White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that President Trump did not object to any specific remark made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during their Oval Office meeting last Friday but rather to his tone and demeanor. She was not wrong. Zelenskyy displayed his disrespect through body language, including crossing his arms, rolling his eyes, and displaying a dismissive posture. He also addressed Vice President JD Vance as “JD” rather than “Mr. Vice President,” like they were drinking buddies.
Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the clash in the White House was a well-orchestrated ambush, designed to knock the Ukrainian president off his high horse and shock him into submitting to a peace deal with Russia.
THE JEWISH ANGLE
There are several key points that suggest the Jewish people and the state of Israel should side with Russia in its conflict with Ukraine, and not the other way around. Like many modern-day Jewish issues, it started with the Holocaust.
Between 1941 and 1945, an estimated 1,600,000 Jews were killed in Ukraine, with the enthusiastic involvement of Ukrainian collaborators. Meanwhile, many Polish and Soviet Jews either fled eastward from German-occupied Europe or were deported by the Soviet Union. The majority of exiled Polish Jews spent the war in labor camps and colonies in Central Asia and Siberia. By the war’s end, Jews displaced within the Soviet Union constituted the largest group of surviving European Jews, as most who remained in occupied territories perished in the Holocaust. In other words, it was no fun being a Jew in Russia during WW2, but there was no systemic genocide of Jews either.
As the son of a Holocaust survivor, to me, this is the fundamental reason we should side with Russia and not with Ukraine.
TRUMP’S REASONS
There were several critical explanations for the Trump administration’s attempt to coerce Ukraine into admitting defeat and signing a peace deal:
1. Trump wants to tighten his relationship with President Vladimir Putin, to prevent a powerful alliance between Russia and China.
2. Trump wants Russia to allow the US and Israel free access to Iran’s nuclear facilities should the need arise.
3. Trump wants Russia to reintegrate into the Western economy, where other players have been filling the vacuum it left behind in February 2022 with the invasion of Ukraine.
Also, Trump loathes Zelenskyy, since the Ukrainian president had refused to provide him with incriminating details against Hunter Biden, who served on the board of Burisma Holdings, one of the largest private natural gas producers in Ukraine, from 2014 until his term expired in April 2019 – with no professional qualifications other than being his father’s son.
And, speaking of Bidens, Trump has been voicing his astonishment at the size of US military aid to Ukraine, estimated at between $300 billion and $350 billion over three years. In comparison, Israel has received around $40 billion over the past 20 years. As he put it, even with this enormous sum, Ukraine is still doomed to lose to Russia in the long run, and will never pay back its debt to the US. This is why Trump wants to be paid back in Ukrainian minerals.
Incidentally, as a few commentators have suggested, with American mining companies digging up Ukraine, the chances of a new Russian attack would be lower.
WHAT ABOUT ISRAEL?
Israel’s interests favor a Russian victory over Ukraine, whether in battle or through a peace deal. Here’s why:
1. Putin is the first Russian Czar who is not plagued with the virus of antisemitism. It’s true that the last three years have encouraged the traditional Russian antisemites, but this fell far short of the antisemitic purges of darker decades.
2. The Russians allowed the IDF to attack with impunity Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies in Syria, where the Russian army enjoyed considerable control. Indeed, there are rumors today that the Israelis have been pleading with the Russians to stay in Syria as a bulwark against the new jihadist revolution, but perhaps more importantly, to push back against Turkish advances, influence and even potentially Turkish control over Syria.
3. Ukraine voted hundreds of times in favor of anti-Israeli resolutions at the UN. Also, following the October 7 massacre, Zelenskyy criticized the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip.
On February 24, Israel joined the US in voting against a UN General Assembly resolution proposed by Ukraine and the European Union on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The resolution emphasized the need to uphold Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, calling for an end to hostilities and a peaceful resolution to the conflict. It was supported by 93 countries, while 65 abstained and 18 opposed it.
The US and Israel were two of the nay votes. It was the correct move for Netanyahu’s government. I hope to see the Israeli prime minister visiting Moscow again soon, with the Russian Army orchestra playing Hatikvah in Red Square.
