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Ukraine Is at War with Russia … and North Korea and Iran
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of a cultural forum dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the birth of the Turkmen poet and philosopher Magtymguly Fragi, in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Oct. 11, 2024. Photo: Sputnik/Alexander Scherbak/Pool via REUTERS
JNS.org – Last week was clearly a week for making history. That observation isn’t primarily sparked by Donald Trump’s presidential election victory—he’s now the only commander-in-chief besides Grover Cleveland to win two non-consecutive terms at the helm of the world’s leading democracy—but to a much less reported event half a world away, whose consequences Trump will have to deal with when he takes office in January.
As the Pentagon has now confirmed, the North Korean regime has deployed up to 12,000 troops to fight alongside its Russian ally nearly three years after Moscow launched its brutal aggression against Ukraine. As Americans ventured to the polls on Tuesday to carve a piece of history, the North Koreans did the same in Russia’s Kursk salient, where they clashed with Ukrainian forces, marking the first time that an outside party has fired a shot in this war. As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pointed out, the very presence of North Korean forces marks a serious escalation that will generate a “new chapter of global instability.”
Time will tell whether the North Koreans will make a significant difference to the actual progress of the war. A story that did the rounds in recent days centered upon a captured Russian soldier caught on video claiming that his unit was accidentally fired on by the very same North Koreans supposed to be fighting alongside them, suggesting that Pyongyang has dispatched cannon fodder rather than crack troops. “We tried to explain to them where to aim, but I think they shot two of our own,” the soldier explained. “I decided it was better to surrender in this situation than to be killed by our own bullet.” That probably shouldn’t be surprising; while North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has called his 1 million-man army “the strongest” in the world, none of the Hermit Kingdom’s soldiers have any meaningful combat experience.
The other aspect here is geopolitical—the coming together of two tyrannical regimes to crush the independence of a post-Communist democracy allied with the European Union and the United States. By choosing North Korea as his partner in war, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has signaled that no state is off-limits when it comes to seeking allies. For as bad and repressive as Russia is internally, North Korea is even worse; as I’ve written before, the “Democratic People’s Republic” is not so much an independent country as it is a concentration camp with a seat at the United Nations.
With his relations with Western nations at a nadir, Putin has become increasingly reliant on countries like China, Iran and North Korea for diplomatic and military support, as well as those states that are either existing or aspiring members of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) bloc of states, who present themselves as an alternative to the U.S.-dominated international institutions that emerged after World War II. Iran has supplied Russia with missiles and Shahed drones that have been used to devastating effect against Ukrainian cities and towns. In the case of North Korea, Putin and Kim signed a “comprehensive strategic partnership treaty” when the Russian leader visited Pyongyang in June that pledges both countries to come to the defense of the other in the event of an attack. For Moscow, the North Korean troops for the time being offer a practical alternative to recruiting yet more Russians to fight in a war that has already taken the lives of more than 700,000 of them, along with thousands of tanks and armored vehicles. For the North Koreans, assisting Russia will bring in much-needed cash into Kim’s coffers, as well as Russian know-how in the development of Pyongyang’s nuclear program.
What this means is that Ukraine isn’t just fighting Russia but also North Korea and Iran. The implications of this for Ukraine, as its civilians and armed forces face yet another freezing winter with dwindling supplies, are the gravest of all. But in the longer term, Ukraine’s ostensible allies will also bear the costs of this alignment of autocracies.
In the Middle East, the effects of Russia’s belligerent foreign policy have been manifest for more than a decade, given its aggressive backing of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime during the civil war in that country. Israel has had to tiptoe around the Russian presence in Syria as it has attempted to deal with Iran’s use of both Syria and Lebanon as a staging ground for its proxies’ attacks upon the Jewish state. Because of that, in the wake of the Ukraine invasion three years ago, Israel considered and then essentially rejected the proposal that it should actively back the democratic government in Kyiv with weapons and training. That prudence was understandable, but it has not curtailed the Russians, whose attitude to the Jewish state is increasingly returning to the demonizing approach witnessed during the Cold War as it cultivates terrorist groups from Hamas in Gaza to the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
For Putin, the war triggered by the Hamas atrocities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 has been a blessing. In terms of world attention, his war in Ukraine has been eclipsed by the fighting in the Middle East, with the grim result that the authentic genocide that Russia is waging against its southern neighbor has been largely ignored as patently false claims of Israeli genocide in Gaza have mushroomed. As we enter the lame duck phase of President Joe Biden’s administration, a fundamental reassessment is therefore necessary—specifically, understanding how the wars in Ukraine and on multiple fronts in the Middle East interact with each other, and at what points Western, Israeli and Ukrainian interests intersect and where they might diverge.
