Experience shows that the guarantees of the signatories to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum (the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom), which pledged to Ukraine's independence and to refrain from using military force against it, did not fulfill their guarantees. 

Ukraine has found itself begging for significant international security-military intervention, which has not arrived. Instead, the West preferred to choose the path of economic sanctions against Russia, alongside intelligence assistance and the provision of certain weapons.

A country that cannot guarantee its security cannot exist, certainly in the case of Israel. Therefore, it must prepare itself for a possible campaign against Iran, which could include a military option, assuming that other countries do not intervene against Iran.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen is a senior research fellow at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. He served in the IDF for 42 years. He commanded troops in battles with Egypt and Syria. He was formerly a corps commander and commander of the IDF Military Colleges.

Photo: Reuters