The Russia-Ukraine war has been pitting supporters of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against his opponents from the day it began thousands of kilometers away.

The “Bibists,” as fans of Netanyahu are known, have in recent years highlighted the alliance Netanyahu forged with Russian President Vladimir Putin as proof of the former prime minister’s diplomatic and strategic skills, an alliance that has enabled Israel to continue targeting Iranian targets in Syria despite the Russian military deployment there. Netanyahu’s successor, Naftali Bennett, has adopted the same policy and also boasted of his good ties with the Kremlin — until the Ukraine war came along and disrupted the world order, sending the flames of Israel’s domestic political skirmishes sky high.

On Feb. 26, thousands attended demonstrations in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for and against Russia. One of the protesters used a megaphone to shout “Putin murders people; he is violent and dangerous.” Others spray-painted “Stop Russian fascism” on the external wall of the Russian Embassy in Tel Aviv. Against this tense backdrop, Israel’s “government of change,” as it dubs itself, is under pressure to take a more proactive and unambiguous stand on Russia’s invasion.

Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid adopted a low profile in the initial days of the war, trying to avoid taking sides and angering Moscow or Kyiv. But as the days wore on, they — and especially Lapid — began expressing increasing pro-Western and Ukrainian stands and distancing themselves from Russia.