Picture Credit: ELNET
Below are my concluding remarks at ELNET’s CEE (Central & Eastern Europe)-Israel Strategic Dialogue, which took place in Riga, Latvia, on September 23, 2024.
Israel is fighting a seven-front war which includes Iran, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank. But this war is not confined to the Middle East. It belongs to a wider geopolitical divide between the free world and the despotic powers that are undermining the US-led, rule-based order which was established after World War II and which expanded with the end of the Cold War. Russia and Iran are on the same side of this divide. Both countries are imperialist autocracies that treat their neighbors as subjects and that perceive democracies as a threat.
Israel and its allies in eastern and central Europe are facing together the Russia-Iran axis, which enjoys the backing of China and of North Korea. Countries in eastern and central Europe are all too familiar with the threat of imperialist autocracies. Czechoslovakia was dismantled in 1938 because of German bullying and of Western cowardice. Poland was conquered by Germany and by Russia in 1939. That same year, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were forcibly added to the Soviet Empire. Russia financed and armed Israel’s enemies during the Cold War. It is now aligned with Iran.
In our common and current struggle, we must not only expand our military cooperation but also reaffirm our moral clarity. Let us not fall into the trap of those who wish to draw a false parallel between Israel and Russia. No, the West is not applying double standards by supporting Israel while condemning Russia. Russia is conducting a war of aggression while intentionally committing war crimes. Israel is conducting a war of self-defense while abiding by the laws of war. But there are consequences to moral confusion. One of them is the lack of unity among free countries at the UN.
The UN was established by the Allies, but with time the free world became a minority in the organization it had established after WWII. Today, democracies and law-abiding nations are a minority at the UN. The general assembly and the human rights council are dominated by autocracies that use their automatic majority to pass political resolutions under the pretense of international law. As free nations have become a minority at the UN, the least they can do is to stick together. When they don’t, they play into the hands of China and Russia.
Unfortunately, this is precisely what happened on September 17 at the general assembly with the PLO-sponsored resolution against Israel. This resolution calls upon Israel to fully and unconditionally withdraw to the 1949 armistice lines without a peace agreement and without security guarantees. Israel did just that in 2005 when it fully withdrew from the Gaza Strip. The outcome was nearly two decades of rocket attacks, and then October 7.
The fact that Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Latvia, Luxemburg, Malta, Monaco, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain voted in favor of this resolution is a disgrace. Albania, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Georgia, Germany, India, Germany, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, South Korea, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom had the decency to abstain. Argentina, the Czech Republic, Figi, Hungary, Malawi, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Tonga, Tuvalu, and the United States had the courage and moral clarity to vote against.
While general assembly resolutions are mere declarations that are not binding in international law, those votes carry consequences because they send the wrong message to China and to Russia. That message is that the free world is divided and lacks moral clarity. If we wish to overcome our divisions and to restore our moral clarity as free nations, let’s start at the UN.
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