In reality, the distinction between offensive and defensive weapons systems, and between lethal and non-lethal ones, is largely moot. Israel’s Iron Dome may be an air-defense system but would pose a major threat to Russian offensive capabilities. Russia is unlikely to look favorably on the downing of its combat aircraft or missiles. Radar and communications gear are nonlethal, but critical for offensive operations The difference between offensive and defensive cyber weapons is just a few lines of code.

What Israel can do, is make a national effort to provide outsized humanitarian aid, such as food, clothing, and protective gear. It should send the field hospital back to Ukraine , if necessary by turning it into an Israel Defense Forces operation and calling up reservists, as opposed to its previously purely civilian nature. Search and rescue teams from the Home Front Command, an area in which Israel’s capabilities are global frontrunners, should be dispatched to Ukraine. An airlift to fly out refugees, to Israel or preferred locations in Europe, Jewish or otherwise, should be launched.

These measures alone would constitute a disproportionate contribution and others are under consideration. Israel’s leaders would undoubtedly like to do even more. Unfortunately, reality has a nasty tendency of getting in the way of the best of intentions. As the recent Hamas-inspired wave of violence and Iranian actions remind us once again, Israel still faces genocidal enemies who seek its extinction. The burden of Jewish history means that Israel can and should do more to assist Ukraine, but like all states, its foremost moral commitment must be to its own security. It may not be the message that many wish to hear, but that is the preeminent burden that Jewish history places on it.

Chuck Freilich is a former deputy national security advisor in Israel and the author of “Israeli National Security: a New Strategy for an Era of Change” and the forthcoming “Israel and the Cyber Threat: How the Startup Nation Became a Global Cyber Power.” He teaches political science at Columbia and Tel Aviv University and is a senior fellow at the MirYam Institute.

Image: Reuters.