How is it US / U.K. / France can scramble jets to deter Iranian attack on Israel, but not a Russian attack on Ukraine?

[cognito]

Surely the narrative of not wanting to provoke escalating global conflict with a nuclear power now looks like hypocrisy? AIBU?

They do scramble gets to deter Russia, there's an entire operational deployment that occurs 24/7 that we participate in on rotation 4 months a year for this entire reason, policing the region- it's been going on for years, before Ukraine.

But do they actually shoot down Russian missiles?

It was a strategic diplomatic decision for the UK to take part in the US coalition against that particular Iran attack on Israel - other countries that shot down the missiles included Arab countries such as Jordan. If any of those missiles had hit their targets the region would have erupted. Important diplomatically to be part of the larger cooperation against Iran it seems.

They would in the wrong airspace, they escort them out of borders initially and the Russians cower, it's a a game of cat and mouse. Google Operation Biloxi.

Israel is a tiny country in comparison to Ukraine, there's infinitely less territory to defend. They also already had the Iron Dome in place, which does a huge amount of the heavy lifting when it comes to defending against air attacks.

We should still do more for Ukraine, don't get me wrong. but it's a lot harder.