Iranian drones over Kyiv scramble Bibi's Russia policy
Aphone call last week between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky threw a spotlight on a new foreign policy dilemma facing Israel’s new government.
Last week, as the UN General Assembly was about to ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to give an opinion on “the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories,” Netanyahu spoke with Zelensky in what Israeli media described as “a tough call.”
Netanyahu asked Zelensky that Ukraine oppose — or at least abstain from — the upcoming General Assembly vote. Zelensky, in return, wanted to know what Israel’s new government is planning to do to support his county — whether it will provide him with defensive weapons systems like Iron Dome, while noting that he needs those systems to counter Iranian drone attacks.
It wasn’t the first time that Zelensky has asked for Iron Dome, and probably won’t be the last. Israel is reluctant to share the anti-missile system with non-allies, and it is even less interested in being directly involved in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
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