The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to adopt a resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Israel joining 140 other countries in the 193-member body to demand that Moscow immediately withdraw its forces from the soil of its sovereign neighbor.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz vowed Wednesday that Israel will never give up on making sure Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons, as a deal between Tehran and world powers seemed imminent.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin within a few hours of each other on Wednesday, his second set of public phone calls with the two leaders since Russia invaded Ukraine last week.
The Jewish Agency for Israel has asked the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) for assistance in the urgent evacuation of Ukrainian Jews to Israel as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues. Based in Jerusalem, the ICEJ has been helping to facilitate Jewish “Aliyah” (immigration to Israel) from Ukraine for almost 40 years.
Israel on Tuesday called on Russia to cease its attack on Ukraine from the stage of the UN General Assembly, taking another step closer to the US-led Western position against Moscow after initial apprehension to take sides due to fears of alienating the Kremlin.
Israeli anti-tank weapons systems manufactured in Germany at a factory owned by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems are heading to Ukraine, according to a report by the Hebrew-language Calcalist news outlet.
As western powers have ratcheted up financial, diplomatic and military pressure on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah have been presenting Moscow’s action as a pertinent warning to those moderate Arab states willing to align with Israel and the US.
An embattled Ukraine moved to solidify its bond with the West on Monday by signing an application to join the European Union, while the first round of Ukraine-Russia talks aimed at ending the fighting concluded with no immediate agreements.
Iran is studying a rough draft of a deal to revive a 2015 nuclear agreement with major powers hammered out during talks in Vienna, its foreign minister said Saturday.
Israel’s government estimates that around 10,000 Ukrainians will immigrate to Israel in the coming weeks, government officials told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday.
The world came a step closer to nuclear warfare Sunday with Russian President Vladimir Putin ordering the military to put units that also possess nuclear weapons on high alert.
Hungary’s foreign minister says Budapest wants to host peace talks between neighboring Ukraine and Russia.
The embattled Ukrainian president asked Israel’s prime minister to mediate negotiations in Jerusalem between Ukraine and Russia as Russian tanks raced through Kyiv.
Russia denounced Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, hours before it launched its invasion of Ukraine.
Iran announced Wednesday that there has been progress in the multinational talks on renewing the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA) Iran nuclear deal, and that negotiations had reached a “critical” stage, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports. This sentiment has been echoed by the US, France and Germany, which are key parties to the talks.
Syrian media reported on Wednesday night that the country’s air defense systems had been activated following an Israeli air strike in the Damascus area.
Almost 100 Jewish Ukrainian new immigrants arrived in Israel on Sunday, as Russia stood poised to invade Ukraine in what would be a catastrophic war, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports. Although the new arrivals had been scheduled to immigrate prior to the current Russian threat to Ukraine, the Israeli government stated on Sunday that Ukrainian Jews will always have a home in Israel.
The tension in Ukraine is leading Israel to push its citizens there to leave the country and some Ukrainian Jews are also taking the step of making Israel their home.
Israel fired several missiles at targets in the area of the Quneitra border town in the Syrian Golan Heights after midnight Tuesday, Syrian state media reported.
Israeli officials are worried that the imposition of US sanctions against Russia in response to a possible invasion of Ukraine could harm Israel’s security interests in Syria, according to a report Monday.