In the midst of all the commotion over Ukraine and America, on the one hand, and Israel and Hamas, on the other, last week’s less-noticed news was Israel’s vote in support of Russia and Trump - and against Ukraine - at the UN.1 But even more shocking than that was the overwhelming support Ukraine did receive, with 93 nations (plus 65 abstainers) showing the courage to stand up to both Russia and the US. Little Malta stood up to Russia and the US. Cyprus, Seychelles and Samoa, for heaven’s sake.
But not Israel.
Regarding the Israeli government’s dismaying betrayal, Olga Vasylevska-Smahliuk, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament and co-chair of the Parliamentary Friendship Group with the State of Israel, chronicled a dismay that many have been feeling but few have expressed so articulately.2
She wrote:
The relationship between this Israeli government and the Jewish president of Ukraine has been rocky. Israel’s support during this war has been lukewarm, surprisingly so, given that Ukraine has been fighting for survival. The two countries share so much, including a large Jewish community in Ukraine and generations of Ukrainian Jewish expats now living in Israel. Three of the first four Israeli prime ministers came from present-day Ukraine, including Golda Meir. While the history of Jews in Ukraine has hardly been without blemish (a vast understatement3), the country currently ranks as one of the least antisemitic in Europe.
And did I mention that they have a Jewish president?
Meanwhile, Russia has tried more than once to destroy the Jewish people and culture. Czar Nicholas planned to solve what was called the "Jewish Question" through a combination of exile, forced conscription and extermination; the communists followed suit. And Vladimir Putin has no love for Jews, who, it must be recalled, spearheaded the demise of the USSR with the Free Soviet Jewry movement. He considers Jews to be enemy aliens in Russia. It was Putin who said, in a 2018 NBC interview, that 13 Russian nationals indicted for U.S. election interference may not be ethnically Russian: "Maybe they are not even Russians, but Ukrainians, Tatars or Jews, but with Russian citizenship, which should also be checked," he said.
Putin falsely claims that Ukraine is not a legitimate nation and has no historical basis to exist. Those same claims have also been made constantly about Israel by Russian leaders. Russia is where the Protocols of the Elders of Zion were first published, in Russian, and after Israel's creation, Soviet propaganda was filled with venom directed toward Zionism, Israel and the Jews. During the Gaza war, Russia denied that Israel has the right to self defense.
Israel has no business giving diplomatic cover to the crimes of such a man.
Even a master of realpolitik like Henry Kissinger would be rolling in his grave at such appeasement. At the end of his life in 2023, Kissinger reversed a career-long grudging respect for Russian power and stated that Ukraine, then under Russian attack, should be allowed to join NATO. “The idea of a neutral Ukraine under these conditions no longer makes sense,” Kissinger said.
Let me state it clearly: Putin is not Israel’s friend.
So while first Putin came for the Ukrainians, Israel must know they are not far down on the list, especially since Russia has become so beholden to Iran. While it is highly unlikely that Putin would attack Israel directly now - because bullies prey on the weak and Israel is much too strong for his liking - he'll be happy to outsource that task to the Iranians, as he may indeed have been doing behind the scenes during the past few years. The Gaza and Lebanon Wars have been unfolding right in the shadow of the Russian military presence in Syria.
Three of the first four Israeli prime ministers came from present-day Ukraine, including Golda herself. While the history of Jews in Ukraine has hardly been without blemish (which is a vast understatement), the country currently ranks as one of the least antisemitic in Europe.
The reasons why Israel wouldn’t antagonize Putin no longer hold
During the early years of the current Ukraine campaign, it was said that Israel resisted helping Ukraine militarily because they could not afford to antagonize the Russians. Why? Because the Russians were ensconced in Syria and Israel needed to unfettered access to Syrian airspace in order to stage attacks in Syria and Lebanon when needed.
But the situation in both Syria and Lebanon has changed markedly. The Russians are still there, but their position has weakened considerably. And their continued presence in the new Syria is hardly a given. In fact it is Israel that now controls a good amount of Syrian territory, about 155 square miles of a previously demilitarized buffer zone4. With Hezbollah now weakened in Lebanon, the don’t-poke-the-Russian-bear-in-Syria argument simply does not hold water.
The Russians, who wanted to throw their weight around in the region, are barely even trying to be power brokers now. They may be aligned with Iran, but they picked the wrong side in that region and are totally bogged down in their own. Thanks in large part to Israel, everyone they’ve been backing in the Middle East is losing. They have become an afterthought in any cease-fire negotiations going on regarding Gaza, or broader regional peace plans. Putin continues to be Assad’s protector, only because now they’re tucking him into a Russian bed every night, but if I were the former Syrian dictator, I wouldn’t stand near any open windows.
