Alex Traiman
JNS, Feb. 27, 2022
“Over 40,000 Jews live in the country and approximately 200,000 Ukrainians have direct Jewish lineage and qualify for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return.”
With fighting raging in Ukraine, Israel finds itself torn between supporting independent Ukrainian sovereignty and not wishing to anger a newly belligerent world power in Russia.
Should the Jewish state support a diminishing world order led by the United States and Western European powers, or an emerging order in which a China- and Russia-led axis now seeks to dominate international affairs? Must Israel choose?
For Israel, the stakes are high.
“The world order as we know it is changing,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told an IDF officers’ graduation ceremony on Feb. 25. “The world is much less stable, and our region too is changing every day. These are difficult, tragic times. Our hearts are with the civilians of eastern Ukraine who are caught up in this situation,” he added.
Bennett’s statement was carefully crafted.
Alex Traiman is CEO and Jerusalem bureau chief of Jewish News Syndicate.
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