T. Belman. Given the fact that Tobin still writes, “Putin launched his brutal and illegal invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022.” I am surprised that he would make the point about the Nazi connection. Instead, he should focus on who is to blame for the war.
(JNS) How important is the struggle against antisemitism to the liberal corporate media? How much of it a priority is it for the organized Jewish world? In both cases, the answer is that it is not as important as their commitment to support the war against Russia being fought by Ukraine. That’s the only conclusion to be drawn from a troubling story reported this week in The New York Times.
According to the Times, the wearing of insignia and symbols associated with the Nazis and their allies are prevalent among the troops fighting for Ukraine. It even acknowledged that antisemitism is baked deep into the history of Ukrainian nationalism—something that explains why these symbols are being worn by Kyiv’s soldiers. But as the article also made clear, it’s a bad idea to mention or discuss these facts unless you’re prepared to be labeled as a tool of Russian propaganda.
The dynamic here is a familiar one to anyone who has been following press coverage or commentary since Russia’s authoritarian President Vladimir Putin launched his brutal and illegal invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022. Nothing the Ukrainians or their popular President Volodymyr Zelenskyy say or do can be allowed to distract from the prevailing narrative about the conflict. This mandates that not only must everyone acknowledge the awfulness of the Putin regime and the consequences of the war it started. It also means we must adhere to the dubious notion that Zelenskyy is the reincarnation of Winston Churchill, and Ukraine is an exemplary nation that is fighting not just for its own independence but for Western democracy and freedom.
Ukrainian forces, inspired by Zelenskyy, defeated an offensive clearly intended to undo the independence they had achieved after the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1991. Since their initial success, the Ukrainians have been locked in a stalemate with Putin’s army. Moscow has lost most of the territory it overran last year but holds onto all of the areas of Eastern Ukraine as well as Crimea, which it took in a separate campaign in 2014.
Support for war
Even though the war now appears to be over Zelenskyy’s demand that Russia give up the territory it took in 2014 rather than Ukrainian independence, it is still held up as a sacred crusade. That’s a point of view that has been adopted by a broad cross-section of opinion embracing the Biden administration and its media cheering section, as well as establishment Republicans, all of whom seem to be in favor of doing their best to perpetuate the war until Ukraine has defeated Russia, even though no one seems to know how that can happen.
Washington sent more than $100 billion to Ukraine last year. The likelihood is that this kind of spending will continue this year and indefinitely into the future with the war taking on the all-too-familiar pattern of unwinnable and endless conflicts that American taxpayers are supposed to think is a good use of their money. Anybody who dissents from this consensus—a category into which a growing number of Americans who rightly believe there are better uses for their money than fueling a bloody quagmire that does nothing to enhance American security and might actually be undermining it—gets quickly labeled as a Putin stooge or a victim of Russian propaganda.
That is the dynamic that the Times explained in its article about the reluctance of the media as well as the organized Jewish world to acknowledge the curious fact that the alleged defenders of Western freedom in Ukraine engage in nostalgia for the Nazis.
A tragic history of antisemitism
As is often the case throughout history, the truth is messier than neat narratives about good and evil. The Russians may be bad, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the Ukrainians are the embodiment of all that is good.
The reason why Ukrainians wear these symbols is not exactly a mystery. While Ukrainians have the right to self-determination and independence, their nationalist movement has been linked to antisemitism since its beginnings.
The Ukrainian state honors the memory of Bohdan Khmelnitsky, the 17th military leader of Ukrainian Cossacks who led an uprising against the Polish/Lithuanian kingdom that then ruled much of the country. Khmelnytsky is best known to Jews for the massacres of Ukrainian and Polish Jews, which he organized and led, and which are immortalized in modern literature by books like Isaac Bashevis Singer’s The Slave. This was the worst disaster to befall European Jewry from the Crusades to the Holocaust; historians estimate that more than 100,000 Jews were slaughtered by Khmelnitsky’s followers while thousands of others were enslaved or held for ransom.
