PNN – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s immediate and unequivocal support for Israel in its fight against Hamas has jeopardized a nearly year-long concerted effort by Kiev to enlist the support of Arab and Muslim countries in the war against Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s immediate and unequivocal support for Israel in its fight against Hamas has jeopardized a nearly year-long concerted effort by Kiev to enlist the support of Arab and Muslim countries in the war against Russia.
Zelensky’s initial statements in support of Israel after a surprise attack by Hamas that killed more than 1,400 Israelis helped keep Ukraine in the international spotlight and put it firmly on the side of the United States.
Zelensky’s position also drew attention to the increasingly close ties between Russia and Iran, which is the main backer of Hamas, Israel’s sworn enemy, and also a major supplier of drones and other weapons to Moscow.
In his speech at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly on October 9, Zelensky said: Hamas and Russia are the same evil, and the only difference is that there is a terrorist organization that attacked Israel, and here is a terrorist state that attacked Ukraine.
But with Israeli military operations entering their fourth week and Palestinian civilian casualties mounting, the Gaza war is one of the toughest diplomatic tests for Ukraine since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
Countries such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which have at times provided substantial support to Ukraine, have accused the West of double standards in Gaza, pointing to widespread condemnation of the killing of civilians in Ukraine compared to muted criticism of Israel.
On October 8, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and announced Kiev’s support for Israel.
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Randa Slim, a peacemaking expert at the Middle East Institute, said Israel had no choice but to maintain ties with Moscow, in part because of Russia’s control over Syria, and he noted that Israel had rejected Zelensky’s offer to meet afterward.
Zelensky’s pro-Israel stance “made no sense,” Slim said, adding that many Arab and Muslim countries see more similarities between Israel and Russia — as aggressive military powers — than between Israel and Ukraine.
He said: This is an Arab region and they don’t want to accept what Biden says, comparing Russia and Hamas. They mostly compare Russia and Israel in terms of the number of people killed and the extent to which they target civilians. Zelensky could win more friends if he was “willing to say that what Russia is doing in Ukraine is what Israel is doing in Gaza.” But, he added, “I don’t see Ukraine ready or willing to do that.”
Just as Russian President Vladimir Putin initially offered no direct condolences to Israel and categorically blamed Hamas, Zelensky spoke of the need to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza as Israel escalated its retaliatory airstrikes.
When news of the Hamas attack first broke, Zelensky and his team compared Hamas to Russia, saying the Ukrainians had a special understanding of what was happening to the Israelis. (Many Ukrainian and Russian immigrants live in Israel.)
Only 10 days later, Zelensky indirectly mentioned the bombing of Gaza and called for the need to protect civilians and de-escalate tensions.
Meanwhile, despite the deaths of thousands of Palestinian civilians and at least 21 Ukrainian citizens in Gaza, Zelensky has refused to criticize Israel’s attacks.
The foreign ministers of Turkey and Qatar, who played an important role in the talks between Ukraine and Russia on issues such as the exchange of prisoners of war and the blockade of Ukrainian grain exports by Russia, published a joint statement and claimed the hypocrisy of the West.
Mohammad bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani from Qatar said: Condemning the killing of civilians in one context and justifying it in another context is not permissible. Turkey’s Hakan Fidan added that the West’s failure to condemn the Gaza massacre “is a very serious double standard.”
Christian Ulrichsen, a fellow at Rice University who has written about Ukraine-Arab relations, said that Ukraine has never been an important issue in the Arab world. This is a conflict that does not concern them.”