There is far more in common today between craters in Ukraine’s black soil and the ruins of the Middle East than outside observers usually care to admit. This is no longer just about two wars in two different regions.

It is about a similar kind of collision, one in which what is being challenged is not a frontline, not a government’s approval rating, and not another diplomatic gesture, but a nation’s very right to exist, to defend itself, and to refuse the role of victim.

That is precisely why Israel and Ukraine provoke such deep irritation in a large part of the world. Not simply because they are at war, and not even because they ask for support, but because at a critical moment both refused to die quietly, conveniently, and without disturbing those who prefer to watch catastrophe from a safe distance.

The world loves comfort, but not those who remind it of the cost of security

The illusion that security can be outsourced

Too many countries in recent years have lived as though security were a service that someone else would always provide. Wealthy Gulf states could watch Iran’s expansion through the glass of their skyscrapers, assuming the United States would keep the situation under control and never allow the Strait of Hormuz to become a weapon of pressure.

For a long time, that mindset can feel rational. Why take on additional risk if you can wait, maneuver around the danger, or shift responsibility to an ally, an international coalition, or yet another resolution? The problem is that the bill for this comfortable illusion always comes due eventually, and almost always at the worst possible moment, when there is no time left to prepare.

Israel has seen that bill many times. Ukraine has too. That is why both countries think differently from much of the outside world today. Neither can afford the luxury of believing that someone will arrive at........

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