In light of Russia's recent meeting with representatives of Hamas, as well as Moscow's unprincipled efforts to prevent the UN from issuing any condemnation of Hamas' brutal invasion of southern Israel on October 7, Israel should seriously reevaluate its unwillingness to provide Ukraine with weaponry. Personally, I believe that our refusal to do so has been both unethical and strategically short-sighted, particularly given the de facto defense alliance that now exists between Russia and Iran. Indeed, one doesn't have to be a geopolitical expert to appreciate the fact that aiding Ukraine with whatever military equipment we can spare will be the most appropriate way of retaliating against the Russians for attempting to portray Hamas as a legitimate national liberation movement rather than the murderous antisemitic band of blood-crazed zombies that they clearly are.
Why the Russians have granted such unjustified support to Hamas is not really that hard to discern. Basically, it has to do with how Hamas' October 7 onslaught against southern Israel helped Russia by diverting the West's attention away from Moscow's war against Ukraine. For this, the Kremlin feels a sense of gratitude to the terrorist organization, which may materialize into something more serious should Hamas manage to survive. In the meantime, every day the Western media focuses on the plight of Hamas' suffering civilian auxiliaries in Gaza, is one less day they spend covering the Russian Army's slaughter of truly innocent Ukrainian civilians. This is why I feel the best way of undermining Moscow's use of Hamas as a means of diverting people's attention away from its war against Ukraine, is by arming Ukraine to the point where they can inflict some real pain on the Russians.
There have been three reasons Israel has used to justify our refusal to provide Kyiv with military assistance: the first has to do with Ukraine's anti-Israel voting record in the UN. This situation could easily be overcome with an unwritten diplomatic understanding with the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry involving its commitment to become more supportive of our position at the UN. Certainly, President Zelensky would be inclined to order such a change in Ukrainian foreign policy in order to secure our military assistance.
The second explanation Israel has offered to justify its arms policy towards Kyiv, has to do with our reluctance to sell any of our Iron Dome batteries to Ukraine. Here, we have been correct in arguing that we have so few of them that we simply don't have any that we could safely spare. Our current trouble handling Hamas' saturation rocket barrages is proof that we do, indeed, need every single battery in our arsenal.
But the most serious reason why we haven't provided arms to Ukraine has to do with our fear of undermining our aerial deconfliction agreement with the Russians, which guarantees their noninterference with our bombing campaign over Syria. Our concern, though, may be overstated. We should appreciate the fact that over the past year, Russia's Syrian Expeditionary Corps has been significantly reduced due to the Russian army's pressing need to replace the enormous losses suffered fighting the Ukrainians. Perhaps more to the point, though, is the undeniable fact that the Russian army's performance has been less than stellar, to put it mildly. Then again, the deployment of two US Navy carrier battle groups in the eastern Mediterranean can't help but have a deterrent effect on any Russian inclination to threaten us. And while I wouldn't want to underestimate the possibility of the Russians doing something totally unexpected to reassert their great power status in the Middle East, they are simply in no position to jeopardize the survival of their under-strength Syrian-based expeditionary force. Of course, the Russians could allow the Iranians to significantly increase their aerial supply runs to the Russian-controlled air base in Hmeimim, Syria. But, if necessary, those Iran Air flights could easily be interdicted by the IAF whenever we wanted to do so. Even if one Iranian cargo plane was to be shot down, it would seriously degrade Iran's ability to maintain its aerial supply bridge with its proxies in Lebanon and Syria. So, even if the Russians allowed an unlimited number of Iranian cargo flights to use its Hmeimim facility, we would always retain the ability to stop the Iranians from getting through to it.
If we can't provide the Ukrainians with Iron Dome technology, what could we send to them that wouldn't jeopardize our current needs? Firstly, we have a vast array of loitering munitions or Kamikaze drones that would be very helpful in permitting the Ukrainians to target Russian armor formations, artillery units, and command/control facilities. Secondly, we have precision 122mm multiple rocket systems, which would allow the Ukrainian army to lay down highly accurate counter-battery fire and disruptive fire on Russian attack formations. We also have the IAI-produced Barak ER ground-based air defense system, which has an operational range of 150 KM and a service altitude of 30 KM. Making this SAM system available to Ukraine just might add another layer of protection to Ukraine's Black Sea grain loading facilities, which have been under merciless Russian missile attacks. But, perhaps the most important weapon system we could make available to Kyiv would be the extended-range version of the LORA ballistic missile that has a range of about 430 KM. This mobile missile system would provide the Ukrainians with the ability to destroy critical Russian infrastructure and logistical assets deep behind their lines within 10 minutes of launch. What the Ukrainians could do with this precision system can only be imagined.
While these previously mentioned Israeli-manufactured weapons systems may not be able to provide the Ukrainian armed forces with war-winning solutions, they definitely would allow Kyiv to inflict on Russia an escalating level of manpower casualties and material asset losses. Whether this would convince Moscow to reevaluate its support of Hamas is, admittedly, questionable. However, what it might do is convince saner Russian decision-makers that Israel does have the ability to seriously hurt them where it counts: namely, on the blood-soaked battlefields of Ukraine. And that would be better than simply allowing them to honor the murderers of our children with impunity.
