Israel Must Live with Choices on Helping Ukraine, Zelensky Tells Knesset

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, addressing the Knesset via video, said on Sunday that Israel would have to live with the choices it makes on whether to help protect Ukraine against the Russian invasion.

Drawing comparisons between the Russian offensive and the “final Solution” — the plan by Nazi Germany to exterminate Jews — Zelensky questioned Israel’s reluctance to sell the Iron Dome defense system to Ukraine.

“Everybody knows that your missile defense systems are the best … and that you can definitely help our people, save the lives of Ukrainians, of Ukrainian Jews,” he said.

“We can ask why we can’t receive weapons from you, why Israel has not imposed powerful sanctions on Russia or is not putting pressure on Russian business. Either way, the choice is yours to make, brothers and sisters, and you must then live with your answer, the people of Israel.”

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid thanked Zelensky, without offering any stepping-up of Israeli assistance.

“I reiterate my condemnation of the attack on Ukraine and thank President Zelensky for sharing his feelings and the plight of the Ukrainian people with members of the Knesset and the government,” Lapid said in a statement. “We will continue to assist the Ukrainian people as much as we can, and we will never turn our backs to the plight of people who know the horrors of war.”

Israel has thus far sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine and condemned the Russian invasion, but has rebuffed Zelensky’s calls for direct military aid. Israel is afraid of antagonizing Russia, which effectively has a presence in Syria. Israel often coordinates with Russia when Israel conducts strikes on Iranian entities in Syria.

Senior Israeli sources were quoted by Channel 12 on Sunday as saying that the policy toward Ukraine won’t change.

They said Zelensky’s rhetoric was meant to “divert the Israeli ship” in Kyiv’s direction, but failed to do so. Israel will continue its diplomatic and humanitarian efforts, but the military aid he requested will not be forthcoming.

Zelensky also drew criticism for his attempts to draw parallels between Jewish and Ukrainian suffering.

“I appreciate the President of Ukraine and support the Ukrainian people in heart and deed, but it is impossible to rewrite the terrible history of the Holocaust,” Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel tweeted.

“Genocide was also committed on Ukrainian soil. The war is terrible, but the comparison to the horrors of the Holocaust and the Final Solution is outrageous.”

Former energy minister MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud) went further: “If Zelensky’s speech was given… in normal [non-war] times, we would have said it bordered on Holocaust denial … Every comparison between a regular war, as difficult as it may be, and the extermination of millions of Jews in gas chambers in the framework of the Final Solution, is a total distortion of history. The same is true for the claim that Ukrainians helped Jews in the Holocaust … The historic truth is that the Ukrainian people cannot be proud of its behavior in the Holocaust of the Jews.

“None of that changes the fact that despite the outrageous use of the Holocaust, we must continue humanitarian aid to the citizens of Ukraine suffering from the war and pray for its end to come soon,” he said.

Meanwhile, a Knesset spokesperson revealed that cyberattacks aimed at disrupting Zelensky’s speech had been thwarted. The Knesset did not name a culprit, but said they were blocked by its information security unit with the help of the Israel National Cyber Directorate.