Look who's smiling now

While Zelenskyy is in Washington to make a last ditch appeal to Congress for continued funding of the war effort in Ukraine, Netanyahu was on the phone with Putin admonishing him for the "anti-Israel positions" Moscow's envoys have taken in the UN.  The massive shelling of Gaza the past two months has distracted nearly everyone from the ongoing war in Ukraine, and breathed new life into Putin, who has been presenting himself as a "peacemaker" in Israel, much to the chagrin of Western allies.  

With munitions rapidly depleting, Ukraine has failed to make anymore advances and is losing ground in key areas, resulting in what its top commander called a "stalemate."  This is perfect for Russia, which just wants to hold onto the ground it gained in its initial offensive in the Spring of 2022.  Putin can bide his time, rebuild his military infrastructure and at some point in the future renew his assault on Kyiv.

Throughout this ordeal, Israel offered no military support and very little humanitarian aid to Ukraine.  It was more important that Jerusalem retain friendly relations with Moscow so that the IDF would have access to Syria in its ongoing battle with Hezbollah.  This decision has come back to bite Israel, as Russia worked with Syria and Iran to help supply Hezbollah and Hamas, resulting in the horrific attack on Israel in early October.  

Initially, Israel had the goodwill of the world but that turned sour when the IDF launched a massive counter attack on Gaza that has left much of the northern half of the strip in ruins with at least 18,000 Palestinian deaths, many of them women and children.  This is nine times more than were killed in the Hamas surprise attack.  The UN and many individual countries are now condemning Israel for its indiscriminate bombings, use of white phosphorus and other violent means of securing the Palestinian territory.  What's worse is that Israel has no immediate plans to relinquish this territory, which has upset Washington.

Forgotten is how Russia launched an even more vicious military campaign in Ukraine that saw the widespread destruction of Ukrainian cities and towns along with the flooding of the lower Dnipro valley when the Russian military blew up the Kakhovka Dam.  While the UN has issued condemnations it has not gone so far as to censure Russia from the assembly.  Quite the opposite, the UN allowed Russia to assume the Security Council Presidency this past April.  The lack of accountability has undermined what little authority the UN has left.

But now we see the US blocking efforts to condemn Israel even though Biden himself has expressed his misgivings in regard to the severity of the assault on Gaza.  Israel holds a special place in American hearts and woe be it for any president to admonish the country.  Bernie Sanders was the lone Democratic hold out on the aid package going through Congress that would grant both Ukraine and Israel massive military funding.

The only way to get a Ukrainian aid bill through Congress was to attach Israeli aid to it in the wake of the Hamas surprise attack, but since then GOP lawmakers have upped the ante by demanding more money be attached for border security.  The aid package has already grown to a whopping $105 billion with military aid to Taiwan and additional border security funding, but apparently $13.6 billion is not enough.  Initially, Biden was asking for $25 billion for Ukraine, but that number has grown to $61.4 billion.  This feeds into the general perception that Washington grossly inflates these aid packages in an effort to appeal to Congressional holdouts.  There is no line item veto, so you are either for or against the omnibus bill.

This is difficult for Ukraine to understand, as it doesn't see its war effort as being tied to Israel or Taiwan or American border security.  What it needs is another massive infusion of military aid to hold its current line and renew its offensive in early Spring.  Its defense forces finally got the long awaited American Abrams tanks in early October but won't see the F-16 jets provided by NATO countries until March or April of next year.  In the meantime, its defense forces need to replenish their anti-missile defense systems, which would be provided in this aid package.

Israel can take care of itself.  It doesn't really need the whopping $14.3 billion in military hardware that Republicans want in the aid package, as the IDF is well stocked which we have seen over the past two months.  This is more about appealing to voters who believe we should be at Israel's side against the Arab world.  Already we have seen strong anti-Palestinian sentiments expressed, with populist politicians like Ryan Zinke calling for the deportation of Palestinians.  They don't seem to realize that Palestinians are Semites too.

What we need to do is take a step back from this growing abyss and evaluate the separate war efforts with a discerning eye, not cater to extremist rhetoric.  If this were a Venn diagram the overlapping segment would be Russia.  It stands the most to gain from all this chaos.  Not only has all the bitter infighting in Congress stalled the aid package to Ukraine, but it has exposed American hypocrisy when it comes to its unqualified support of Israel regardless of its ruthless tactics.  What Israel is doing to Gaza is as heinous as what Russia is doing to Ukraine, yet Congress wants to tie the aid packages together and the White House supports this effort.  Not only that but throw in military aid to Taiwan to further rile China, which Biden had hoped to keep on the sidelines of the war in Ukraine.  With no clear message, other countries can further project their hostility toward the US, which we have seen in the UN.  Putin can sit back and watch it all play out with his Cheshire grin.