From Kyiv to Jerusalem: why the words of the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine about Iran should be heard in both Israel and Europe

On April 7, 2026, the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Moshe Asman made a harsh and extremely clear statement about the US and Israel’s war against the Iranian regime. The essence of his message goes far beyond the usual reaction to Middle Eastern events: it is not about territorial disputes, diplomatic crises, or another outbreak of instability, but about confronting an ideology built on hatred, terror, and the cult of destruction. This logic is especially clear in Israel, where threats from Tehran have long ceased to be theoretical.

For the Israeli audience, the emotional tone of the statement is important, but so is the Ukrainian source of this assessment. When a person living in a country that has been facing Iranian weapons in conjunction with Russian aggression for several years speaks about the nature of the Iranian regime, it sounds not like journalism, but like a conclusion paid for by real war experience.

That is why Asman’s words are perceived not as a distant comment from Kyiv, but as a warning that Israel must listen to especially carefully. Ukraine has already seen what happens when the world calls systemic evil a ‘complex geopolitical issue’ for too long.

Why this topic is painfully close to Israel

For decades, the Iranian regime has built a political and military system where hostility towards Israel and hatred of the Jewish people are not hidden on the periphery of ideology but occupy a central place. This is manifested not only in rhetoric but also in the infrastructure of allies, proxy groups, weapons, and propaganda that legitimizes violence against civilians. Against this background, the comparison with totalitarian models of the past, which Asman leads to, becomes not an emotional device but an attempt to call the phenomenon by its name.

Israelis feel this edge particularly acutely. Here, they understand too well what happens when the ideology of destruction is first perceived as radical phraseology, then as someone else’s regional problem, and only then as a threat to the very right to exist.

Ukraine already knows the cost of the Iranian threat

From flight PS752 to ‘Shaheds’ over Ukrainian cities

In his address, Moshe Asman linked the Israeli dimension of the threat with the Ukrainian experience, and this is one of the strongest parts of his position. For Ukraine, Iran is not an abstract sponsor of someone else’s war. Iran has already entered Ukrainian history through the tragedy of flight PS752, which was shot down near Tehran on January 8, 2020, by two Iranian missiles shortly after takeoff. All 176 people on board died. This fact is confirmed by official international materials and remains one of the heaviest symbols of the regime’s irresponsibility and aggression.

After the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the Iranian trace became even more direct. The European Union officially indicated that the Iranian drone program, including the Shahed-136, is used by Russia in the war against Ukraine. For Ukrainians, this is not an expert dispute about the origin of parts and logistics of supplies, but a daily reality of strikes on peaceful cities, infrastructure, and residential areas.

And here, the Israeli optics and Ukrainian meet almost mirror-like. The same sources of threat, the same logic of terror, the same attempt to break society with strikes on civilians.

Why in Israel this should not be perceived as someone else’s pain

For many in the region, it is customary to divide wars into ‘ours’ and ‘theirs’. But it is this illusion that Asman’s statement effectively destroys. When a country subjected to attacks by the Russian-Iranian alliance tells Israel: this is not just another Middle Eastern conflict, — it should be taken seriously.

NANews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency has repeatedly pointed out that for Israeli society, the Ukrainian topic has long ceased to be only a European agenda. It increasingly concerns the security architecture of Israel itself because the same hostile center fuels several fronts at once — from the Middle East to Eastern Europe.

In this sense, Asman’s position works in two directions at once. On the one hand, it reminds Ukrainians that the war of Israel and the US against the Iranian regime is not only about oil, diplomacy, and the balance of power in the region. On the other hand, it reminds Israelis that Ukraine is already inside this same big battle, just on a different front.

What follows from Moshe Asman’s statement

It’s about a choice of civilization, not a temporary coalition

The key idea of this address is that an ideology built on the cult of hatred and destruction does not become less dangerous just because it has learned to hide behind modern slogans, proxy structures, and geopolitical combinations. When a regime finances terror, develops strike technologies, helps forces waging aggressive war, and simultaneously moves to a critically dangerous level of military potential, the question is no longer whether someone likes the harshness of the response. The question is how much longer the world is willing to pretend that all this can be ‘contained by talks’.

For Israel, this conclusion is extremely practical. Any underestimation of Iran today turns into a new cost tomorrow — in security, in the economy, in politics, and sometimes in human lives.

For Ukraine, this conclusion is also extremely concrete: a country that has already experienced both the crash of PS752 and the strikes of Iranian drones cannot afford the luxury of illusions about Tehran’s intentions.

Why this is important right now

Currently, in Israel, there is a noticeable temptation to view the war through the prism of the nearest military task: repelling a threat, suppressing an attack, neutralizing a specific enemy. But Asman’s words broaden the picture. They return the conversation to historical memory, to the theme of responsibility, and to a question that the Jewish people know too well from their own past: what happens when the world recognizes evil as evil too late.

Therefore, this statement is important not only as support for Israel from a Ukrainian religious leader. It is also a political and moral diagnosis of the era.

And if we formulate it quite directly, the essence of what was said is this: Iran is not a ‘complex partner’, not a ‘problematic regional player’, and not ‘another pole of tension’. For Ukraine and Israel, it is a source of deadly threat that has already proven by deed that it is ready to export death, terror, and destruction far beyond its own borders.

The final message of Moshe Asman — a wish of strength to the defenders of Israel and the US and freedom to the people of Iran — sounds like a religious formula, but in a political sense, it is also a very clear distinction between the regime and the people. And perhaps this is especially important today: not to confuse the people with the dictatorship, but also not to soften the assessment of the dictatorship just because someone finds it uncomfortable to say harsh words aloud.