One can only imagine the psychological trauma occurring in the Knesset these days.
With an extremely pro-Western government in office, the working assumption has been that Israel is safest when most useful to the United States and its allies. Without getting into why I think this is misguided, it’s no doubt that the events in Ukraine over the last week are probably leaving a few ministers and lawmakers scratching their heads.
As a quick summary, Russia took advantage of a weak American administration to proceed with its long-desired invasion of Ukraine. As I write this, thousands of Russian soldiers are battling Ukrainians in the streets. As Ukraine is not [yet] a member of NATO, the West is not obligated to defend it.
Despite this, many loud voices in the United States and Europe are pushing for troops to be sent to defend Ukraine against Russian aggression. At this point, the West has sanctioned Russia and has been sending arms to Ukraine.
For someone who buys into the AIPAC narrative, this is probably a frightening moment. Indeed, a key point of AIPAC’s agenda is ensuring that the United States would always fight to defend its outpost in the Middle East (Israel). This point has been challenged to its core by the lack of military action by the West in Ukraine. If Iran attacks Israel, would Washington merely sanction Tehran?
Of course, the United States was never going to send troops to fight Israel’s wars. Contrary to the picture organizations like AIPAC present us with, this notion is actually inconsistent with history. Going back to all of Israel’s wars, the Americans have never sent a single soldier (during the 1948 War, any US citizen caught trying to help Israel faced ten years imprisonment and loss of American citizenship). In fact, the United States has worked against Israel’s better interest in practically every war we’ve fought. Take Lebanon for example, when Israel’s army was just outside Beirut. The Reagan administration forced Israel to retreat and a terror vacuum was created that haunts the State of Israel’s northern border to this day in the form of Hezbollah.
So without getting too deep into the issue here, Israel is militarily better off without American support.
So what is going on in the Knesset today? My assumption is that people like Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) are suffering from a severe case of cognitive dissonance. Here is an example to explain the psychological term:
Imagine you have a friend that hates ice cream. On a hot summer day, you and your friend are walking and you decide you want an ice cream cone. As you take your first bite, you are overwhelmed by an intense flavor, unlike anything you have tasted before. You immediately turn to your friend and ask him to try the ice cream. Your friend, being an ice cream hater, immediately brushes you off. But after another 5 minutes, you push them again. He reluctantly agrees to taste the ice cream. As he tastes the ice cream, he is surprised that it tastes better than he thought it would. Your friend is now entering the psychological realm of cognitive dissonance.
Your friend has two real options. The first option is to spit out the ice cream and lie to you, stating that it tastes horrible.
The second option is to brush it off with a simple compliment and a spin, and move on, thereby keeping their opinion as an ice cream hater. They may say something like, “the flavor is pretty good, but the texture is horrible,” to keep their sanity.
A third but almost impossible option is they immediately become an ice cream lover.
Now back to Israel’s leaders.
People in general, especially political leaders, operate in a deep ideological framework. This explains why one event may be perceived as completely different to two different people. People have biases and, in turn, their biases influence their decisions and thought processes. As I mentioned earlier, Israel’s leadership operates heavily in the pro-Western space. They believe Israel is best expressed as a Western vassal state that promotes liberal values and high-tech startups, as opposed to our historical mission to be a real light unto the nations.
So as Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, Israel’s leaders were confronted with a reality that ran counter to their ideological framework. Seeing Washington’s refusal to send troops to the vulnerable Ukrainians must have left them extraordinarily uncomfortable. “Could America do the same to us?” They must have queried to themselves.
Israel’s government has now entered the realm of cognitive dissonance.
Now, if we return to the lessons from our ice cream example, Israel’s government is faced with two real options. The first option is that they ignore the events and pretend they never happened.
The second option, and one that the government and the hasbara industry have taken as of now, is to justify the situation.
“Ukraine is not as important as Israel to the United States!”
“Israel’s relationship with the United States is much stronger!”
All such statements are just poor excuses to remain in a deeply flawed ideological framework that only works to hurt Israel in the long term.
As I stated earlier, Israel is stronger on its own. We don’t need the United States or the United Nations or the European Union. Clearly, they have their own best interests in mind, and that’s fine. Just as Washington would never send troops to Ukraine or Israel because US citizens would never agree to such a foolish foreign excursion, so too should Israel have our own best interests in mind and not try to appease the West at every turn.
Sadly, one can imagine a situation where NATO is forced into war and Israel is pressured to send troops to help. Do we really want the youth of Israel dying on foreign battlefields in wars that have nothing to do with our national interests or historic mission? We have enough problems on our hands, and this would only be a distraction (at best).
We need Israel’s political leaders to wake up from this horrible dream. Strong leadership requires a pivot in policy when the climate is right – which it is today. We can see that the West is crumbling before the world’s eyes. It is time for Israel to get free.
