Israel and Ukraine are fighting the same fight

At first glance, the wars in Israel and Ukraine seem unrelated and bear little similarity. One is a rapid-response counterterrorism operation, the other a years-long, multi-front defensive action focused on reclaiming and protecting sovereign territory. 

But what is at stake in both conflicts will have rippling effects for generations to come, far beyond Israel and Ukraine. These are existential struggles against murderous aggressors who possess no regard for human rights or civil liberties.

Unprovoked, both Hamas and Russia used spurious historical justifications as casus belli to invade democratic countries that they wish to wipe off the map.

Their position is unambiguous. The founding charter of Hamas, written in 1988, clearly outlines the goal to “raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine.”

As he was planning to invade Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote a lengthy essay, “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians,” in which he asserted that Ukraine does not exist and Ukrainians are just “Little Russians.” 

Dmitry Medvedev, former president and prime minister of Russia, said of Ukrainian territory, “These are the borders of the region of Russia and once the provinces of the Russian Empire, and not the mythical Ukraine…There is no such land. Whatever they think in the West and in the occupied Russian city of Kyiv.”

Historians have clarified that Kyiv is, in fact, several centuries older than Moscow. Jews called the Middle East and the land of modern day Israel home for millennia and are indigenous to the land. But to Russia and Hamas, revisionist histories are only fig leaves for their true revanchist aims.

Both have made clear that their strategic goal is to annihilate their victims not merely individually, but as peoples. 

Hamas killed and abducted every Jew it could on Oct. 7; orders to do so came from the top echelons of the terror organization. In a televised interview after the attack, a Hamas leader said that, if it could, Hamas would repeat Oct. 7 over and over again. 

Russia has murdered Ukrainian civilians en masse, targeting schools, hospitals, theaters, and markets with no military value, purposely devastating cities, looting Ukrainian cultural artifacts, and kidnapping thousands of Ukrainian children into Russia, where they are taught to despise their own homeland.

Both aggressors have also relied heavily on antisemitism to fuel their narratives.

Russian leaders refer to the Ukrainian government as “the Nazi regime in Kiev,” and assert that the main purpose of their invasion was to “denazify” Ukraine — a country led by a Jewish president.

Before his illegal, unwarranted invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin was not previously known to peddle in antisemitism, but he has increasingly resorted to antisemitic language as his prospects for victory look increasingly weak. According to Russia expert Leon Aron, Putin implies that “Russians and Ukrainians are killing one another because of a Jewish schemer [Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky].”

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, sparked outrage last year when he said that, like Zelensky, “Hitler also had Jewish blood.” 

Hamas’s antisemitism is no recent phenomenon; its hatred of Jews is ferocious, all-consuming, and fundamental to its identity. Its founding covenant calls for the genocide of the Jews.

Hamas’s former minister of culture said in 2011, “The Jews are the most despicable and contemptible nation to crawl upon the face of the Earth, because they have displayed hostility to Allah. Allah will kill the Jews in the hell of the world to come, just like they killed the believers in the hell of this world.”

It is no surprise, then, that Russia and Hamas have drawn closer together, just as they both have drawn closer to Iran. 

Russia hosted a delegation of Hamas officials in Moscow shortly after the Oct. 7 massacre. Its ambassador to the UN asserted that Israel doesn’t have the right to self-defense because it is an “occupying state.” Russia has also provided diplomatic cover for Hamas by vetoing a U.S.-sponsored UN Security Council resolution asserting Israel’s right to defend itself. Russia’s alternative resolution urged a ceasefire in Gaza and did not even mention Hamas.

Iran, Hamas’s patron, also provides Russia with attack drones used to bombard Ukrainian cities and is helping construct a drone factory inside Russia.

Russia, Hamas, and Iran are no mere partners of convenience. They unite around antisemitism and a lack of respect for the values of human rights and liberal democracy that are so precious to Israel, Ukraine and the United States.

In standing with Israel and Ukraine, America stands with morality. Both nations warrant our staunchest support, and their victories will contribute to a more peaceful and prosperous world.

Julie Fishman Rayman is Managing Director, Policy and Political Affairs of American Jewish Committee (AJC). AJC, along with the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, and the embassies of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania will host America Stands with the Baltics, Israel and Ukraine on Capitol Hill on Dec. 5.