Column
The reaction to aggression against each country plays very differently in the anti-Semitic West.
Israel’s preemptive surrender to Washington will also hamstring American critics of a disaster for the West as well as the Middle East. Biden critics in both countries must stop pulling their punches.
If, in the past, the nexus of Israeli and American interests was an essential element in cooperation between the two countries—beyond their shared values—then, under the Biden administration, the commonality of interests is becoming more and more tenuous.
The Ukrainian leader being hailed as a heroic David fending off an evil Goliath not only chastised the Jewish state; he totally distorted Holocaust history in the process.
The world is right to cheer Ukrainian nationalist fervor and patriotism. Yet why do so many think Jews don’t have the same rights while giving Zelensky a pass for falsifying history?
Israel’s government must learn from the Ukrainians: States that wait for green lights from the West to defend themselves will not survive.
For the purpose of understanding what the Iran deal means in regional terms, one must consider first the dynamics of hostile relations among tribes.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides isn’t just out of touch with the reality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He sees his job not as fostering good relations, but telling Israelis what they can and cannot do.
However sympathetic they feel towards the beleaguered Ukrainians, Americans are still reluctant to place their troops in combat roles absent a direct threat to this country. That reality gives succor to Russia and China, neither of whom have to worry about the twists and turns of public opinion.
U.S. President Joe Biden is now accepting Russian President Vladimir Putin—the man he calls a “war criminal” and who has threatened nuclear war against the West—as the controller of Iran’s nuclear-weapons program.
The guarantees Putin got about the nuclear deal undermine efforts to isolate Russia and show the depth of the administration’s commitment to selling out Israel and its Arab allies.
Caught in the diplomatic and media crossfire caused by the Russian invasion, the disproportionate attention the Jewish state gets has many causes, but is also linked to anti-Semitism.