“but giving money to Israel or Ukraine directly serves our security interests.”
They can respond too you know. In response to our actions, Russia has already established a trade relationship and possible military alliance with China. They agreed to a 30 year gas deal, using gas which likely was intended to supply Europe. The military alliance has purposely been kept vague but could involve military technology, mutual defense agreements, intel exchanges, etc. Just imagine Chinese tech on Russian airframes and China acquiring sub & carrier technology. They agreed to abandon the dollar and use common currency, likely the yuan. They also agreed to sell Iran between 4 and 8 nuclear reactors and all of the technology. If they want to toy with us, they could even arm our middle east adversaries. Just imagine Al Qaeda or Hezbolla armed with state of the art manpads or anti-tank rockets?
Still think toying with them will not affect our security interests?
They are already doing or starting what you listed,
so we should help our friends or who should be
our friends, as a 1st line of defense..