pro-Israeli than Russians or even Americans with 69% of Ukrainians, in contrast to only 6% of Russians and 38% of Americans, sympathising with Israel. Meanwhile, only 1% of Ukrainians, compared to 21% of Russians and 11% of Americans, sympathise with Palestinians.
On February 24th of last year and October 7, the Anti-Western Axis of Evil declared war on the West and the rules-based international order which has been in place since 1945. The axis is fighting the West in Israel and Ukraine. Russia and Iran view Israel and Ukraine as Western puppet states that should be erased from the map.
Following the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, it is strategically incomprehensible for Israel to continue to refuse to develop a military relationship with Ukraine supported militarily and diplomatically by the US and NATO. Such an alliance would defend Israel and Ukraine from the existential threats posed by Russia and Iran while at the same time sending a strong signal to Moscow and Tehran that the West is ready to defend its interests in eastern Europe, the Greater Middle East, and globally.