Yet the Ukrainian Republic named its highest military honor after Khmelnitsky in 1995, and its current Jewish president, who is protected by a unit that is named after the Cossack murderer, has awarded it to his soldiers.
The Ukrainians also embrace the memory of one of the leaders of the republic that was declared in Ukraine in 1919 after the collapse of the Tsarist empire. During the course of the war that it lost to the Russian Bolshevik regime that absorbed Ukraine, Symon Petliura, the head of Ukrainian forces, led pogroms that were responsible for the deaths of as many as 70,000 Jews.
Another Ukrainian hero is Stepan Bandera, a nationalist who led forces that collaborated with the Nazis during the Holocaust. Like many Ukrainians, he was eager to ally himself with anyone who opposed the Soviet regime of Joseph Stalin, which had murdered millions of Ukrainians in the Holodomor terror famine. Though they would ultimately also be oppressed by the invading Germans, a great many Ukrainians actively participated in the murder of the Jews there in 1941, taking a principal role in atrocities like the Babi Yar massacre.
The events of the Holocaust were highlighted last year by Zelenskyy during his virtual speech to the Knesset. As part of his effort to persuade Israel to abandon its own interests and join the war against Russia, Zelenskyy claimed that Russia’s invasion was morally equivalent to the Holocaust and then made the equally false assertion that Ukrainians had stood in solidarity with the Jews of their country, thus obligating Israelis to rally to Ukraine today.
This wasn’t just false. It was the sort of statement that, had it been uttered by anyone else, would have been rightly labeled as Holocaust denial. But since Zelenskyy is now the new Churchill, virtually everyone in the West, including the organized Jewish world, gave him a pass for this.
While Zelenskyy’s election as Ukraine’s president is not unreasonably considered proof that the country’s attitude towards Jews is changing, his willingness to lie about the Holocaust was also evidence that rejection of its history of antisemitism is not considered good politics there. So, if Ukrainian soldiers often wear symbols associated with the Nazis and antisemitism, then it can hardly be considered a surprise.
Yet Jewish organizations aren’t interested in speaking out about this even though they are quick to allege that over-the-top criticism of Zelenskyy by Tucker Carlson employed antisemitic memes. Whether or not that is true, Zelenskyy is hardly the paragon of democracy he is made out to be. Ukraine remains a deeply corrupt country, and dissent against its government is punished—something that was made clear by Zelenskyy’s ban on the Ukrainian Orthodox church because of its historic ties to Moscow.
As the Times article acknowledged, those Western journalists who have been allowed to visit the front have asked soldiers to take the Nazi symbols off before they took their pictures, thus ensuring that Western audiences would be kept clueless about it.
This is a familiar pattern with respect to coverage of a war in which everything bad that happens—including, for example, the destruction of a Russian oil pipeline—is immediately declared to be the fault of the Russians, even though that turned out to be the work of Ukrainians. If the identity of those responsible for recently breaking a dam that helped supply water to Russian-held areas and led to much suffering comes to light, it may turn out to be a similar story.
Mindless isolationism and/or antisemitism, if not support for Putin, is freely imputed to those who are skeptical about the need for Americans to commit to indefinite backing of the Ukrainians rather than to work to end the war as soon as possible. But the proof that Jew-hatred has remained a factor in Ukrainian culture is considered something that may not be mentioned, let alone protested.
Speaking about this doesn’t justify Putin’s actions. Nor does it erase Russian antisemitism. It’s possible to be honest about the Ukrainians and their Nazi problem without validating Putin’s bogus claim that the goal of his invasion was to “de-Nazify” Ukraine. Still, denying the truth about Ukrainian antisemitism doesn’t help defend the cause of freedom. On the contrary, the willingness of so many to cover up for Zelenskyy and his forces undermines the fight against Jew-hatred. It’s time for those who claim to defend Jewish interests to say so.
