Ukraine’s Israel Moment

In 1948 the world assumed that the Jews were finished and faced imminent defeat and almost no one wanted to supply Israel with weapons. Similarly in 1967, Israel’s great power ally France assumed that Israel faced defeat and ended all weapons deliveries to Israel. However, Israel gained international respect when it proved that it could defend itself and survive. In 2022 virtually all foreign observers – including this writer – assumed that the Ukrainian military would not be able to resist the Russian onslaught. We were wrong. As a result the European Union is changing its attitude towards Ukraine. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission has officially stated that the EU foresees Ukrainian EU membership and Germany is completely changing policy and supplying weapons to Ukraine. This shows that the international system despite its lofty rhetoric only respects strength.