Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine last February 24, Israel has limited itself to providing only humanitarian support to Ukraine, despite the vociferous and on occasion outright insolent pleas from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuk to do better. But last Saturday, in an interview with the French Channels TF1 and LCI on the sidelines of an official visit to France, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised the possibility of delivering the Iron Dome to Ukraine.
“My administration is taking its marks,” Netanyahu told journalist Guillaume Debré. “We have almost finished composing the government. We will then set the overall political orientation and reflect on this question, from the Iron Dome to Ukraine.”
However, Netanyahu stressed that he could not “make a definitive promise.”
“We will look at what is available, our policy, and our interests in the region. Israel’s contribution may be in other areas,” he suggested. Therefore, “we are studying this question according to our national interest, we have other considerations. In particular the very close operational proximity between the Israeli air force and the Russian air force. Their planes operate in Syrian airspace, we have so far avoided any confrontation.
“We do not want a military confrontation with Russia. We have considerations to take into account that other countries do not have.”
Netanyahu also raised the subject of the conflict between Israel and the Arab countries. According to him, the end of the conflict with Saudi Arabia is “closer” than it seems. And peace between Riyadh and Jerusalem “would initiate the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict and it would initiate a realistic end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
