In an eyebrow-raising speech over Zoom that was intended to gain Israel’s active military support for Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky struck “the wrong note to bring Knesset to his side.” Lahav Harkov reports in the Jerusalem Post:
Zelensky continued his practice of customizing his speeches to suit his audience when he addressed the Knesset over Zoom, taking the comparisons he had already made between his country’s situation and World War II to the next level and dedicating the lion’s share of his speech to the Holocaust.
Zelensky referred to the Russian attack on his country as “the Final Solution.”:
Our history and your history are histories of survival…Listen to what the Kremlin is saying, they’re using the same terminology of the Nazi party. What they sought to destroy all of Europe, they didn’t want to leave any of you, and now from of us. They called it the “Final Solution.”
He added:
Israel should save Ukrainians like Ukrainian Righteous Among the Nations saved Jews.
Israeli Minister of Communications Yoaz Hendel afterward tweeted that while he appreciated the President of Ukraine and supported the Ukrainian people, “the comparison with the Nazi mass murder is ‘outrageous.'” In fact, Zelensky’s speech was so incredibly outrageous that it it prompted Israel Hayom to run an article entitled: “Zelenskyy’s appeal to Israel ‘borders on Holocaust denial,’ MKs say.”
In 2011, I wrote at the Gatestone Institute:
Professor Dan Michman, Head of the International Institute for Holocaust Research with Yad Vashem, recently addressed a media seminar at Toronto’s Yad Vashem headquarters. When asked to differentiate the Holocaust from other genocides, he said that the Holocaust was an attempt to “exorcise the Jewish spirit from the world,” eerie words that should serve as a warning in the current climate of sweeping anti-Semitism and the delegitimizing of the Jewish state and the Jewish people.
Michman establishes the intent of the Holocaust; although Putin poses a real danger, Russia is not attempting a Holocaust. He is invading Ukraine in a territorial war.
Echoing Michman’s statements, Israel’s Minister of Communications Yoaz Hendel said:
The war is terrible, but comparing it to the horrors of the Holocaust and the ‘final solution’ is outrageous.”
MK Yuval Steinitz called Zelensky’s statements “a complete perversion of history”:
They say you can’t kick someone while they’re down, but if the speech Zelenskyy – Ukraine’s Jewish president – gave had been made in normal times, [people[ would say it bordered on Holocaust denial. War is always a terrible thing, and shelling and occupation of territory are something unbearably difficult for the Ukrainian people, but any comparison between a regular war, as hard as it might be, and the annihilation of millions of Jews in gas chambers as part of the ‘final solution’ is a complete perversion of history.
For those who have been watching, Zelensky has been acting out quite the dynamic script, but not one that is apt to win the level of support he seeks. He also blasted Israel’s only airline for accepting what he called “blood-soaked” money for accepting payments via Russia’s Mir electronic fund transfer system. He later apologized.
Israel has been navigating difficult waters as the only Jewish state in the world, facing an existential threat. Its “strategic interests in the Russia-Ukraine crisis cannot be ignored. Four months ago, Israel and Russia were collaborating on the common goal of ousting Iran from Syria, and established a ‘deconfliction hotline to keep the sides from getting tangled up and accidentally clashing over Syria.’”
Zelensky is pontificating to Israel that it should engage in warfare with Russia:
“Everyone knows that your air defense system is the best in the world,” Zelensky said, targeting the advanced Iron Dome system that Israel uses to repel missile attacks. “You can help our people and save the lives of Ukrainians, from Ukrainian Jews. “Choice is up to you”
Israel has demonstrated its clear sympathy and support for Zelensky. However, the last thing Israel needs now is a war with Russia, given its archenemy Iran’s ambitions. Benjamin Netanyahu has advised the Israeli government to “be quiet on Russia” and focus on Iran. Israel has been resettling Jewish refugees and way beyond them: 90% of the Ukrainian refugees arriving in Israel are in fact ineligible to immigrate according to Israel’s Law of Return. Israel has found itself so overwhelmed in its generosity that the exceptional flow of refugees has prompted Foreign Minister Yair Lapid to develop a “more balanced” policy.
Also, there are many reasons for concern about Ukraine: it has a horrific history of persecuting Jews, and it currently grapples with a big corruption problem, a money laundering and Nazi problem, a World Economic Forum problem, and the longtime influence and interference of George Soros’ Open Society Foundation.
No one can (or should) deny the horror for Ukraine as a result of the Russian invasion, nor the valiant efforts put forth by Zelensky to fight for his country, but the current hero-worship of Zelensky denies well documented and important facts. To criticize Ukraine’s corruption and Zelensky’s outrageous remarks does not mean in the least that one supports Russia, anymore than it means that one is anti-immigrant for criticizing reckless open-door immigration policies.
