With all the new editions around the world opening with monstrous guesses - if and when Russia invades Ukraine - it's hard not to think sympathetically about the citizens of the threatened country.
Some 40 million residents of Ukraine, including quite a few Jews, are currently being treated unfairly between the Russian rapist hammer and the West's hesitant anvil.
The cruel tension in which they live presents them with not-so-simple dilemmas: to flee, or at least to flee the family abroad for as long as possible, or to fight for the sovereignty of their country and their dignity as a people, when power relations are clearly not in their favor.
The conduct of their Western allies, with Biden's US at the helm, certainly does not add spirit to the Ukrainian ship's sailors. , Britain and Germany announce in advance that their response arsenal is reduced to lukewarm economic sanctions, rush to evacuate their people from Ukraine, and even release over the airwaves the horror scenarios of the Ukrainian army crash and the fall of Kiev in two days, they only entice the Russians to embark on military adventure.
The discourse between the West and Russia is increasingly reminiscent of a dialogue of the deaf.
Biden makes statements that seem belligerent to him, but when it is clear to everyone that they are not really behind them, in Moscow they are interpreted as an admission by the Americans of their helplessness.
When the situation is analyzed in the Kremlin, it is understood that no one can stop them.
Certainly not the current occupant of the Oval Office.
Although everyone is acting as if the Russian attack is a done deal, one should recognize that decisions of this kind are made in a country like Russia in the head of one person, and therefore it is not known what conclusion will eventually be formed in Vladimir Putin.
However, paradoxically as it may sound, he can already record for himself some intermediate achievements.
Russia's diplomatic exclusion, which began following its previous invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and the annexation of the Crimean peninsula, was broken - not because it moderated and admitted by mistake, but precisely because it ended up saying to behave more firmly and increase the level of threats.
The air train of Western leaders, who came to the Kremlin one by one, or at least called Moscow to please and persuade Putin not to carry out the threat, probably convinced him of the opposite insight: the power pays off.
Here he poses the hot threat of invasion of a neighboring country, and becomes the influential leader everyone is waiting to hear.
Even the identity of the loser so far, before the guns speak (or are returned to the bases without speaking), is not difficult to determine.
The camp of democracies led by Biden and his colleagues Johnson, Macron and Schultz is once again portrayed as weak, indecisive and unable to influence.
His weakness is also seen from Tehran, and conclusions are drawn.
It is to be hoped that it will also be seen from Jerusalem, and is being prepared accordingly.
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
If you found an error in the article, we'll be happy for you to share it with us
