Ambassador Liel: Zelenskyy’s Knesset speech exposes gaps in perception over the conflict

On Israel with Ben Caspit, an Al-Monitor podcast

Ben Caspit speaks this week with Dr. Alon Liel, former Director General of Israel’s Foreign Ministry and former Israeli ambassador to Ankara. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy just finished addressing the Israeli parliament via Zoom, calling on the Jewish state to help his country. Liel says he was surprised to see that Zelenskyy’s speech indicated that Ukraine and Israel have very different impressions over the role Jerusalem has been playing so far in this conflict. "Zelensky attacked the Israeli neutrality, Israeli attempts to mediate [vis-à-vis Russia], he attacked Israel for not helping Ukraine militarily, and he attacked Israel for not joining the economic sanctions…During these past three weeks, [Israel] had the impression that Ukraine wants us to mediate. That they had asked us to do so. Also, we did not hear until now a direct request for us to supply them with weapons."

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