Russia and Israel, Putin and Netanyahu

There is now another anti-Israel trope to add to the many circulating in public discourse in the West: the US and other Western states don’t apply the same standards in their treatment of Israel in its war in Gaza that they apply to Russia and its war in Ukraine.

This trope has another form – the West condemns Putin but not Netanyahu when both are guilty of the same crimes.

And it feeds into another – the US led rules-based order is based on hypocrisy and self-interest, and is now ineffective in managing global order.

Only this week I came across these tropes in a piece on an Asian news and opinion platform by no less than an adjunct professor at the Paris School of International Affairs.

These tropes rely on false equivalents and the conclusion about the need for a new world order – led, it must be assumed, by Russia and China – is unsustainable.

The first two tropes reflect the success of political warfare being waged against Israel and the last reflects the ongoing political warfare being waged against the post-WWII order led by the US.

Let us be clear about why condemning Russia and Putin but supporting Israel and Netanyahu is both reasonable and morally justified.

Russia, under an autocratic decision-maker, Putin, invaded a neighboring Member State of the United Nations in clear breach of Chapters 1 and 6 of the United Nations Charter. The intention of that invasion was both to extinguish the independence of Ukraine and to take large portions of its territory by military means.

Israel, a Member State of the United Nations, was attacked by a regime committed to its destruction. Its democratically elected Prime Minister and Government have responded in complete consistency with Chapters 1 and 6 of the United Nations, in self-defense and to eliminate a terrorist regime and the continuing threat it poses, not just to its citizens but to its existence as a sovereign state.

Intense war, not least involving existential threats, and fought in urban areas, is destructive of human life and of whole population centers such as towns and cities.

WWII saw such destruction. The world at the end of WWII appropriately made those who had started such wars in Europe and the Asia-Pacific responsible for what occurred.

Russia and Putin started the war against Ukraine with clear goals of territorial acquisition and to force suzerainty on an independent state. They must be condemned, not just in support of Ukraine but in defense of a world order based on the principles enunciated in Chapters 1 and 6 of the UN Charter.

Hamas and Sinwar, using Gaza at its operational base, started the war against Israel with clear goals to use terror to subvert Israeli society, to undermine peace processes between Arab states and Israel, and to use the defensive war Israel would undertake to rally other regimes and non-state actors to join in a war to destroy the very state of Israel.

Hamas and Sinwar must be condemned not just in support of Israel, but in defense of a world order based on the principles of Chapters 1 and 6 of the UN Charter.

It follows, that it is not only reasonable, but consistent with commitments to a rules-based global order, to condemn Russia and support Israel.

Likewise, and even if one does not like Netanyahu, disagrees with his tactics and believes his coalition government needs to be replaced, it follows that it is reasonable to condemn Putin and demand his accountability under international law and to support Netanyahu and his, and his elected Government’s, legitimate actions in defending Israelis and Israel itself, notwithstanding the unavoidable and tragic loss of life that defense has involved and, tragically, must involve.