There is one thing that I keep noticing in recent months in the European public debate – and especially in a certain area of the left – that I honestly find hard to understand.
I am referring to those people who declare themselves to be strongly pro-Ukraine and, at the same time, pro-Pal. A position that is often presented as coherent, humanitarian, ‘on the side of the oppressed’. But the more I observe it, the more it seems exactly the opposite: a profound political and moral contradiction.

I say it clearly: if you supportUkraine because it is an attacked state, a democracy under attack, a people defending its self-determination, then it makes no sense not to support Israel and the right of the Jewish people to exist and self-determine.

The principle is the same. Either it always applies, or it never applies.

Self-determination is not a ‘sympathetic’ concept

When we talk about Ukraine, we rightly use very sharp words: invasion, aggression, violation of international law, Russian imperialism. No one – or hardly anyone – questions the fact that Kyiv has the right to defend itself and decide its own future.

But then I ask myself: why does this principle suddenly cease to apply when it comes to Israel?

Israel is a recognised state, a member of the United Nations, with borders, institutions, elections, a Supreme Court, a free press. It was born out of a historical and international process that had a clear objective: to grant self-determination to a people that had had none for centuries, and had just survived the Shoah.

Palestine, however, today is not a state in the full sense of the term. It has no single authority, no defined borders and a large part of its territory is ruled by Hamas, a terrorist organisation that does not recognise Israel and systematically uses violence against civilians.

Saying this does not mean ‘denying the suffering of the Palestinians’. It means not telling fairy tales.

Two conflicts, same fracture line

Another element that is often ignored is the geopolitical context.
Ukraine and Israel are not two disconnected conflicts: they are two different fronts of the same global challenge.

In Ukraine there is Putin‘s Russia, an authoritarian regime that represses dissent, invades its neighbours and wants to rewrite the European order.
In the Middle East there is Israel, surrounded by enemies – state and non-state – who openly reject Western values and who are often financed or supported by the West’s own enemies.

• Hamas is supported by Iran.
• Iran is a strategic ally of Moscow.
• Moscow, in turn, also uses the delegitimisation of Israel as a political and propaganda tool in Europe.

Do we really think all this is random?

Human rights: look at them all, not just the comfortable ones

Then there is the issue of human rights, which is very often used selectively.
In Ukraine we see deportations, repression, systematic destruction of national identity.
In Israel, despite a bitter war, there are minorities who vote, independent judges, political opposition.

In Gaza, under Hamas, there are no political freedoms, women are not free, opponents are eliminated, LGBTQ+ people persecuted. Yet this is kept silent, or downplayed.

Defending human rights does not mean automatically siding with those who call themselves ‘weaker‘. It means defending systems that recognise the individual as a holder of rights, even when they are imperfect.

Europe must choose consistency

I believe that a Europe that wants to call itself truly liberal cannot afford ambiguity.
We cannot defend international law in Kyiv and relativise it in Tel Aviv.
We cannot speak of self-determination only when it is politically expedient.

Supporting Israel does not mean justifying every decision of its government, just as supporting Ukraine does not mean idealising it. It does mean, however,choosing sides in a world increasingly divided between liberal democracies and authoritarian systems. And today, like it or not, Ukraine and Israel are on the same side.