Author: עמנואל נבון

The Free World must circle the wagons at the UN (The Times of Israel, 27 September 2024)

Posted on by עמנואל נבון

 

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.

 

The British Paradox (Times of Israel, 18 September 2024)

Posted on by עמנואל נבון 

Photo Credit: ELNET

Below are the concluding remarks I delivered at ELNET’s eight strategic dialogue between the UK and Israel on 17 September 2024 in Jerusalem.

Eighty-five years ago on that day, the Soviet Union invaded Poland as a result of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. Britain had declared war on Germany two weeks before to defend Poland’s sovereignty. The invasion of Poland by Germany and Russia spelled disaster for the Jewish people. Britain was now at war with a country, Nazi Germany, that was bent on eradicating the Jewish people.

But Britain was also preventing Jewish national self-determination in its Palestine mandate. Three months before the war, the British government has adopted the infamous “White Paper” which drastically limited Jewish immigration and land purchase. David Ben-Gurion summarized this paradox when he said: “We must fight with Britain as if there were no White Paper, and we must fight the White Paper as if there were no war.”

Paradox characterizes to that day relations between Britain and Israel.

Britain enabled Palestinian Jews (this is how Israelis were called at the time) to fight alongside the Allies in Italy when it established the Jewish Brigade in 1944. But Britain also maintained the White Paper after the war and continued to prevent Jewish immigration despite the Holocaust. Britain tried to prevent Israel’s independence in 1948, but it fought alongside Israel against Egypt in 1956.

Britain played a key role at the UN Security Council in 1967 to block a resolution that would have demanded a total and unconditional Israeli withdrawal to the armistice lines of 1949. But Britain also added its voice in 1980 to the Venice Declaration, which endorsed the PLO and its demands. Margaret Thatcher imposed a military embargo on Israel while selling tanks to Jordan and military aircraft to Saudi Arabia, but she was also the first British prime minister to pay an official visit to Israel.

The list goes on, and the question is: “What’s the paradox today?”

It is the fact that Britain officially supports Israel’s right to defend itself but undermines that right by suspending military export licenses. Among allies, criticism and frank dialogue are welcome and necessary. Israel is not, and should not, be above criticism. But neither should it be held by impossible standards which NATO forces did not apply to themselves in Iraq and Syria.

Two weeks ago, ELNET hosted a delegation of former senior commanders, most of them from the UK. Among them was General Sir John McColl, former deputy senior allied commander of NATO. He came away from the trip, he said, “satisfied that the IDF’s operations and rules of engagement were rigorous compared to the British Army and our Western allies.”

Israel might be able to do better still to protect civilians while fighting a terrorist organization in urban areas and in underground tunnels. But imposing a partial arms embargo on Israel sends the wrong message to our common enemies: not only to Hamas, but also to the Russia-Iran axis that supports it.

The free world cannot afford to be divided in the current global conflict that has been imposed on us. When our two countries went to war against Egypt in 1956, tensions between the US and the UK played into the hands of the Soviets. Let us not repeat that mistake and let us settle our differences in private.

Abba Eban wrote the following about British politics: “It became a Zionist truism that our friends were former minsters, while incumbent ministers were our former friends.” May this dialogue, and the work of ELNET in general, relegate this truism to history.