Former Mayor of Jerusalem MK Nir Barkat (Likud) believes that Israel must align more closely with the US and the West against Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
“From the first day I said that it’s not between Ukraine and Russia. It’s between the West led by the United States and Russia,” Barkat tells Israel National News.
Regarding Israel taking a neutral stance in order to act as an intermediary for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, Barkat argues that the idea is not realistic.
“With all due respect, you know our friends in Washington are saying, ‘We don’t need Israel or the prime minister of Israel who doesn’t have six mandates in Israel to be the mediator between the United States and the Russians,'” he says. “It's an issue between the United States and the Western world and the Russians. The values we share are with America. It’s a value issues from day one.”
“Now I understand a little bit better why many countries in the world were neutral in the Holocaust. They did all their calculations – ‘Is it worthwhile or not?’ – that’s not where we should be. We should be on the value decision, we belong to the Western world and we should tell our friends in Russia, ‘Hey, folks, until this is over we’re on the side of the West.’ Even if it means we take some risks. These are risks that we must know how to manage in a smart way… You see all the atrocities in Ukraine? Which side are we on? We can’t be neutral on that.”
Barkat says that believes new Israeli elections will occur and that voters have realized that the proper end result is a return to a right of center government.
“If you look at the recent polls, you see that there’s a trend to go back home, to be part of the national movement – the Likud and our friends in the opposition,” Barkat tells Israel National News. “And similarly you see that the number of Knesset members that were elected by voters of the right of center, that voters are rethinking their stand. They understand that something is wrong here, that the government is weak, that we’re paying a heavy price, that the terror is lifting its head because they feel weakness.”
Barkat remarks that under the current government many illegal Palestinian structures are being built in Judea and Samaria.
“A new Palestinian state is rising right in front of our face and the government is helpless. More and more of them like Idit Silman and others understand now that they have to go back home and we have to send this government home as fast as possible.”
When asked how he responds to those who say that the issues he brings up, such as uprooting of Jewish communities, existed during the 12 years of Netanyahu, Barkat responds that while those years weren’t perfect they were “much better… and it’s clear now nobody’s even putting any breaks on this.”
He recounts that when he was in the United States, he discovered that no one in Washington was “dealing with them, nobody was putting that pressure to eliminate illegal [Palestinian] structures.”
“We're talking about more than 3,000 new buildings every year built in Area C between different Jewish cities and towns,” he says. “Unfortunately, this government is totally helpless and is creating a big risk to the future of the State of Israel.”
While many people are saying that it is possible to create a right wing government in this Knesset but it can’t be led by Netanyahu because he doesn’t have a majority, and instead suggesting candidates like Barkat form a new government, Barkat explains that the process would not work that way.
“I’m a Likudnik, I belong to a party that has elections and Netanyahu has been chosen as the leader of the Likud and we’re behind him. We don’t work like the Labor Party that chops the head off its leaders every second week. It doesn’t work like that. That’s the power of the Likud. And I strongly urge our friends in the opposition and in the coalition that are from the right of center block, join the Likud under Netanyahu because that is what we need to do.”
“We have to work together as a team because the time we’re in is strategically dangerous to the State of Israel,” he stresses.
Barkat comments that in terms of the United States relationship with Israel, Congress is still very pro-Israel – “We have to help them help us and figure out how they help us stop the illegal structures, how they stop the Iran nuclear deal.”
“When I was there and spent some time with them on this issue, I basically told them that there’s only one country in the world that is preparing a nuclear bomb in order to use it and that’s the Iranians,” he says. “The nuclear deal doesn’t talk about the conventional threat around Israel, the 250,000 rockets that are aimed at Israel that the Iranian proxies intend to use and hit out cities and towns and innocent people.”
Congressional lawmakers asked him why he’s there from the opposition and wondered where the government was, he explains.
“They asked me, ‘Where is your government, Nir? What you’re saying sounds very logical to us but where’s the government?’ The government has given up on convincing the American public, the administration and the Congress and they’re moving on.”
“I’ve looked for alliance on the U.S. side to better understand that Iran must know that we will hit and target Iran, will target their economy big time, if G-d forbid they give permission to their proxies to hit Israel,” he adds.