Despite President Biden's recent calls for a 6-week ceasefire amid the war between Israel and Gaza, leading progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders tells "Face the Nation" that "the United States of America cannot be complicit in this mass slaughter of children." "That should be clear: No more money to Netanyahu's war machine to kill Palestinian children," Sanders said.
Yeah, Ukraine is turning its nose up at Bradleys, F-16s, and Patriot missiles. After all why change from their old Soviet and Warsaw pact systems?
And yeah, Russia and Israel are totally not aligned, which is why Russia and Israel never made deals to stop supplying each others enemies with weapons.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/russia-nixed-arms-sales-to-israels-enemies-at-its-request-pms-adviser-says/
Putin and Bibi are total enemies!
https://images.hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2019/07/Huge-Campaign-Posters-Show-Netanyahu-Shaking-Hands-with-Trump-Putin-Modi-1024x683.jpg
Now of course Bibi walked some of this back after some US pressure, but that pressure is in the form of further aid and weapon sales.
Do you see the dilemma more clearly now?
Ukraine has a shit load of old Soviet era stuff. Of course they need supplies around that. They also keep asking for more F-16s and ammo for our weapons platforms we gave them. What does Ukraine and the weapons they use have to do with Israel?
Israel uses NATO standards for basically everything and the iron dome is effectively patriots. That’s all western tech with western specs. Russia and China would have to either create whole new missiles and calibers to fit, or they would have to buy older or brand new weapons systems and platforms which would take a decade plus to switch to.
Congrats on finding out how diplomacy works. Diplomacy isn’t a unit of measurement nor is it a spec. Which is what all those NATO spec weapons are that currently Israel is using.
Because Ukraine is accomplishing the switch and hybridization between weapon ecosystems under duress, whereas Israel will have time to do so. If Ukraine can rig Migs to fire western missiles, Israel can adapt S-400 to suit their needs.
It is not an idle threat when Bibi invites Putin over for tea, and it is not an impossibility for them to switch over.
Now, let’s say they do have difficulty switching over to Russian or Chinese weapons if the US cuts them off. You don’t think Iran or another of Israel’s neighbors won’t try to take advantage? Then what? How many people will die in that conflict? And if their backs are against the wall, how much restraint will Israel show before launching a nuke?
There are no easy answers here. Plenty of easy idealism though.