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Monday, February 28, 2022

02/28 Links Pt1: How Zelensky Gave the World a Jewish Hero; Sharansky: Israel must take ‘a clear moral stand’ against Putin over Ukraine

From Ian:

Statement on the War in Ukraine by Scholars of Genocide, Nazism and World War II
As we write this, the horror of war is unfolding in Ukraine. The last time Kyiv was under heavy artillery fire and saw tanks in its streets was during World War II. If anyone should know it, it’s Vladimir Putin, who is obsessed with the history of that war.

Russian propaganda has painted the Ukrainian state as Nazi and fascist ever since Russian special forces first entered Ukraine in 2014, annexing the Crimea and fomenting the conflict in the Donbas, which has smoldered for eight long years.

It was propaganda in 2014. It remains propaganda today.

This is why we came together: to protest the use of this false and destructive narrative. Among those who have signed the statement below are some of the most accomplished and celebrated scholars of World War II, Nazism, genocide and the Holocaust. If you are a scholar of this history, please consider adding your name to the list. If you are a journalist, you now have a list of experts you can turn to in order to help your readers better understand Russia’s war against Ukraine.

And if you are a consumer of the news, please share the message of this letter widely. There is no Nazi government for Moscow to root out in Kyiv. There has been no genocide of the Russian people in Ukraine. And Russian troops are not on a liberation mission. After the bloody 20th century, we should all have built enough discernment to know that war is not peace, slavery is not freedom, and ignorance offers strength only to autocratic megalomaniacs who seek to exploit it for their personal agendas.
Yad Vashem condemns comparison of Holocaust to Ukraine conflict
The Yad Vashem Holocaust Research Center on Sunday condemned comparisons to the Holocaust for propaganda purposes surrounding Russia's military invasion of Ukraine.

In a series of Twitter posts, Yad Vashem chair Dani Dayan wrote, "Yad Vashem deplores the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which will inevitably lead to dire consequences. We fear in particular for the wellbeing of innocent civilians and deplore any deliberate endangerment of their safety.

"Moreover, the propagandist discourse accompanying the current hostilities is saturated with irresponsible statements and completely inaccurate comparisons with Nazi ideology and actions before and during the Holocaust. Yad Vashem condemns this trivialization and distortion of the historical facts of the Holocaust."

The US Holocaust Memorial and Museum on Thursday condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine, saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin had "misrepresented and misappropriated Holocaust history."

Putin justified the invasion of Ukraine by calling it a military operation to "de-Nazify" the country, despite its democratically elected Jewish president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has many relatives who were killed in the Holocaust.

An estimated 1.5 million Jews were killed in Ukraine by Nazi mobile units called Einsatzgruppen who shot their victims at close range in what is described as the "Holocaust by Bullets."
Sharansky: Israel must take ‘a clear moral stand’ against Putin over Ukraine
Natan Sharansky, the former prisoner of Zion, human rights activist, Israeli government minister and Jewish Agency chief, urged Israel to take "a clear moral stand" against Russian President Putin's assault on Ukraine.

Sharansky, who was born in what is now Donetsk, Ukraine, called Putin's attack a challenge to "all the basic principles of the free world." "It's not cowardice for Israel to seek to avoid irritating Putin. We are in a situation where, because of the weakness of the West, Putin holds the keys to the skies in our area. To protect ourselves from Iran, from the military bases Iran would establish [directly across Israel's borders], we need good ties with Russia."

Putin "is seeking to change the entire post-World War II order in which your stronger neighbor cannot take away your freedom. To challenge the entire free world. He believes that he is the only one in the world ready to use force, and that he will restore historic Russian dominance." The only thing that can stop him "is the absolute solidarity of the free world."

"There are genuine considerations of realpolitik. Israel has very serious arguments about why it needs to be careful. I hope it takes a clear position in spite of that."
Israel to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine at UNGA - Lapid
Israel will cosponsor a United States and Albanian resolution condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the UN General Assembly that will be held Monday in New York, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said.

“Israel was and will be on the right side of history,” Lapid said. “These are our values. Our alliance is with the US.”

At the same time, Lapid says that “even our American allies realize we have to be careful [because] Russia is the significant military force in Syria.”

Coordination with Russia “helps in our determined struggle against Iranian entrenchment.”

Still, Lapid said Israel will join the UNGA resolution against Russia and will be part of the international effort to provide humanitarian aid to Ukrainians.

He spoke after Israel ignored a US request to sign onto a resolution condemning Russia that failed to pass the UNSC on Friday.

Kyiv was surprised that Israel did not sponsor last week’s UN Security Council resolution against Russia, in light of its planned support for the UN General Assembly resolution on Monday, a Ukrainian diplomatic source said.

Monday's emergency special session marks only the 11th time in United Nations history that such a meeting has been called.