Wellington says
I don’t blame Zelensky for what he is saying. Yes, comparisons to the Holocaust may be hyperbolic but nonetheless millions of Ukrainians are exiting to neighboring countries under extraordinary hardships, untold millions of other Ukrainians who remain in Ukraine are living just barely and trying to survive, and Hell in general has descended upon Ukraine, courtesy of the psychopath, monster and Cold War anachronism who is Putin. So why is Zelensky’s comparison to the Holocaust inappropriate? Really, right now one wants to argue this point? I don’t.
I am fully aware that Ukraine before the Russian invasion on February 24th was hardly a full democracy, indeed replete with corruption, but so what? Putin had no right to do what he has done and Zelensky is pulling out all the stops to prevent his country dominated by a country that NEVER learns. You do and say what you have to while your country is possibly dying. This is what Zelensky is doing.
Yes, Russia NEVER learns and for God’s sake, please no more Putins in Russian history. Let him be the last of the ruthless authoritarians who have ruled Russia, whether under Czars, First Secretaries or this decrepit KGB relic from the Cold War. Time is way overdue for Russia to realize that its best interests are with the West and not with thug regimes like those of China, Iran, Syria and North Korea.
In brief, Zelensky’s faults are few in comparison to those of Putin and if Zelensky is making comparisons to the Holocaust I for one do not blame him. What? 3 million Ukrainians or more having to flee their nation and many more trapped in a living Hell still disallows comparisons to the Holocaust? Christ, what will it take? And be assured that Putin will only go more so into barbaric mode as his despicable invasion of Ukraine increasingly goes badly for this monster.
I’m with Zelensky. Here I stand. Yes, the Holocaust was even worse but comparisons to it by Zelensky should be allowed a great deal of leeway. What? You need six million Ukrainians slaughtered before the comparison is accurate? Really?
gravenimage says
Fine analysis, Wellington.
Clive Delmonte says
I agree.
gravenimage says
Israel: Knesset members call Zelensky’s invocation of Holocaust ‘outrageous,’ ‘bordering on Holocaust denial’
………….
In most cases I would indeed agree, but what is happening to Ukraine is truly appallng. And Ukraine has suffered such horrors as the Holodomor at the hands of Russia–an all out genocide of Ukrainians, so this invocation is not really so outrageous.
Josephus says
Zelenzki drinks from the same pond that Putin does. He closed down oppositikn TV stations and imprisoned the top opposition politicians. He continued the bombardment of separatists in the East provinces with accusations of genocide.
gravenimage says
Even if Putin and Zelensky were much the same–which they *are not*–the brutal unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by Russia means that Ukraine has the moral high ground.
Andrew Blackadder says
Let us not forget that the current President of Ukraine was once a Comedian and a soft porn Star on TV who aligned himself with actual Nazis, not Neo Nazis, not wannabes, but real Nazis….
Is he having a laugh or what.
He was bombing Eastern Ukraine for the past 8 years, are folks aware of this?… Those people that live in Eastern Ukraine close to the International Border with Russia, are ethnic Russians, though this overreaction by Putin cannot be justified , lets also see this situation as the ultimate clusterfuck.
He maybe born a Jew but he is as Jewish as Bernie and Chomsky.
gravenimage says
Good lord. For one thing, there are far fewer neo-Nazis in Ukraine than there are in Russia. I don’t see Putin invading his own country.
Proud Islamophobe says
This is what happens when people – *not* referring to Zelensky – use the word so often when it doesn’t apply, that people become desensitized to it. What’s happening in Ukraine *is* similar to the Holocaust, because the people need help, and everyone is turning away. For the Knesset to say such an idiotic thing is an atrocity in itself. Remember, you were here when the world lost its mind.
OLD GUY says
I wouldn’t say the people are turning away from wanting to help the Ukrainians, the leadership of our countries are more concerned about the political and economic problems than the human lives.
David Foot says
The Knesset can’t see that women and children are being bombed and starved to death dliberately by Russia to have a leaver to force a surrender which Israel as a go between disgustingly proposed!
Would Israel accept to surrender?
Tony says
This is the most magnificent of wars happening in the twenty first century. The world doesn’t only belong to blue eyed blond haired people.
gravenimage says
This is truly bizarre, even for “Tony”–not his real name. Putin has put forward about ten different reasons for having invaded Ukraine, but not one of them involves seizing territory from “blue eyed blond haired people”.
Then, not only does this not describe all Ukrainians, but many European Russians are themselves blue-eyed blonds–more, in fact than Ukrainians. In fact, Putin *himself* has blue eyes and sandy hair.
Then, is “Tony” claiming that if people are blue-eyed blonds that they deserve to be invaded by people who are not? Sounds like it…
So “Tony”–really, Abdul–is as usual both barbaric and completely irrational.