by Leonid Baratz, Investigative journalist and Middle Eastern correspondent for the Ukrainian media, translated by Hillel Fendel.
It's always easier to pressure allies than enemies, as the United States continually proves. This is especially true with a president who tends to operate based on instincts that appear to change quickly. In Israel's current situation, it would do well to remember the lesson taught by Ukrainian President Zelensky when he faced American anger.
Many remember the awkward, difficult scene that played out in the Oval Office in February 2025, when U.S. President Trump and Vice President Vance castigated Zelensky before the cameras of the entire world. They essentially "advised" him to show gratitude to the U.S. and allow it to determine the terms of a ceasefire with Russia. "You don't have the cards," Trump told him sharply. "We have all the cards, and without us, you have nothing." Zelensky did not cave in, and paid a heavy diplomatic price for a few weeks.
And here we are now, less than 18 months later, and the ones without the
cards are none other than the Russians. The world sees Russian fuel tanks
explode into the sky and dozens of Russian refineries knocked out of action, leading
to long lines of people waiting for fuel throughout Russia and even the Crimean
peninsula. It's Moscow, not Kiev, that is now asking for various kinds of
truces, with Ukraine largely on the offensive. A year ago, Ukraine carried out the
unprecedented Operation Pautina, which had been painstakingly planned for a
year and a half, in which drones hidden inside portable wooden houses were
smuggled on civilian trucks deep into Russian territory. At the designated
moment, the roofs were opened remotely and the drones soared towards Russian nuclear
sites located thousands of kilometers from the front line.
Interestingly, less than two weeks later, Israel attacked Iran in the
12-Day War known as Operation Rising Lion, which was also based on deep and
patient intelligence penetration into enemy territory. It is difficult not to
recognize in the Ukrainian offensive a familiar fingerprint of Israeli combat
doctrine, which immediately raises the question of whether Kiev may have served
as an initial testing ground for the implementation of these unique tactics. We
may not know for many years whether Israel and Ukraine were working with some
sort of cooperation, or whether this was just a coincidental case of
"great minds thinking alike…"
In any event, Zelensky rebounded well following the White House dressing
down, to the point where this month, at the G-7 summit in France, Trump himself
admitted that the Ukranians are currently winning the war with Russia. Trump
then surprised his allies when he announced the restoration of sharp sanctions
against the Russian oil sector. Kiev's impressive military accomplishments
would have been of no significance without an aggressive, ongoing diplomatic
push, that was able to translate the situation at the front into the language
of international interests.
This is precisely the lesson that Israel must learn and
internalize at this point. It is well-known that the Americans are wielding a
heavy pressure crush on PM Netanyahu and the government in Jerusalem to
withdraw from the buffer zone in southern Lebanon, or at least to cease
responding to murderous Hizbullah attacks such as those that have killed five
Israeli soldiers in recent days. We must not blame our own government; on the
contrary, it is our duty as a public to provide our leaders with our resolute support
so that they can repel these foreign dictates, and certainly not succumb to the
winds of concession blowing from many of our own television studios.
Caving to U.S. Would be an Iranian Victory
We in Israel, and the Americans as well, should have no trouble seeing
who would profit from and rejoice at an Israeli withdrawal. Israel's historic
task in the Middle East never relied only on its military strength, but chiefly
on its image as the only regional player who can contain the Iranian axis – an
image upon which the Abraham Accords is largely predicated. But the moment that
the President of the United States declares that Israel is unable to complete
its mission in Lebanon, and suggests that the job be passed to
Turkish-influenced Syria, this image suffers a death blow.
Every time that Damascus or Ankara are perceived as being able to do
what Jerusalem can't do, or is being stopped from doing, this rocks the very
foundations on which Israel's position stands. It is therefore no coincidence
that precisely the Qatar-Turkey axis are the main beneficiaries of a scenario
in which we cede security responsibility in southern Lebanon.
Israel simply cannot afford to allow itself to retreat and thus gladden
Iran, Qatar, and Turkey. We must therefore learn from the Ukrainian paradigm.
From a historical perspective, it appears that Zelensky has emerged as a
"Jewish" or "Israeli"-type leader much more than expected –
and we have no reason to be embarrassed to take an example from him.
We must complete the operational cleanup of Hizbullah's stronghold in
southern Lebanon, without leaving this task to outsiders. Iran must be shown
with unmistakable force who controls the scene. Only then, just as happened
with Ukraine, will President Trump's temporary anger be turned into renewed
affection and respect - for ultimately he respects only results, not begging.
It was just a year ago that we started a war against those whom we
called the modern-day Amalek – with very impressive results, including the
elimination of the Ayatollah Khamenei and the weakening of Iran's military
infrastructures. However, once we started the job, we must complete it, in the
spirit of the Biblical injunction to totally wipe out Amalek. Amalek cannot be
left half-wounded, we cannot stop the war in the middle, and we must certainly
not endanger our very existence with transient surrender agreements. Even top
officials in the US defense establishment and the Republican Party acknowledge
that the current agreement is shameful and defeatist.
Most dangerously, the Iranian regime justifiably interprets the
international pressure upon Israel as a green light to continue its multi-front
war against us. This not only endangers
world stability and direct American interests, it also encourages the fanatical
Iranian leadership to continue to pursue its nuclear program. Iran seems to
have learned in the recent past that its strategies have been successful in
forcing the West's hand and even bringing it close to its knees.
We know that our interests and those of the United States do not always
overlap. That's OK. We must remind the Americans, however, that unfair
accusations and threats against us are very harmful to Israel's attempts to
ensure our international legitimacy, and even fuel anti-Semitism across the
world.
We must learn from Zelensky, and from many of our own leaders in the
recent and far-off past, that true security does not come from blind adherence
to our allies, as strong as they may be. A nation that knows how to stand up
for its own interests on the battlefield, and in the international arena, needs
no outside confirmation to know that it is truly independent and strong.