How Zelensky Gave the World a Jewish Hero
By the time Zelensky came of age, three or four generations of Soviet Jews had experienced their Jewish identity as a hollow thing, nothing but a black mark on a passport and a sense of peoplehood born of exclusion and a second-class status. All the while, no matter how steeped in Pushkin they might be, they were never able to fully claim any other national allegiance. When the Soviet Union began buckling to pressure to let Jews emigrate in the 1970s, many took the opportunity to do so, even those mathematicians and engineers who had achieved the heights allowed to them. By the early 1990s, just after the Soviet collapse, the permitted trickle became a deluge, and about 1.5 million headed to the United States and Israel.

Zelensky and his family were part of the few hundred thousand Jews who stayed, content to assimilate in a post-Soviet world, in which Zelensky found success, first as an actor and then as a politician. Two intersecting trends took place over the past 20 years, both of which transformed the status of Jews in Ukraine. First, the end of the Soviet Union allowed some air to enter Jewish communal life for those who remained. In the eastern-Ukrainian city of Dnipro, not far from where Zelensky grew up, there are now 10 synagogues and a gargantuan community center called Menorah, opened in 2012, that reportedly serves 40,000 people a day—even though there are only 60,000 Jews in Dnipro. By 2019, a Pew Research Center poll found Ukraine the most accepting of Jews among all Central and Eastern European countries.

As new opportunities for Jewishness were opening up, the past decade also saw instances when Jews were on the front line of defending a democratic and free Ukraine. Prominent Jewish-identified activists participated in the 2013 Euromaidan demonstrations that forced the ouster of pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovych in early 2014. Later that year, the Jewish governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region established and personally helped fund a militia to defend against Russian-backed separatists in the east.

Zelensky’s political rise also took place in this context. It’s uncanny in retrospect that the character he played on television in the series Servant of the People—the role that foretold his actual ascendance to the presidency—is a nobody whose rise begins when a private rant is filmed and goes viral. But there is a kind of logic to this coincidence. Zelensky grabbed the attention of Ukrainians by playing out what has traditionally been the part of the Jew: the outsider. In this case, what Ukrainians saw in this lonely figure banging on the window was themselves, embattled, trying to hold on to their national identity amid growing threats to their independence. It may have been this aspect of his Jewishness and the way it came to dovetail with those Ukrainian anxieties that made him such a suddenly popular figure, winning 73 percent of the vote in his 2019 election.

In these days of war and uncertainty, the fact that a Jew has come to represent the fighting spirit of Ukraine provides its own kind of hope. Along with all that seems to be recurring—the military aggression, the assault on freedom—there is also something new: inclusion and acceptance in a place where it once seemed impossible.
Alluding to conflict with Russia, Zelensky likens Ukraine to Jewish people
Amid renewed tensions between Russia and Ukraine, the leader of Ukraine drew parallels between his nation and the Jewish people at an event organized by Jews in Kyiv.

“We know what it’s like not to have an own state. We know what it means to defend one’s own state and land with weapons in hand, at the cost of our own lives,” President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish, said during a speech on Wednesday.

Zelensky, an actor and comedian who was elected president in 2019 thanks to many moderates who hoped he would deescalate the conflict with Russia, made the comments during the third annual Kyiv Jewish Forum, which is being organized by the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine, a communal body, with several partners.

“Both Ukrainians and Jews value freedom, and they work equally for the future of our states to become to our liking, and not the future which others want for us. Israel is often an example for Ukraine,” said Zelensky, who did not mention Russia explicitly in his speech at the event, which was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The theme of this year’s conference was the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Ukraine and Israel.

In addition, Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel, Yevgen Korniychuk, told the Times of Israel that Ukraine may recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital — a goal Israel has been promoting intensively in recent years — pending some security-related conditions. Korniychuk did not specify those conditions and has not replied to questions on the matter from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.


Col Kemp: Putin Never Planned Shock and Awe in Ukraine
Reports of Russian forces faltering as tanks break down and run low on fuel may be true. But logistics are always problematic in offensive warfare, and this should not be read as an ill-prepared and failing offensive.

The reality is that Putin does not want heavier fighting than necessary to overcome his enemy. Of course that is not from any humanitarian instinct. In a war that is already causing dissent in Russia, he does not need too many body bags streaming back home. He also does not want to unleash the kind of brutality that would trigger an Iraq-style insurgency in a ‘neutral’ and demilitarised Ukraine under his dominion if it can be avoided.

That is why Putin’s opening barrage of cruise and ballistic missiles — a show of force — was quickly paused and negotiations offered, which were later rejected by President Zelensky.

Despite the increasing bite of sanctions against Russia, Putin is in no great hurry. China will help defray economic damage including buying up all Russian energy that cannot be sold to the EU. Putin meanwhile is weaponising Ukrainian civilians, and the longer the war continues the more that will pour across the border and on to Western Europe, adding to the EU’s already overloaded refugee system. Some estimate that the conflict could see up to five million people fleeing from the Russian assault.