If ever Israel could feel free to stand beside Ukraine - and alongside 93 other nations - now would be the time. Certainly it could not have hurt Israel to show a little moral backbone and align with the entire civilized world in this UN vote. It wouldn’t have cost them a single missile or Iron Dome battery. With regard to Russia, Israel holds lots of - to use a Trumpian term - cards.
But, like so many Republicans in the US, Netanyahu has caught Trump Derangement Syndrome and Bibi’s got it bad.
For this unconscionable vote was not cast due to a fear of aligning Israel in opposition to Putin, but for fear of standing on the other side of the aisle from Trump.
Was Netanyahu ordered by the White House to oppose this resolution?
An Israeli official told the Jewish Insider that the Americans pressured Israel to support Russia in this vote. “The resolution ‘is not our position,’ the official added, and the vote, the first time Israel voted against Ukraine and with Russia since the beginning of the war, ‘wasn’t easy for us … We preferred to avoid this situation. We had no choice but to take a side.’ The official said that Israel ‘could have abstained, but I think because we asked for a lot from [the Trump administration] in recent weeks and days, the decision was to go all the way with them.’
Certainly, Israel has reason to support Washington at the UN, considering how many times an American veto has saved them in the Security Council. But in a nonbinding General Assembly vote, where, at a global turning point, a nation’s values are projected onto the world stage, one wonders whether Israel was ordered or simply asked by Washington to show obeisance, and at
what cost. Would an abstention have sufficed?
As Timothy Snyder has reminded us, anticipatory obedience to an autocrat is one of the cardinal sins in fighting a dictatorship. Snyder said it specifically with regard to Israel in a recent interview with Times of Israel’s David Horovitz, adding, “I think it’s bad for Israel that the United States is now taking the side of dictatorships around the world. That’s not going to create an environment which is going to be helpful for Israeli democracy. And I take democracy to be in the interest of Israel.”
So it looks like Trump said “Jump!” and the prime minister of the fiercely proud, first independent Jewish state in 2,000 years said, “How high?” Was it right for America to strongarm its ally into voting against its values?
Did Trump just humiliate Israel - or did Israel just humiliate itself by selling its international integrity for the equivalent of a bowl of pottage, separating themselves from the rest of the civilized world?
Or - and I think this is worse - does Israel really support Russian aggression? Does this government actually agree with the idea that one nation, using brute force, can invade and grab territory from another?
Given that Trump is quite open about wanting to annex Greenland, Canada and the Panama
Canal, is Israel eager to admit a desire to join the annexation club with the Russians, Americans and potentially the Chinese? This at a time when annexation of parts of the West Bank as well as “ownership” of Gaza are on the agenda in the White House and Jerusalem. Is Bibi anxious to join the US, Russia and North Korea in the “might makes right” club because he sees it as the fulfillment of the Revisionist Zionist ideology that his father promulgated? And is this the quid to the pro quo of the UN vote?
I personally think Israel would have preferred to abstain (why burn so many bridges?), but Trump II has already tainted them. Rick Wilson, former GOP strategist, wrote a book entitled, Everything Trump Touches Dies. That was in 2018. This week’s extortion at the UN is now case in point.
Someone please tell me that this is all just a long, bad dream - like that season of Dallas that was wiped away in the 1980s - or the entire second run of Newhart.
Friday’s Ambush at the Oval
Friday’s ambush of Zelensky at the White House, both heartbreaking and infuriating, only made things worse for those who prefer that their nations not support bullies. Bret Stephens, conservative columnist for the New York Times, called it a “day of American infamy.”5
How much of a nightmare was Friday? Imagine you are visiting a care facility and a patient becomes delirious and begins angrily flinging the dishes across the room. Aides rush over, not to stop him, but to cheer him on and break some plates themselves. One even comes over to berate you for not getting with the program and breaking more things - and why the hell aren’t you wearing a tie, anyway?
Stephens sees two silver linings from Friday’s disaster: 1) that the mineral rights deal wasn’t signed, and 2) that this scene of betrayal won’t play well with voters (just days ago, 81 percent told Quinnipiac that they don’t trust Putin). After a full-on propaganda rush from Pravda Fox, we’ll see if the anti-Putin polling holds up among voters and if that even matters among Trump’s lackeys in Congress, most of whom reside in safe districts.
If ever Israel could feel free to stand beside Ukraine - and alongside 93 other nations - now would be the time. Certainly it could not have hurt Israel to show a little moral backbone and align with the entire civilized world in this UN vote. It wouldn’t have cost them a single missile or Iron Dome battery.
The 93-niks and some good news
But I do see another glimmer of good news, this one coming from the UN vote. Let’s not focus on those few countries who did not support Ukraine, but the 93 who did. The diplomatic glass is way more than half full.
