When Former US President Donald Trump designated Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist group, the White House explained that this move recognized a reality in which Tehran not only funds terrorism but actively participates in it and uses the organization to advance its political goals.
In addition to the strategic importance of the region from Moscow's perspective, Russia's southern front in Ukraine is also historically significant.
The Jewish state is learning that it "can no longer sit on the fence as the world is increasingly being divided between democracies and autocracies," says Emmanuel Navon, analyst at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.
There are multiple intended recipients for Iran's brinkmanship messaging, which is calculated to intimidate but not spark a full-scale war at this time.
The halt to the Vienna nuclear talks due to Russia's demand that sanctions on it exclude trade with Iran, have led to a watershed moment to expose the dangers of the deal.
A rivalry with Russia. A proxy battleground. Nuclear brinksmanship. For many generations of Americans, it’s just like old times.
"It is a real fight against good and evil. The challenge is so much bigger, and, of course, the world as [the Russian president] wants to change is not the world in which Jews and Israel want to live,” says Natan Sharansky.
PLO declarations aside, the reality is that everyone, including the Palestinians themselves, knows it is a defunct institution that lacks any real legitimacy.
Not wishing to anger either Russian President Vladimir Putin or the Biden administration, the PA and Hamas have so far refrained from taking official positions on Ukraine.
President Joe Biden "now faces the challenge of selling to Americans why enduring some impact to our economy for Ukraine matters. That is not going to be easy," Edward Frantz, a historian at the University of Indianapolis says.