Ultimately, both Ukraine and Israel are fighting against the same set of enemies. At stake is not just their security—one might even say their very survival—but the values and policies embodied by both the NATO alliance and U.S. foreign policy. How America and its allies respond now will determine our stance towards this so-called “Axis of Resistance” for a generation.
The post Ukraine Is at War with Russia … and North Korea and Iran first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Fresh conversations on the state of Canadian arts in a twice-monthly podcast from The CJN
Culturally Jewish debuted in April 2023 as an audio magazine highlighting stories of creators across Canada along with critical tips about new and upcoming events. Click here to listen and […]
The post Fresh conversations on the state of Canadian arts in a twice-monthly podcast from The CJN appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Trump Nominates Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as US Ambassador to Israel
Mike Huckabee looks on as Donald Trump reacts during a campaign event at the Drexelbrook Catering and Event Center, in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, US, Oct. 29, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
US President-elect Donald Trump has nominated former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to serve as the next US ambassador to Israel, adding another staunch ally of the Jewish state to a senior role in his incoming administration.
“I am pleased to announce that the highly respected former Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, has been nominated to be the United States Ambassador to Israel,” Trump wrote in a statement on Tuesday.
“Mike has been a great public servant, governor, and leader in faith for many years. He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East!” Trump continued.
Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, has long been a stalwart ally of the Jewish state. He has repudiated the anti-Israel protests that erupted in the wake of Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7 and criticized incumbent US President Joe Biden for sympathizing with anti-Israel protesters during his speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention (DNC). The incoming ambassador also lambasted the anti-Israel encampments at elite universities, stating that there should be “outrage” over the targeting and mistreatment of Jewish college students.
Huckabee has defended Israel’s right to build settlements in the West Bank, acknowledging the Jewish people’s ties to the land dating back to the ancient world.
“There is no such thing as the West Bank — it’s Judea and Samaria,” Huckabee has said, referring to the biblical names for the area. “There is no such thing as settlements — they’re communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities. There is no such thing as an occupation.”
During Huckabee’s 2008 US presidential campaign, he stated that “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian,” and that land for a potential Palestinian state should be taken from other Arab states and not Israel.
Huckabee will replace the current ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew.
Trump’s pick for ambassador to Israel during his first term, David Friedman, praised the president-elect’s selection of Huckabee.
“I am thrilled by President Trump’s nomination of Governor Mike Huckabee as the next Ambassador to Israel. He is a dear friend and he will have my full support. Congrats Mike on getting the best job in the world!” Friedman wrote on X/Twitter.
During Trump’s first term in office, his administration helped foster the Abraham Accords, a series of landmark normalization agreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Trump also recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a strategic region on Israel’s northern border previously controlled by Syria, and moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, recognizing the city as the Jewish state’s capital.
Over the course of his campaign, Trump promised to resume efforts to strengthen the Abraham Accords upon his return to the White House. He has also urged Israel to move faster with its military campaign to eradicate the Hamas terrorist group from the Gaza Strip.
The post Trump Nominates Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as US Ambassador to Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Suspect Remanded Without Bail for Attempted Kidnapping of Jewish Boy in New York City
Masked male attempts to abduct Orthodox Jewish child in broad daylight in New York City on Nov. 9, 2024. Photo: Shomrim Crown Heights Rescue Patrol/Screenshot from social media
The man who was charged for attempting to abduct an Orthodox Jewish child in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York City this past weekend will remain in jail until he faces a judge again next month.