Jewish folklore speaks of the “Lamed-Vav,” 36 righteous souls who, because of their merit, sustain the world in each generation. In Kabbalistic numerology, each Hebrew letter6 equals a number, and the letters lamed (30) and vav (6) add up to 36).7 In most legends, these “Lamed-vavniks” are hidden, and their life’s purpose remains a secret even to themselves. But they are also most often extraordinarily meritorious individuals.
There may or may not be 36 righteous souls who will keep our world afloat until the scourge of Trump and Trumpism are behind us and American fascism is defeated for good. I don’t know. But if there are, I can think of a few currently on Substack who would qualify.
But I know that there are 93 righteous nations who did not let Ukraine down in this UN vote. That’s 93 countries that stood up to Putin and Trump and voted to sustain order in the world. And that includes Ukraine itself, a nation with thousands of Russian troops on its territory - the country with the Jewish head of state who has the moral courage to stand up to the world’s most powerful leaders without flinching. I could not be more proud of President Zelensky. He makes me proud to be a Jew and a defender of freedom.
But take a look at all those countries with the guts to stand up to Putin, Trump and Kim Jong Un, including nations on Putin’s hit list, like Latvia and Poland, and nations with no skin in the game, like Fiji and Suriname. Turkey has to deal with Russians every day, on land sea and air. They supported Ukraine.
Turkey doing something admirable? Be still, my heart!
Could the UN be on the verge of becoming a moral light unto the nations?
Breaking news: It’s not.
But there is a significant group of nations, a new global alliance led by the Europeans, Japan, Australia and Canada, that is coalescing just in time to reinforce the defense of freedom, in Ukraine, Taiwan, Greenland, and wherever else bullies seek to invade their neighbors.
They are the 93. Call them the Tzadi-gimmel-niks - based on the Hebrew letters totaling 93. Tzadi, which equals 90, comes from the word meaning righteousness and humility. As Kabbalistic artist Gabriele Levy writes, “The idea (of Tzadi) is that the world is broken so every person must face their own evil and learn to restore it.” The letter Gimel meanwhile, is “a dynamic balance between opposing powers.”
Let’s also give a semi-shout out to the abstainers, who very publicly did not support Russia. Egypt. India, Iraq, Syria - all abstained, strong indicators of Russia’s weakened position. Even Iran abstained. Even China abstained. So did Yemen, Uzbekistan and the U.A.E.
65 abstentions. Call them the Samekh-heh-niks, not quite as courageous as the Tzadi-gimel who voted in favor, but neither were they willing to grant Putin anticipatory obedience.8
Only 19 opposed. That America and Israel were among this motley crew is what we call a shanda. Pure and simple. It’s a Yiddish word that’s hardly used anymore, reserved for special cases of disgrace and shame, like Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Bernie Madoff or Jeffrey Epstein. This vote by the US and Israel is a equal-opportunity shanda, not for Jews only. The treatment of Ukraine, the most victimized of countries, by two natoins who should be its best friends, is an embarrassment.
May America and Israel, in the spirit of the Tzadi-gimelniks, both be able to restore justice and global balance with regard to defending Ukraine. But in the meantime, I pray for the perseverance of the 93 to stand up to the pressures they will most certainly face. Ninety-three nations is, at last count, a lot of nations. I don’t know about misery, but courage loves company.
I pray that they have the wherewithal to hold back the Evil Empires, both real and presumptive, for as long as it takes, until America awakens from this nightmare - as it will - and Washington comes to its senses again.
Our world depends on the 93 righteous, and all those who defend freedom from tyranny.
The General Assembly adopted draft resolution “L.10” by a recorded vote of 93 in favour to 18 against, with 65 abstentions. Notably, the United States voted against it, alongside the Russian Federation, marking an apparent shift of its position. Two years ago, Washington, D.C., supported a similar resolution (document A/RES/ES-11/6), which garnered 141 votes in favour. (See Press Release GA/12492 of 23 February 2023.)
By “L.10”, the Assembly — reaffirming its commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders — recalled the need for full implementation of its relevant resolutions adopted in response to the aggression against Ukraine, in particular its demand that the Russian Federation immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine.
The whole article, from Ha’aretz:
Ukraine has a checkered history of antisemitism: there were the 1648 Cossack massacres and Babi Yar; but also the real-life Anatevka - and how many other countries have had Jewish presidents and Jewish prime ministers — simultaneously? Just Israel. See also The stormy, yet rich history of the Jews in Ukraine. Also, the YIVO Encyclopedia article on Ukrainian Jewry.
The recently occupied area is the Syrian side of a previously demilitarized UN-controlled buffer zone of around 400 square kilometers (155 square miles) which lies between the annexed Golan Heights and Syria.