Very poor article.
Felix And yet Yawls respond to my trivialities So, if Yawls respond to me, can I be all the trivial, Darlin?
Honeybee
I have to give it to you. You have a knack of trivialising issues.
I have yet to hear just ONE word from you, Bear Klein and some others about the events of Maidan violence in coup 2014 and of genocide of Russians in Donbass up to the point Putin decided to defend them.
Not one word.
And not one thing we can do about you.
tanna Anyone who is goaded into war or rape is a fool and an aggressor.
All four of my grandparents were Jews who emigrated to North America from villages in the eastern part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a region now ruled by Ukraine. So, as regards the current Russian invasion, I shall always loyally support OUR pogromniks against THEIR pogromniks.
Unfortunately not liking Jews is simply a cultural aspect of the majority of eastern Europeans, as evidenced by the old and ironic Hungarian platitude stating that an anti-Semite is defined as someone who hates Jews more than is absolutely necessary.
Hi, Tanna.
I’m pretty sure that what you call a “mask” is actually a video camera. Did he start the war? You know what they say,
“It’s always the one you least suspect.”
As for the rapist (Putin, in this case) I can only say that I’ve seen plenty of string bikinis on women, but never raped any; so your hypothetical “rapist” has lost his defense.
Some people look at the Ukraine War as being between Putin and Biden. Others say Biden is just a puppet, controlled by Barack Obama — the same one who once confided with then-President Medvedev that he should tell “Vladimir”,
“After the election, I’ll have more flexibility”
— https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-17519868
On Judgment Day (which may come soon, if Vlad makes good his promise to press the “nuke” button), I think the lawyers will be judged first — making for a more subdued judgment hall.
To Bear and Michael, Can a person be goaded into a fight? How many times would I have to trespass on you before you would clean my clock? If a woman was walking the street in a string bikini, is her rapist being fair in his defense when he pleads not guilty, and proclaims she made me do it? Just asking. Time will reveal all secret’s.
hey Mikey, I think it’s that guy standing at the end of the table with a mask over his face. yea….. he started this war.
‘According to the Times, the wearing of insignia and symbols associated with the Nazis and their allies are prevalent among the troops fighting for Ukraine.’ This statement from the Times is baseless. Ukrainian Army (???) did not ever wear any Nazi-inspired insignia. The NY Times has never admitted its role in suppressing all Holocaust-related information during WWII. In addition, their anti-Israel rhetoric makes them as antisemitic as the Ukrainian antisemitic history. To say that Russian history is less antisemitic than Ukrainian is pretty ridiculous. Who can really measure the level of antisemitism and guilt in the Holocaust? Germans, French, Dutch, Poles, Lithuanians, Ukrainians and on and on including Americans. Ukrainians living now are not responsible for the crimes of some of their ancestors. The Russian population supporting this war is responsible for the atrocities of the Russian army and that is what you journalists must address.
Hi, Bear. You said,
That is about as clear-headed and honest an assessment as I have seen here. Ukraine is unlikely to EVER attack Israel; but the Russians have been actively supporting Israel’s most virulent enemies for decades.
Putin has got to be one of the world’s greatest hypocrites — making NATO’s supplying F-16s to their neighbors a “red line” to give them an excuse to initiate a nuclear armageddon, while they do exactly that for Israel’s enemies.
@Ted, I was going to tell you not to waste your keystrokes in providing your pat answers on who started the war.
Putin sent a large army across the border over one year ago now and tried to capture Kiev and kill Zelensky to capture all of Ukraine. He also attacked elsewhere. This operation in totality failed. He did capture more land in the east plus some in the south. This was the start of the war an unprovoked unnecessary attack on a neighbor for the purpose of land conquest PRIMARILY
He has since retreated and has lost many soldiers and much equipment. He now is using Iranian drones to fight Ukraine now. He is selling Iran fighter jets now and working hand in glove with them.
