Former Soviet refusenik and prisoner of Zion Natan Sharansky, who was born and raised in what is now Donetsk, Ukraine, believes that Israel is making a mistake in its efforts to remain neutral regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“We of course have interests when it comes to Russia and Ukraine, but we should have said from day one that the Russian attack and unjustified targeting of the civilian population are unacceptable,” Sharansky said in an interview with Yisrael Hayom on Monday.

Sharansky elaborated that Israel should adopt a clearer position not just for moral reasons but also for diplomatic considerations as Ukraine will play an important role in the new global power structure and it’s best that Ukraine remember that Israel stood by its side.

Sharansky recalled the time when he was a minister in former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s first government and he tried to thwart a delivery of Ukrainian and Russian-manufactured nuclear industrial equipment to Iran. “Russia refused to listen to the Israeli case at the time, while in Ukraine we were able to convince then-President [Leonid] Kuchma not to fulfill his commitments to the Iranians and not sell them turbines for a nuclear power plant.”

Sharansky places the blame for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the Obama administration for showing Russian President Vladimir Putin that he can blackmail the world in general and Israel in particular.

“Because of Obama and the West’s weakness, Russia was handed the keys to Syria, and the Iranians received billions of dollars. The West’s basic weakness is patently obvious: It is afraid of confronting Putin. Recently he even raised the stakes with implicit threats of using nuclear weapons, and what was the West’s response? It actually canceled the annual test of the intercontinental ballistic missile that can carry a nuclear warhead. In the eyes of the West, this step was meant to avoid exacerbating tensions. In the eyes of Putin, this was a sign of weakness. In Soviet prison, I learned who controls the cell. Not the strongest, but the person willing at any given moment to fight the other, and even kill. Putin is exactly like this, and the West, instead of being a deterrent, it deterred.”

“Two factors woke the free world up,” Sharansky continued, “Ukraine’s heroism and Putin’s barbarism. The methodical and brutal way he is erasing entire cities in the heart of Europe is causing alarm. Of all people, the man who claims Ukrainians are not a nation is the one making the world care about Ukraine and hold it in high regard. Just as importantly, Putin delivered a gigantic blow to Russia and its place as an influential player straddling the East-West divide. It will take Russia a very long time, perhaps hundreds of years, to restore its moral legitimacy and its place in human civilization.”

“The Ukrainians’ readiness to fight for their liberty surprised both Putin and Western leaders. The sanctions imposed on Russia are not enough to change Putin’s course of action, but they still reflect unprecedented solidarity from the free world with a nation fighting evil. The question remains whether the West will uphold sanctions over time.”

Sharansky believes that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s efforts at trying to mediate between Russia and Ukraine are extremely risky.

“I very much hope that Bennett knows something I don’t and that he’s playing some sort of positive role. Otherwise, if this is just his attempt at PR and trying to stack up to Netanyahu as ‘someone who can talk to Putin,’ Israel is liable to pay a steep diplomatic price. As for immigration, we must use this opportunity to bring hundreds of thousands of people eligible under the Law of Return to Israel. Maybe Israel should have left its envoys in Ukraine to handle this issue, and we certainly need to find a solution to the long lines of people interested in emigrating from Russia. Israel wasn’t ready for this situation, and we need to wake up. Special times call for special measures.”

Regarding the current debate in Israel about accepting non-Jewish Ukrainian refugees, Sharansky’s views correspond with those of Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, who says that a strict quota must be maintained so Israel can maintain its Jewish identity and focus on absorbing hundreds of thousands of refugees eligible for Israeli citizenship via the Law of Return.

“There are millions of refugees, and we can participate in assisting but cannot open our doors for millions of them,” Sharansky told The Jerusalem Post last week. “We didn’t do it for Africa, and can’t do it for Ukraine.”

“I don’t think we have to go from one extreme to the other. From saying it is not our war, not our business, that we have problems with Syria, to the other extreme that it is our moral obligation to take in millions of refugees. Let’s be practical: We can give a lot of assistance. We are giving some, we can probably give more.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)