\n
JERUSALEM , Oct 19 (AP) \u2014 The Iranian-made drones that Russia sent slamming into central Kyiv this week have complicated Israel\u2019s balancing act between Russia and the West.<\/p>\n
Israel has stayed largely on the sidelines since Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine last February so as not to damage its strategic relationship with the Kremlin. Although Israel has sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine, it has refused Kyiv\u2019s frequent requests to send air defense systems and other military equipment and refrained from enforcing strict economic sanctions on Russia and the many Russian-Jewish oligarchs who have second homes in Israel.<\/p>\n
But with news of Moscow\u2019s deepening ties with Tehran, Israel\u2019s sworn foe, pressure is growing on Israel to back Ukraine in the grinding war. Israel has long fought a shadowy war with Iran across the Middle East by land, sea and air.<\/p>\n
Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, a military spokesman, said the suicide drone attack in Ukraine had raised new concerns in Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking at it closely and thinking about how these can be used by the Iranians toward Israeli population centers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The debate burst into the open on Monday, as an Israeli Cabinet minister called on the government to take Ukraine\u2019s side. Iran and its proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen have threatened Israel with the same delta-shaped, low-flying Shahed drones now exploding in Kyiv.<\/p>\n
The Iranian government has denied providing Moscow with the drones, but American officials say it has been doing so since August.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no longer any doubt where Israel should stand in this bloody conflict,\u201d Nachman Shai, Israel\u2019s minister of diaspora affairs, wrote on Twitter. \u201cThe time has come for Ukraine to receive military aid as well, just as the USA and NATO countries provide.\u201d<\/p>\n
His comments set off a storm in Russia. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Telegram that providing military aid to Ukraine would be \u201ca very reckless move\u201d by Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will destroy all interstate relations between our countries,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
But Shai doubled down on Tuesday, while stressing his view did not reflect the government\u2019s official stance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe in Israel have a lot of experience in protecting our civilian population over 30 years. We\u2019ve been attacked by missiles from Iraq and rockets from Lebanon and Gaza,\u201d Shai, a former military spokesman, told The Associated Press. \u201cI\u2019m speaking about defense equipment to protect Ukraine\u2019s civilian population.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Israeli prime minister\u2019s office and Defense Ministry both declined to comment.<\/p>\n
For years, Russia and Israel have enjoyed good working relations and closely coordinated to avoid run-ins in the skies over Syria, Israel\u2019s northeastern neighbor, where Russian air power has propped up embattled President Bashar Assad. Russia has let Israeli jets bomb Iran-linked targets said to be weapons caches destined for Israel\u2019s enemies.<\/p>\n
Israel has also been keen to stay neutral in the war over concern for the safety of the large Jewish community in Russia. Israel frets about renewed antisemitic attacks in the country, with its long history of anti-Jewish pogroms under Russian czars and purges in the Soviet era. Over 1 million of Israel\u2019s 9.2 million citizens have roots in the former Soviet Union.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett maintained strict neutrality after the invasion, refraining from condemning Russia\u2019s actions and even trying to position himself as a mediator in the conflict. As the U.S. and European Union piled sanctions on Russia, Bennett became the only Western leader to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.<\/p>\n
But in recent months, Israel\u2019s cautious stance has grown more fraught.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who took over as caretaker leader over the summer, has been more vocal than his predecessor. As foreign minister, he described reports of atrocities in Bucha, Ukraine as possible war crimes. After Russia bombarded Kyiv last week, he \u201cstrongly\u201d condemned the attacks and sent \u201cheartfelt condolences to the victims\u2019 families and the Ukrainian people,\u201d sparking backlash from Moscow.<\/p>\n
Tensions rose further when a Russian court in July ordered that the Jewish Agency, a major nonprofit that promotes Jewish immigration to Israel, close its offices in the country. Israel was rattled. A hearing to decide the future of the agency\u2019s operations in Russia is set for Wednesday. \u201cAnything could happen,\u201d said Yigal Palmor, the agency\u2019s spokesman.<\/p>\n
Now, Israeli alarm about the Iranian drones buzzing over Kyiv has heightened the debate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Israel can help even more,\u201d said Amos Yadlin, a former chief of Israeli military intelligence. He described Israel\u2019s \u201cknowledge on how to handle aerial attacks,\u201d its \u201cintelligence about Iranian weapons\u201d and \u201cability to jam them\u201d as potentially crucial to Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Iran is battle testing weapons that could be used against Israel\u2019s northern and southern borders, argued Geoffrey Corn, an expert on the law of war at South Texas College of Law in Houston.<\/p>\n
Iran backs Lebanon\u2019s Hezbollah militant group and Hamas in the Gaza Strip \u2014 both of which have fought lengthy wars against Israel.<\/p>\n
If the drones prove effective in Ukraine, Iran will \u201cdouble down on their development,\u201d Corn said. If they are shot down, Iran will have an \u201copportunity to figure out how to bypass those countermeasures.\u201d<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s air defense system, the Iron Dome, has boasted a 90% interception rate against incoming rocket fire from Gaza. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has hit out at Israel for not providing Kyiv with the anti-rocket system.<\/p>\n
Former Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky, a onetime Soviet dissident, criticized his country\u2019s reluctance to help Ukraine in an interview with the Haaretz daily on Tuesday, deriding Israel as \u201cthe last country in the free world which is still afraid to irritate Putin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, some insist that Israel must not enter the fray precisely because it differs from its Western allies.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not Germany or France,\u201d said Uzi Rubin, a former head of Israel\u2019s missile defense program. \u201cWe are a country at war.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
JERUSALEM , Oct 19 (AP) \u2014 The Iranian-made drones that Russia sent slamming into central Kyiv this week have complicated Israel\u2019s balancing act between Russia and the West. Israel has stayed largely on the sidelines since Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine last February so as not to damage its strategic relationship with the Kremlin. Although Israel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-203124","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203124\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}