‘We’ll be on the right side of history’: Lapid says Israel will back UN vote condemning Russia

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid speaks during the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem on February 13, 2022. (Photo by Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images)
This story originally appeared on Haaretz, and was reprinted here with permission.
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said Monday that Israel will back a UN vote to condemn Russia for invading Ukraine.
Lapid added that the United States “realizes that there are issues that require our consideration,” referring to Israel’s response to the Russia-Ukraine crisis. He noted Israel’s “cooperation mechanism with [Russia] assists in our determined battle against Iranian entrenchment on our northern border.”
This comes after Israel sat out a UN Security Council vote on condemning Russia last week.
“Israel has been and will be on the right side of history. Those are our values,” the foreign minister said, adding that the country is “thoroughly examining the potential impact of sanctions on Russia.” Lapid also noted that Israel has sent three planes containing a large supply of humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Lapid said Israel “will do everything it takes to ensure no Israeli or Jew is left behind, but this is not easy. The Foreign Ministry is spearheading one of the most complicated operations in the country’s history.” He noted that 180 thousand Ukrainians are eligible to immigrate to Israel under the country’s Law of Return.’
“Our organizing principle is clear: We are taking care of Israelis, we are taking care of Jews, and our hearts are with the citizens of Ukraine,” Lapid finished.
On Friday, the American delegation to the UN appealed to all envoys of states not represented in the Security Council, including Ambassador Gilad Erdan, and asked their support for the condemnation the U.S. was seeking. This was meant to allow the U.S. administration to present resounding support for the condemnation.
Jerusalem deliberated for hours, finally instructing Erdan not to join the proposal.
This story originally appeared on Haaretz, and was reprinted here with permission.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Make a Passover Gift Today!
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 4
Opinion What Jewish university presidents say: Trump is exploiting campus antisemitism, not fighting it
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Ben Shapiro, Emily Damari among torch lighters for Israel’s Independence Day ceremony
-
Fast Forward Larry David’s ‘My Dinner with Adolf’ essay skewers Bill Maher’s meeting with Trump
-
Sports Israeli mom ‘made it easy’ for new NHL player to make history
-
Communications The Forward Announces Gifts of Domains Yiddish.com and Yiddish.org by Elie Hirschfeld and his wife Sarah Hirschfeld, MD
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.