Israel has become involved in the global crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by attempting to mediate between the two sides after shuttle diplomacy carried out by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
Bennett met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in an unannounced visit earlier this week and communicated with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The Israeli moves, which Tel Aviv says are in coordination with the US, France, and Germany, were followed by Bennett’s meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Latvia to brief them about the outcome of his meeting with Putin in Moscow.
However, the US has not praised Israel for taking such action, raising questions about Bennett’s motives. His bid to mediate parallels the mediation efforts by Belarus, which hosted talks between Russia and Ukraine, and the Turkish mediation that wants to hold a meeting between the two sides. Washington is also unhappy at the ambiguity of Israel’s position on the Ukraine crisis.
Several Israeli analysts say that Bennett’s move to mediate in the crisis stems from personal motives because he wants to boost his popularity at home and gain international recognition for playing a mediating role in one of the world’s most serious international crises since World War II.
They believe Bennett’s efforts in this crisis are an “uncalculated gamble”.
Israeli concerns over Bennett’s mediation are also due to uncertainties about whether Washington supports it, which could further add to tensions between the two countries on the Ukrainian crisis. His attempts are unlikely to succeed due to Tel Aviv’s inability to put pressure on Moscow and Kyiv.
Israel needs good relations with Russia in order that it can move freely against Iran and Hizbullah in Syria. Israel’s relationship with Ukraine is also intricate because tens of thousands of Jews live in Ukraine.
Israel does not want to anger the Ukrainian regime and its allies, in order to protect these Jews. As a result, Israel was forced to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine but without joining the anti-Russia camp.
Israeli Jews of Ukrainian origin have left their mark on the Israeli state since its establishment in 1948. Most notably, former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, who signed the Oslo Peace Agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), and Israel’s most famous prime minister, Golda Meir, were of Ukrainian origin.
Former Israeli defence minister Moshe Dayan, whom Israel views as one of the most influential figures in the first 30 years of Israel’s creation, was also of Ukrainian origin. Dayan played a key role in formulating the Camp David Peace Agreement between Israel and Egypt when he was minister of foreign affairs.
Zelensky, who often says that Judaism is his religion, has adopted policies that extend the special relationship between Kyiv and Tel Aviv. He was one of the first world leaders who expressed willingness to recognize Occupied Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to eventually relocate the Ukrainian embassy there, once former US president Donald Trump had taken a similar step. At the time, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuk said his country was hoping to open a branch in Jerusalem in 2022.
Zelensky has gone beyond showing support for Israel by asserting that the challenges facing his country and Israel are “similar”. He has compared the “suffering” of the people of Israel and Ukraine.
At the Kyiv Jewish Forum last year when the US and Western countries were warning about a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, Zelensky said that “we know what it’s like not to have our own state. We know what it means to defend one’s own state and land with weapons in hand at the cost of our own lives.”
“Both Ukrainians and Jews value freedom, and they work equally for the future of their states to become to their liking and not the future that others want for them. Israel is often an example for Ukraine,” he said.
When in early March Russian planes bombed the Ukrainian television tower in the capital Kyiv located near the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial, Zelensky immediately tweeted in Hebrew urging Jews around the world to show support for his country.
He stated that he has family in Israel and has visited there many times, adding that “I am now addressing all Jews of the world. Do you not see what is happening? For this reason, it is very important that millions of Jews around the world do not remain silent now.”
The special relationship between Israel and Ukraine was disrupted when Israel refused to provide Ukraine with defence systems to avoid antagonising Moscow. Israel again refused to provide these systems before and during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, Israel has stepped up humanitarian aid to Ukraine and established a field hospital there in an effort to defuse Kyiv’s anger.
Israel has also taken advantage of the Ukraine crisis to step up the pace of bringing Jews of Ukrainian origin to Israel, and it has established settlements on Palestinian land to house them.
Israel has announced that it has received some 2,000 Ukrainian Jews, and Israeli Minister of the Interior Ayelet Shaked said there are 200,000 Ukrainians who are eligible to emigrate to Israel under Israel’s “law of return” for Jews around the world.
Shaked stressed, however, that Israel does not want to receive Ukrainian citizens since Europe is open to them and Israel would have trouble receiving the millions of Ukrainians who are fleeing the war.
A Palestinian report issued by an institution affiliated with the PLO said that Israel is building 1,000 settlement housing units to accommodate Jews from Ukraine. The report said that Israel aims to accommodate them in residential buildings of various sizes in compounds for new Jewish immigrants. They will be located near the northern border in the Negev, Wadi Araba, and Wadi Yanabie near Beisan areas and in the Jordan Valley.
Observers believe that the Ukraine crisis is a serious challenge to Israeli policy since Tel Aviv is trying to take positions that satisfy all the parties, despite the sharp polarisation around the world on the Ukraine war.
Israel wants to make the greatest gains it can from the crisis by playing the peace-broker on the global stage and focusing attention at home on the strength of the incumbent government.
It also wants to create a demographic advantage at the expense of the Palestinians by receiving hundreds of thousands of Jews from Ukraine, persuading them to live in Israel and promoting the notion of a “national home” for Jews of different nationalities around the world.
*A version of this article appears in print in the 10 March, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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