The zone was established as part of a ceasefire during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war and has since been under the control of around 1,100 UN troops.
Bret Stephens gave the White House scene some historical context:
If Roosevelt had told Churchill to sue for peace on any terms with Adolf Hitler and to fork over Britain’s coal reserves to the United States in exchange for no American security guarantees, it might have approximated what Trump did to Zelensky. Whatever one might say about how Zelensky played his cards poorly — either by failing to behave with the degree of all-fours sycophancy that Trump demands or to maintain his composure in the face of JD Vance’s disingenuous provocations — this was a day of American infamy.
Hebrew alphabet - Lamed and Vav circled.:
The legend is based on a quote from the sage Abaye in the Talmud - "There are not less than 36 righteous people in the world who receive the Divine Presence" (Sanh. 97b; Suk. 45b).
Lamed, the 12th letter of the Hebrew Alphabet is the symbol of learning. It is translated literally as the word for learning and also staff or goad. It is located at the center of the aleph-beith and represents the heart Lev לב; in kabbalah learning is mostly done with the heart and soul, not just the mind. The Lamed indicates that spiritual learning is the heart of human existence. Man’s course in life is to learn and express spiritual teachings and practice with every breath of life.
Vav is the power to unite everything that is separated in creation. Literally Vav means hook or peg and the Hebrew letter is a vertical line ו. It represents the Kav, the vertical line extension of the Creator’s perfection into the created world, in order to constantly direct it, guiding the cycle of existence step by step, until eventually the perfect Oneness of the Creator which underlies all of creation is revealed. Vav is related to the Or Yashar, the direct light of the Creator, entering the world.
As the connector, Vav contains the power to connect heaven and earth. It can be considered like a hose, or a tube, which connects and bestows all the energy of the shefa שפע abundance from above down to the created beings. It represents the ladder of Jacob – rooted in earth, with its head in the heavens. It is the extension of the essential dot Yod י, which all of creation comes forth from. The Vav can teach us the state of constant presence needed to connect our own heaven and earth (physical and spiritual aspects).
From On Tyranny:
Anticipatory obedience is a political tragedy. Perhaps rulers did not initially know that citizens were willing to compromise this value or that principle. Perhaps a new regime did not at first have the direct means of influencing citizens one way or another. After the German elections of 1932, which brought Nazis into government, or the Czechoslovak elections of 1946, where communists were victorious, the next crucial step was anticipatory obedience. Because enough people in both cases voluntarily extended their services to the new leaders, Nazis and communists alike realized that they could move quickly toward a full regime change. The first heedless acts of conformity could not then be reversed.
In early 1938, Adolf Hitler, by then securely in power in Germany, was threatening to annex neighboring Austria. After the Austrian chancellor conceded, it was the Austrians’ anticipatory obedience that decided the fate of Austrian Jews. Local Austrian Nazis captured Jews and forced them to scrub the streets to remove symbols of independent Austria. Crucially, people who were not Nazis looked on with interest and amusement. Nazis who had kept lists of Jewish property stole what they could. Crucially, others who were not Nazis joined in the theft. As the political theorist Hannah Arendt remembered, “when German troops invaded the country and Gentile neighbors started riots at Jewish homes, Austrian Jews began to commit suicide.”
The anticipatory obedience of Austrians in March 1938 taught the high Nazi leadership what was possible. It was in Vienna that August that Adolf Eichmann established the Central Office for Jewish Emigration. In November 1938, following the Austrian example of March, German Nazis organized the national pogrom known as Kristallnacht.
In 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union, the SS took the initiative to devise the methods of mass killing without orders to do so. They guessed what their superiors wanted and demonstrated what was possible. It was far more than Hitler had thought.
At the very beginning, anticipatory obedience means adapting instinctively, without reflecting, to a new situation.
This scene from "Babe," came to mind when JD Vance ordered Zelensky to thank Trump right then and there on Friday. https://youtu.be/JWLJsFcdv0w
Thank you Rabbi, I appreciate your writing. Your posts inevitably give me something meaningful to reflect on. You have this wonderful way of connecting history, morality, and current events that makes me see things from a new perspective.
Your post, especially your thoughts on Vav, really stuck with me. The idea of connection—between heaven and earth, past and present, values and actions—feels especially relevant right now. It’s a perspective I hadn’t considered in quite that way before, and I’m grateful for it.
I also share your admiration for the 93 nations that stood with Ukraine at the UN. In a time when moral clarity is so important, their courage matters. That’s why Israel’s vote was so deeply disappointing—it, of all nations, should understand what it means to fight for your homeland and survival. To see it side with Russia instead was heartbreaking.
Thank you for sharing your wisdom and for always making me think. I look forward to your next piece.