November 2023 — MHCE Newsletter
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WWW.<strong>MHCE</strong>.US Monthly <strong>Newsletter</strong> | 21<br />
Randa Slim, an expert in peacebuilding<br />
at the Middle East<br />
Institute, said Israel had no choice<br />
but to maintain its relationship<br />
with Moscow, in part because of<br />
Russia’s control over Syria, and she<br />
pointed out that Israel had rejected<br />
Zelenskyy’s offer to visit after the<br />
Hamas attack.<br />
Zelenskyy’s pro-Israel position<br />
“did not make sense,” Slim said,<br />
adding that many Arab and Muslim<br />
countries see more similarities<br />
between Israel and Russia <strong>—</strong> as<br />
aggressive military powers <strong>—</strong> than<br />
they do between Israel and Ukraine.<br />
“This is where the Arab region is,”<br />
she said. “They are not going to<br />
accept what Biden says, comparing<br />
Russia and Hamas. They are more<br />
comparing Russia and Israel as far<br />
as death toll and as far as targeting<br />
civilians.”<br />
Zelenskyy, she said, could win more<br />
friends if he was “ready to say what<br />
Russia is doing in Ukraine is what<br />
Israel is doing in Gaza.” But, she<br />
added, “I don’t see Ukraine ready to<br />
do that or willing to do that.”<br />
Just as Russian President Vladimir<br />
Putin initially offered no direct<br />
condolences to Israel and no firm<br />
rebuke of Hamas, Zelenskyy was<br />
slow to speak about the need to<br />
protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza<br />
as Israel stepped up retaliatory<br />
airstrikes.<br />
When news of the Hamas attack<br />
first hit, Zelenskyy and members<br />
of his team compared Hamas to<br />
Russia, saying Ukrainians had “a<br />
special understanding about what<br />
is happening” to Israelis. (There<br />
are large numbers of Ukrainian and<br />
Russian immigrants living in Israel.)<br />
Only 10 days later did Zelenskyy<br />
indirectly allude to the bombardment<br />
of Gaza by calling for the need to<br />
protect civilians and for deescalation.<br />
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy has steered<br />
clear of criticizing Israeli strikes,<br />
despite the deaths in Gaza of<br />
thousands of Palestinian civilians<br />
and at least 21 Ukrainian citizens.<br />
The foreign ministers of Turkey<br />
and Qatar, which have played<br />
instrumental roles in negotiating<br />
between Ukraine and Russia<br />
on issues like prisoner-of-war<br />
exchanges and Russia’s blockade<br />
of Ukrainian grain exports, issued<br />
a joint statement alleging Western<br />
hypocrisy.<br />
“It is not permissible to condemn the<br />
killing of civilians in one context and<br />
justify it in another,” said Qatar’s<br />
Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-<br />
Thani. Turkey’s Hakan Fidan added<br />
that the West’s failure to condemn<br />
the killings in Gaza “constitutes a<br />
very serious double standard.”<br />
In an interview with CNN, Queen<br />
Rania of Jordan also offered sharp<br />
Continued on page 26
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