Evil must be defeated in Ukraine and Israel

For 18 months or so the news has been dominated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its aftermath. Now the gaze of the world has shifted to the Middle East, where the conflict that began with the Hamas attack on Israel is widening by the day. 

Israeli forces have been in action against Hezbollah in Lebanon, attacked airfields in Syria and destroyed a suspected terrorist base under a mosque in Jenin on the West Bank. With a ground invasion of Gaza expected soon, Israel faces the prospect of a war on three fronts. This has happened before and Israel has come through, as it will do again, but the cost will be high.

But however perilous events now are in the Middle East, the West must not lose sight of Ukraine and the need to continue full support in its fight against Russian aggression. There were already signs of “war fatigue” in America, where Republicans in particular have questioned the continued high level of military and financial support to Kyiv. If the US has to intervene in the Middle East, where it has deployed two carrier groups, interest in Ukraine may weaken further.

This would be a grave mistake. Vladimir Putin is hoping for just such a reaction in order to dry up the supply of Nato weapons to Ukraine. Without these, Ukrainian troops are sitting ducks, despite the great heroism they have demonstrated.

As the former prime minister Boris Johnson wrote in this newspaper on Friday, in a joint article with French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, the conflict in the Middle East is an extension of the same fight against a similar foe in different guises.

Russia has notably failed to condemn Hamas or its atrocities, not least because it is following the same playbook and showing the same indifference to loss of life by bombing theatres, railway stations, churches and other civilian targets. 

Moreover, Moscow is rallying the so-called non-aligned Global South against both Israel and Ukraine. China is also seizing the opportunity to foment anti-Western sentiment among its satellites, with one eye always on the likely US response to an invasion of Taiwan.

Far from the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 representing “the end of history” with victory for the West, we are now seeing the world returning to blocs of democracies and autocracies vying for influence and power. It is a dangerous time and there is little scope for ambiguity in which side to support.