Former U.S. National Security Adviser, retired General H.R. McMaster, joins Haaretz Weekend for a frank conversation about Ukraine, Iran and the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship. 

McMaster told host Allison Kaplan Sommer that Israel “ought to be embarrassed” for failing to “fully support” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his fight against the Russian invasion. 

The Ukrainian situation “is at least a little bit analogous to the situation of Israel” having been “attacked without provocation from a more powerful neighbor,” McMaster said. “This idea that you hedge [your bets] with Vladimir Putin to compensate for concerns that the American administration might attenuate or lessen support for Israel – that’s part of a long pattern and it’s always been wrong.” 

A longtime harsh critic of the Biden White House’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan last summer, McMaster is certain that “you can draw a direct line from the humiliating surrender to a terrorist organization and withdrawal from Afghanistan to Putin’s decision to attack Ukraine.”

McMaster also explains why he thinks the chances that Biden’s Iran negotiators will ever be able to improve the terms of the nuclear deal are “zero,” and that Iran will never give up its fight to “place a proxy army on the border of Israel and to threaten Israel with destruction.” 

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