Immediately after Hamas launched a series of coordinated attacks from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel on Oct. 7, Israel’s Western partners coalesced around a demonstration of unified support for Israel that is reminiscent of their collective response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Last week, U.S. President Joe Biden explicitly linked the two conflicts in a televised speech in which he requested $106 billion in emergency funding for Israel and Ukraine. They have also begun to pressure Israel to allow immediate humanitarian access to Gaza and pause its anticipated ground invasion there to allow more aid to enter. That shift reflects the contest for global opinion currently underway over the Israel-Hamas war. And in many ways, it too is unfolding along similar lines to the initial global response to Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine.
