Among the multiple errors committed by Benjamin Netanyahu is at the top of the list his blindness to the rapprochement initiated for several years between Moscow and Tehran. This is how since his return to the head of the Israeli government in December 2022, Bibi has simply refused to grant the military aid desired by the Ukrainians. It was not understanding that between his country and the one invaded by Russian troops on February 24, 2022, there are many points in common: after the Iranian attack of April 13 on Hebrew territory, Volodymyr Zelensky did not deceived into calling for “a united global response to the terror of Iran and Russia.”
kyiv-Jerusalem, same fight, that of two democracies, attacked by this axis of evil, “which considers that the hegemony of the West is over and that it is able to inflict a symbolic defeat”, summarizes the geopolitician Thomas Gomart (The acceleration of history, Taillandier, 2024). “Ukraine and Israel are the beacons of an increasingly global fight against Russia, Iran, China and North Korea,” adds Sarah Feinberg, defense expert at Tel Aviv University, “their operational successes are a security envelope for Europe and the United States.”
The message may be clear, but it goes under the radar of European capitals or the United States. The result is heightened competition between Israel and Ukraine in terms of military assistance. Because since October 7, the day of the Hamas attack against Israel, the United States and Europe have increased their deliveries to the Jewish state of rockets, Patriot batteries or spare parts for tanks, abandoning in the trenches of Kharkiv or Avdiivka Ukrainian soldiers.
The result is there: deprived of shells or air defense missiles, Ukraine has never seemed so vulnerable in the face of a Russian offensive which scores new points every day and asphyxiates the country in blue and yellow. Divided and under the influence of those close to Trump, the American Congress still refuses to let go of this famous envelope of 60 billion dollars, essential to the survival of the Ukrainian army. On the other hand, the flow of munitions to Israel is not weakening: according to the American media, in addition to the traditional annual military aid of 3.4 billion dollars, nearly 100 authorizations for arms deliveries have been recorded since the October 7.
Do we really have to choose between Israel and Ukraine? “There is no order of priority,” explains Thomas Gomart, who insists: “this simultaneity of crises sends Europeans back to their great strategic weaknesses.” Weaknesses on which Russia and Iran are counting to push their pawns and increase their influence with the famous “global South”. On the other hand, the West is far from being helpless. Stunned by the flashes of Iranian or Russian attacks in the Israeli and Ukrainian skies, it has no other choice but to mobilize doubly if it wants to avoid the next crisis which could risk being nuclear.
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