Israel is helping Ukraine a lot, but its help has limitations

 Israel has always been on Ukraine’s side by providing serious humanitarian assistance, but in other areas the country’s support is limited due to national security reasons of the Jewish state, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said.

"It’s an issue that was discussed in public quite often, so let’s put the record straight. First of all, Israel is aligned with the international community and the United States at all the international forums. Secondly, of course, we made it clear that we object to any violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. But the big thing is, of course, Israel is assisting quite substantially in an array of issues, most predominantly humanitarian issues," the Israeli president told the Atlantic Council during his visit to Washington.

In his words, "if you walk around the various volunteer organizations and NGOs in Ukraine, Hebrew is the predominant language [there]."

"We’ve set up hospitals, we are making a huge effort on the phychological and post-traumatic treatment,  we’ve supplied medical equipment, Ukrainian soldiers are being treated in Israeli hospitals, we’ve offered a lot of equipment that has to do with civilian needs. We’ve also offered Ukraine civilian systems for early detection of missile attacks - something that Israel has huge experience in," the president continued.

"But there are things that we cannot supply, due to our national security interests of utmost importance, and that is by the way the rule in many other countries," he said, adding that "the compass" that is used to judge his country is "at times distorted."

"Israel is doing what it can in light of its strategic and security considerations," the president said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said October 18 that his country would send an official message to the Israeli government asking it to immediately provide Kiev with air defense systems. So far, Israel has not provided Ukraine with any military aid and has limited itself to sending humanitarian supplies to the country and providing medical aid to Ukrainians wounded as result of hostilities.

In a telephone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart on the following day, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz confirmed that his country was not ready to supply weapons to Kiev. He pointed out that Israel still intended to limit itself to providing only non-military assistance to Kiev and emphasized "the operational limitations faced by the State of Israel.".