Ukraine is no friend of the Jews or Israel but Russia is arming the biggest enemy of Israel Iran. Nuke technology and now fighter jets. This is your Putin’s ally and anyone who sides with him.
#Bear
Quite the opposite. I listed the provocations in my article.
https://www.israpundit.org/clearly-the-us-is-the-aggressor-in-the-ukraine-war/
Ted, it may not be clear to you but Putin did start an unprovoked war. It is also clear as Tobin writes that the Ukrainians have very checkered antisemitic history,. I briefly dated a woman who fled Ukraine because of antiSemitism.
In fact she related the Jew haters were cooperating with the Russian communists who were after her family and her. This is while the Soviet Union still controlled Ukraine.
So they both (Russia and Ukraine) have horrible histories in how they treat Jews.
Needless to say my daughter thinks I am wrong about who to blame for the war. She argues that Zelensky was elected by a 73% majority in 2019.
She neglects to say , probably because she doesn’t know, That Zelensky campaigned in that election on a platform of making friends with Russia. Shortly thereafter he was coopted by the
Cia to oppose Russia.
Somebody in the picture is to blame for the war:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyKJ72HakAAzmxJ?format=jpg&name=small
Glad to see that Tobin is finally come around on this. He’s still not quite there as Putin wasn’t joking at all or lying when he said he wants to de-natzify Ukraine. U see unlike us in the west (including us Jews), the Russians never forgot about what the nazis did to them, not even for a minute. During the war and since, they have continuously gone after the nazis throughout the world. But unlike Wiesenthal and his supportive governments, the Russians got the nazis quietly. They did not make a big deal about their incredible captures. When necessary they simply killed them where they found them, regardless of the country they were in. I for one hope that Putin instructs his soldiers to continue to kill each and every one in Ukraine before this war is over.
But Tobin is right about declaring modern day Ukraine and old Ukraine as both vilely antisemitic and corrupt, more so than Russia on both issues, verbotten.
You’ll notice that even amongst those (like Tucker) who oppose the West in its support of Ukraine, never do they mention Ukraine’s antisemitism that is totally accepted by Zelensky and his corrupt government.
When I wrote my first blog post questioning our idolatry of Zelensky and Ukraine, many of the comments accused me of being a shill for Putin or just accused me of lying. Over a year later, as I predicted, the truth is slowly slipping out. You can check it out here and make sure to read the comments: https://leonupsidedown.blogspot.com/2022/03/why-are-so-many-idolizing-zelensky-and.html
Belman is right about his questioning Tobin about who to blame. This aspect of the war has been so glossed over by so many. Since we know Russia and her leaders like Putin to be the bad guy (no argument there) for so long, we just assumed that they were wrong to invade Ukraine. Many also naively think that in a war there is always a good guy vs a bad guy. But in many wars there are often 2 or more bad guys involved (recall the Iran Iraq war where I ate popcorn and watched 2 evil states fight each other with glee).
There are certainly many legitimate reasons why Putin invaded Ukraine at this time. I won’t get into it here though.
At a very base level, Putin who’s in charge of more tactical nukes than the rest of the world has, along with missiles, supersonic aircraft, nuclear subs and one of the best trained armies has yet to be goaded into WW3. Meanwhile the US lead by someone even more corrupt than Zelensky along with him and others like the WEF, Soros and many in the military industry are pushing for WW3 and we are being duped into helping them destroy our world.
First of all, I will read this article time permitting today. With that said Ukrainian anti Semitism is well documented from multiple sources. As to why we can’t talk about it, this is likely at least two -fold. 1.) The US leadership class and by extension their media surrogates are anti-Semitic themselves. To talk about such things would involve taking an honest look at oneself and engaging in self-critique when needed in order to make course corrections and improve. These people seem incapable of such things!! 2.) In general, critique of the Ukrainian leadership and especially Zelensky is NOT permitted.