A Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream delivery truck is seen at their factory in Be’er Tuvia, Israel July 20, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Ronen Zvulun

The co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, long established as an implacable foe of the State of Israel, has dipped his toe into the waters of international politics again, this time blaming Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on American militarism.

“I had this image of these two countries facing each other, and each one had this huge pile of shiny, state-of-the-art weapons in front of them,” Bennett Cohen told Politico in an extensive interview published on Thursday. “And behind them are the people in their countries that are suffering from lack of health care, not enough to eat, not enough housing.”

Cohen infuriated much of the Jewish community last September when he condemned Unilever — the conglomerate which purchased the global ice cream brand he launched with partner Jerry Greenfield — for not abiding by his call to forbid the sale of Ben & Jerry’s products in the West Bank. Ben & Jerry’s announced in July 2021 that it would stop selling its ice cream in areas it deemed “Occupied Palestinian Territory” because it was “inconsistent” with its company values and social mission.

However, when asked about Russia’s brutality in Ukraine, Cohen was non-plussed.

“In the end, money won,” he said. “And today, not only are they providing weapons to all the new NATO countries, but they’re providing weapons to Ukraine.”

Nicholas Camut, the journalist who interviewed Cohen, described him as “a leading figure in a small but vocal part of the American left that has stood steadfast in opposition to the United States’ involvement in the war in Ukraine.”

He said he had contacted Cohen “to try to understand how he has maintained his stance even as the Kremlin abducts children, tortures and kills Ukrainians and sends thousands of Russian troops to their deaths in human wave attacks.” However, Cohen “refused to be drawn in” to the discussion, commenting only: “I’m not supporting Russia, I’m not supporting Ukraine. I’m supporting negotiations to end the war instead of providing more weapons to continue the war.”

Responding to Cohen’s comments, Tymofiy Mylovanov, a Ukrainian economist, told Politico that the ice cream manufacturer was welcome to visit Ukraine to see the situation for himself.

“Things like war are difficult to understand unless you experience them,” he said. “This is very easy to get confused when you are sitting, you know, somewhere far from the facts and you have surrounded yourself by an echo chamber of people and sources that you agree with.”