Stephan Stowe, 28, reportedly a gang member with 33 prior arrests, was arrested early Sunday and subsequently charged with attempted kidnapping and endangering the welfare of a child. Citing court documents released on Monday, CrownHeights.info reported that a judge refused bail for Stowe and ordered him to be remanded to Rikers Island prison until his next court date on Dec. 9.
The legal action came after a masked man was caught on video approaching a visibly Jewish father walking with his two sons and grabbing one of the children on Saturday afternoon, in broad daylight. He was unable to secure possession of the child, whose father fought back immediately and did not let go of his son. The assailant put the child down.
This video is shocking. A perpetrator grabbed a Chasidic child who was walking with his father today at approximately 3:30pm on Kingston near Lefferts Ave.
Something is clearly going on in Crown Heights—there have been incident after incident over the past two weeks.… pic.twitter.com/7nIkZWhssk
— Yaacov Behrman (@ChabadLubavitch) November 10, 2024
The video was widely circulated online and fueled concern about a wave of violent crimes targeting Jews in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Following news of the arrest, a local Jewish leader praised what, for now, appears to be a victory for law and order advocates and a Jewish Brooklyn community reeling from a spate of hate crimes in recent weeks.
“The perpetrator has been arrested,” Yaacov Behrman, a liaison for Chabad Headquarters — the main New York base of the Hasidic movement — posted on X/Twitter. “Known to police, the perpetrator has allegedly been arrested over 30 times. He is under 30 years old and has also been arrested in [the] past for criminal possession of a weapon. What is wrong with our legal system? What is wrong with our society? How is this possible?”
Behrman also noted on Sunday that he spoke to the father, who expressed his appreciation for local police and Crown Heights Shomrim, a Jewish organization that monitors antisemitism and also serves as a neighborhood watch group. According to Behrman, the father also said that his kids were doing well.
Saturday’s attack was the fourth time in less than two weeks that an Orthodox resident of Crown Heights was targeted for violence and humiliation. In each case, the assailant was allegedly a Black male, a pattern of conduct which continues to strain Black-Jewish relations across the Five Boroughs.
Last Wednesday, a middle-aged Hasidic man was chased and beaten by two assailants after he refused to surrender his cell phone.
Earlier that week, an African American male smacked a 13-year-old Jewish boy who was commuting to school on his bike in the neighborhood, which is heavily Jewish.
Less than a week earlier, an assailant slashed a visibly Jewish man in the face as he was walking in Brooklyn.
Black-on-Jewish crime is a social issue which has been studied before. In 2022, a report published by Americans Against Antisemitism (AAA) showed that Orthodox Jews were the minority group most victimized by hate crimes in New York City and that 69 percent of their assailants were African American. Seventy-seven percent of the incidents took place taking in predominantly Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Of all assaults that prompted criminal proceedings, just two resulted in convictions.
“We’ve never seen anything like this,” AAA founder and former New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D) told The Algemeiner at the time. “Shouldn’t there be a plan for how we’re going to deal with it? What’s the answer? Education? We’ve been educating everybody forever for God’s sake, and things are just getting worse.”
The problem has become acute in recent years. In July 2023, for example, a 22-year-old Israeli Yeshiva student, who was identifiably Orthodox and visiting New York City for the summer holiday, was stabbed with a screwdriver by one of two men who attacked him after asking whether he was Jewish and had any money. The other punched him in the face. Earlier that year, 10- and 12-year-olds were attacked on Albany Avenue by four African American teens.
According to a report issued in August by New York state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, antisemitic incidents accounted for a striking 65 percent of all felony hate crimes in New York City last year. The report added that throughout the state, nearly 44 percent of all recorded hate crime incidents and 88 percent of religious-based hate crimes targeted Jewish victims.
Meanwhile, according to a recent Algemeiner review of New York City Police Department (NYPD) hate crimes data, 385 antisemitic hate crimes have struck the New York City Jewish community since last October, when the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas perpetrated its Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, unleashing a wave of anti-Jewish hatred unlike any seen in the post-World War II era.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Suspect Remanded Without Bail for Attempted Kidnapping of Jewish Boy in New York City first appeared on Algemeiner.com.