Why Netanyahu’s geopolitical strategy failed, and why committing to a free Ukraine can put Israel on the path back to global acceptance

While most of us were focused on the confusing endgame to the latest war with Iran, and on the scapegoating of Israel by American politicians and pundits for its failure, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky climbed down from a Turkish government plane in Damascus to a full pageant of Syrian military guards. Upon reaching the tarmac, Zelensky walked the red carpet through a show of pomp to a waiting limousine, which whisked him away to the Syrian presidential palace and a warm bearhug by Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, which Zelensky returned. Nothing better captures the failure of current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s foreign policy, nothing better encapsulates the geostrategic debacle he led us into.

Can’t believe that the Jewish, pro-Israel president of Ukraine would take the Turkish president’s plane and embrace the former jihadist president of Syria? See for yourself in a video produced by the Syrian president’s office, a video that should serve as a warning to the Israeli electorate as to how far we’ve fallen. Because, as the video shows better than any essay, Netanyahu’s insistence on keeping Israel neutral on Ukraine and strictly aligned with American President Donald J. Trump’s Russian-learning geopolitical strategy has weakened Israel, isolated it further, and deprived our country from the resources we need to realize our potential in the 21st century.

It was only a short while ago when Ukraine sought out Israel’s help to acquire the Iron Dome, the world’s leading defensive system against ballistic attacks. While Ukraine has become the world’s leader in anti-drone technology, it still lacks Israel’s ability to provide a comprehensive, layered architecture to prevent combined attacks. Having such a system would free up Ukrainian forces from defending against the nightly attacks on their civilian infrastructure to focus on their successful counter-offensive against Russia. Ukraine needs Israel’s expertise if it has any chance of winning in the short to medium run, and Zelensky has spoken about that need repeatedly.

Netanyahu (and Naftali Bennett before him) initially ignored Zelensky’s requests for defensive support, explaining that he needed to keep relations warm with Putin to ensure Israeli freedom of action in Syria, under the former regime. Even then, Netanyahu’s excuse was far-fetched, but since December 2024, with Assad deposed and Russia no longer ruling Syrian airspace, Netanyahu has had no such excuse. Russia continues to support Israel’s enemies. Which has led Zelensky to suspect that Israel has bowed to American pressure to prevent Ukraine from defending itself against Russian ballistic missile attacks. Rebuffed by Israel, Zelensky sought out other support to help him turn the tide – leading him into the arms of Turkey, one of the world’s largest weapons manufacturers.

But why would America not want Israel to sell Ukraine the Iron Dome? Because Trump has made it his implicit strategy to shift America’s alliances away from Europe and towards Russia in order to gain advantage against China. While it may be hard for people who grew up during the Cold War to understand the logic behind this approach, Trump’s actions make sense if he believes that turning Russia into an ally of the United States is far more strategically important than maintaining Ukrainian territorial integrity. Trump is not a man driven by sentiment. He sees Europe as a captive market, with nowhere to go. He is willing to countenance Russian annexation of parts of its former territories if it means pulling off a ‘reverse Nixon’ to disconnect Russia from China’s orbit. Or at the very least influence the flow of oil and gas from Russia to China (China imports around 20% of its crude oil from Russia, and 25% of its natural gas).

(That the US found itself on the opposite side of Russia during the War with Iran may have tested Trump’s patience, but not changed his strategy as recent actions have proven).

By tying Israel so tightly to a Russia-leaning America, Netanyahu has further isolated Israel: Europe, Israel’s largest trading partner, was already upset because of how Netanyahu directed the war in Gaza. Israel’s stance on Ukraine has only served to further deepen its enmity. Losing Ukraine strengthened Turkey, upsetting our regional allies who have a bone to pick with Turkey’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood. And that’s without mentioning the fact that America is growing less reliable by the day: polls are showing that Americans are turning against Israel, requiring Israel to quickly develop other alliances if it is to survive the medium to long-run.

To fix these foreign policy failures, and shore up Israel’s long-term viability as a nation among the nations, we need a hard pivot on Ukraine. Not because it will convince the Europeans of our value – that will take more time and a longer term strategic investment –  but because it is both the right thing to do and the smart thing to do. Right, because Israel should be on the side of self-determination and the fight against imperialism. Taking a moral stance helps to raise morale and attract others to our cause. Smart, because Ukraine has tremendous manufacturing capacity and has in short order become a world leader in military technology, which should be no surprise given that Ukraine was historically the Russian Empire’s industrial engine. And besides, ask any Israeli software startup and they’ll tell you that the combination of Israeli and Ukrainian engineering is second to none: even during this war, Ukrainian teams are part of many of Israel’s leading innovative efforts.

Pivoting to Ukraine will also enable us to realign our strategy from one that relies on the good graces of a Major Power to a diversified network of support. It would enable us join other Middle Powers in forming a network of mutual support to defend against Major Power threat, countries such as South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia. Each of these have seen how fickle the US can be, and now recognizes that overreliance on the US is a strategic threat. All of these can play some part in the development, manufacturing, and deployment of defensive architecture. And, importantly, none of these have overlapping territorial interests or claims.

It is time to realize that the failure of Israel’s foreign policy poses an existential threat to the Jewish State, and to understand that Israel needs alliances to survive. It is time our leaders to come to terms with the fact that America is being turned against us by our adversaries, and it will be a long, hard battle to win it back. We cannot survive long without allies. To do the right thing, and do well by it, it is time to provide Ukraine with the expertise and systems they need to win the war against Russia and join their fight to make the world safe for small democracies which other, larger nations, have decided to try and wipe off the map.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)