Like every Jew in the world, I have long held the view that Israel is the only country that welcomed its new citizens as kings and created many opportunities for integration and social support. But when the war in Ukraine began, I understood through numerous testimonials of Ukrainian Jews that something is not right.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

From the first day of the war, there have been many stories about aliyah that turned out to be a sad saga. Some of the stranded Jews in Ukraine had to be moved to temporary facilities, where women, children, and older adults stayed for one or two nights waiting for a bus to an EU country where they could pass the consulate check.

However, Jews on the temporarily occupied territories were wholly cut off from supplies or any assistance from the Jewish organizations. Only a few weeks after the full-scale invasion of the Russian army, volunteers managed to make a dangerous trip to several surrounding cities and bring people out.

There is no doubt that Israel has done a lot for Ukrainian Jews now, but the system of aliyah and Integration has to be seriously improved. First of all, the approach to the emergency was utterly wrong. Israeli authorities might repeat their mistakes once more with the next wave of aliyah from Russia and Belarus. This wave from neighboring Ukraine countries started right after the war began and has increased in scope lately after the announcement about partial mobilization in Russia and a covered call-up in Belarus.

Due to overcome the impending humanitarian crisis, Israeli authorities were supposed to increase the number of flights from Ukraine (lately from Belarus, Russia, and neighboring countries); call up consulates and increase staff; pre-book busses for evacuation (in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia); prepare facilities in Israel instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to rent high-class hotels in Europe.

Israel has fallen short of those requirements both before the War in Ukraine and in the run-up to the mobilization in Russia. This created a crisis.

Another story is a line to every ministry. Most newcomers deal with a lot of bureaucracy. That is why people are doing different tricks to cheat the system.

The Israeli government has remarkably integrated new repatriates for ages. But since the war began, the State of Israel appeared unready for such an enormous number of olim that needed primary staff, psychological support, and profound assistance in the integration process. This wave of aliyah is not motivated by Zionism or the intention to return to Jewish roots. This aliyah wave is of people who wish to survive. That is why these people need unique attitudes and additional help from behalf of the government.

The reaction of civil society could be an excellent example of how the Israeli government can use the power of the people to solve such crises. Families and individuals could help new olim to integrate into the new life in Israel and can be their first "contact with the country." Volunteers do not ask for money from the government when they act. They only ask for assistance sometimes, and sometimes they ask not to interfere. We often hear from our non-Jewish friends that "Jews in every part of the world are so united and assistive to each other." I wonder why the Jewish State is not using our strength to its full in this regard to help integrate Jews.

The post What is wrong with the system of aliyah? appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

For the last two weeks, Ukrainian cities have suffered more from Iranian weapons than Israel for a previous couple of years. According to the Ukrainian Cheif Department of Intelligence, Iran already agreed to sell Russia its ballistic missiles and self-destroying drones of the latest generations, previously designed by the Iranian regime to attack Israeli civilian and military objects. 

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

Up to 20 Ukrainians have been hit by the Shahed-136 primitive Iranian drone. Iranian military presented this drone only in 2020; according to open-source data, there were only 100 drones manufactured by 2021. However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine increased the popularity of these drones among the Russian military due to the quite effective counteraction of the Ukrainian air defense against Russian missiles. 

Now more and more drones are coming from Iran on the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and Belarus. The first launches of these drones were ineffective and unsuccessful against Ukrainian objects. Most of the drones did not hit the targets due to the low quality of the GPS sensors installed in these drones. That is why Russians equipped and shared with Iranian manufacturers their analogs of the GPS - GLONASS, which led to a major increase in the effectiveness of these drones. 

According to the facts mentioned above, we can assume that cooperation between Iran and Russia led to the exchange of military experience and technologies between the Kremlin and Teheran regimes. Since Iran recognizes Israel as the only and most significant threat to its existence, such close collaboration between the two tyrant regimes leads the Iranian army and manufacturers to a broader range of military technologies and equipment. Some of the Russian air defense and nuclear technologies might be very helpful to the Iranian regime in its "jihad" against Israel. Recall that the Russian air defense system S-400 Triumf, e.g., might create severe problems in the Iranian sky for Israeli F-15 jets. At the same time, Russian nuclear technologies are one of the top priorities for the Iranian regime. Moscow can share them with its allies in Teheran, leading to the crossing of so-called "red lines" drawn by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in the UN. 

This week Ukraine officially appealed to Israel with the request for its air defense systems to fight Iranian ballistic missiles and drones. It came up after Ukraine repeatedly stressed that it's open to sharing with Israel all of the parts of the Iranian drones and other equipment that might be interesting to the Israelis for preventing Iranian attacks on the Jewish State. Recall that Ukraine sold Israel one of the best passive radars in the world, The Kolchuga, in 2019. The Kolchuga is a passive sensor and an electronic-warfare support measures system. Its detection range may be up to 800 km. Manufacturing these radars for Israel, the Ukrainian military-industrial complex harmed its own country, leaving Ukraine without such a powerful radar that could detect even stealth planes on a high range. On the other side, Israel did not sell any of its technologies or equipment except a license for firearms manufacturing many years ago.  

Russia was more successful in negotiating with Israel. The foreign publication Conflict Armament Research claims that between 2014 and 2018, an Israeli drone manufacturer supplied the sub-sanctioned Russian defense company with UAV components from various European and American manufacturers, thus providing a loophole to circumvent sanctions. In August 2014, the Israeli Ministry of Defense ordered all drone manufacturers to stop seeking new contracts in the Russian Federation due to the Russian invasion of Crimea.

However, according to FlightGlobal sources, this decision still allowed "to continue to fulfill obligations" under existing contracts, including the supply of spare parts and equipment modernization. In 2016, Israel ultimately suspended the supply of its drones and spare parts to Russia. 

Israel has been involved in the Russian-Ukrainian war since 2014 and supported the Russian military industry with needed components despite official restrictions. This two-faced policy of the Israeli government has led to several consequences. E.g., Turkey became the main supplier of striking UAVs to Ukraine as well as military radios and networks instead of  IAI and Elbit. Ukraine continues to sell its radar systems (which are much better than western analogs) and ATGM to Arab countries of the Gulf, and not only.  

The leading Israeli arguments since February 24th against military support of Ukraine were: Iranians will come to Syria; we clearly can state that Iran is growing its presence in Syria and its proxies despite Israeli neutrality; Russian Jews might be in danger in case of Israeli participation in the war in Ukraine;

Russian Jews are in danger already. A court decision will probably ban operations of the Jewish Agency for Israel, and thousands of local Jews can not visit the consulate check due to the lack of consuls in Russia and bordering countries. Mobilization of Russian men led to the fact that those Jewish men between the age of 18-60 who served in the Russian army now have to participate in the Russian invasion. 

I guess it's all not a significant victory of Israeli politicians but a major loss of shtetl populists.

Last but not least, to paraphrase the Talmud: 

Why was man created alone? Is it not true that the creator could have created the whole of humanity? But man was created alone to teach you that whoever kills one life kills the world entire, and whoever saves one life saves the world entire.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Israel should not be afraid of Russia appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.