If Putin cannot achieve his objectives with this low intensity approach he will resort to unrestrained violence the like of which Russia demonstrated in Chechnya and more recently Syria. This would likely be preceded by bloody demonstrations of what might befall the country, including the destruction of Ukrainian forces encircled and isolated by Russian troops — perhaps using heavy artillery and highly destructive thermobaric weapons.
Yuval Noah Harari: Why Vladimir Putin has already lost this war
Nations are ultimately built on stories. Each passing day adds more stories that Ukrainians will tell not only in the dark days ahead, but in the decades and generations to come. The president who refused to flee the capital, telling the US that he needs ammunition, not a ride; the soldiers from Snake Island who told a Russian warship to “go fuck yourself”; the civilians who tried to stop Russian tanks by sitting in their path. This is the stuff nations are built from. In the long run, these stories count for more than tanks.

The Russian despot should know this as well as anyone. As a child, he grew up on a diet of stories about German atrocities and Russian bravery in the siege of Leningrad. He is now producing similar stories, but casting himself in the role of Hitler.

The stories of Ukrainian bravery give resolve not only to the Ukrainians, but to the whole world. They give courage to the governments of European nations, to the US administration, and even to the oppressed citizens of Russia. If Ukrainians dare to stop a tank with their bare hands, the German government can dare to supply them with some anti-tank missiles, the US government can dare to cut Russia off Swift, and Russian citizens can dare to demonstrate their opposition to this senseless war.

We can all be inspired to dare to do something, whether it is make a donation, welcome refugees, or help with the struggle online. The war in Ukraine will shape the future of the entire world. If tyranny and aggression are allowed to win, we will all suffer the consequences. There is no point to remain just observers. It’s time to stand up and be counted.

Unfortunately, this war is likely to be long-lasting. Taking different forms, it may well continue for years. But the most important issue has already been decided. The last few days have proved to the entire world that Ukraine is a very real nation, that Ukrainians are a very real people, and that they definitely don’t want to live under a new Russian empire. The main question left open is how long it will take for this message to penetrate the Kremlin’s thick walls.
Melanie Phillips: Putin apologists and the crisis in conservatism
In the US, a number of prominent “conservative” commentators who fight the left over identity politics and the onslaught from within against American and western values have been cheering Putin on. They say he’s is an ally in the war against the “woke”, that he’s therefore on the side of freedom, tolerance and fairness, and that the Ukrainians are warmongers. Given what Putin is doing in Ukraine — and has done to his own dissidents, not to mention those political opponents he has had murdered or attacked in Britain with radioactive poison and nerve agents — this is grotesque and nauseating.

It is also undermining the battle that so desperately needs to be waged against the anti-west, totalitarian left. Outlets embodying this left-wing mindset, such as Rolling Stone or The New Republic, are turning these appalling remarks by “conservative” Putin apologists into weapons against those trying to defend western values in the culture wars.

Western conservatism emerged in the 18th century when the Anglo-Irish thinker Edmund Burke articulated the defence of freedom and the core moral precepts of western civilisation against the French revolutionaries who were in the process of destroying them.

The French Revolutionary Terror eventually morphed into Soviet communism, Hitlerian fascism and today’s cultural totalitarianism.

Conservatives have not only proved useless in fighting the latter — but as the Ukraine crisis is demonstrating, they no longer even appear to understand the difference between their own culture and its nemesis.

Ukraine should wake the west up from some of its most cherished illusions. For a significant number of conservatives, however, it appears instead to be deepening them — and along with them the crisis of conservatism itself.


Amid Ukraine crisis, new German chancellor to visit Israel on Tuesday
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will make a short visit to Israel on Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry said, amid a Russian invasion of Ukraine that has prompted Germany to announce a major boost in defense spending.

While in Israel, Scholz is expected to hold meetings with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, President Isaac Herzog and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.

Scholz is also due to visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial with Bennett on Wednesday before departing later that day.

The visit comes amid international efforts to find an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Israel has been suggested by Ukraine as a mediator in the conflict due to its close ties with both nations.

Bennett offered to mediate between Moscow and Kyiv during a phone call Sunday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, though it is believed that the latter declined the offer. Delegations from Russia and Ukraine met for talks Monday on the Belarusian border.

While Israel has so far remained carefully noncommittal on the conflict, Germany has condemned Russia and joined other Western nations in sanctioning Moscow.

Scholz’s trip follows his announcement Sunday that Germany will increase spending on its military to over 2 percent of GDP, in a major shift. Berlin has long fallen short of that spending goal despite pledging to meet it as a member of NATO.

Scholz said Germany would seek to buy advanced Hermes model drones from Israel as part of the new defense spending.
Rights Group Condemns ‘Immoral’ UNHRC Delay of Ukraine Urgent Debate Until Thursday
The independent non-governmental human rights organization UN Watch condemned the decision of the UN’s top human rights forum to wait until at least March 3rd—in order to “be as non-disruptive as possible” to its “program of work”—before convening an urgent debate that was requested by Ukraine on February 24th.

The council will first hold a high-level segment of speeches by dignitaries until Thursday, followed by a general segment of speeches and rebuttals by ambassadors. Only then, on Thursday or even Friday, will the so-called urgent debate on Ukraine begin.

“In prior situations, such as when the Arab and Islamic states requested to condemn Israel, the council convened a session on the same day or within 24 hours,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.

“The UNHRC can and should meet right away to address Russia’s assault on the people of Ukraine. Half a million refugees have fled, hundreds have been killed, more than a thousand are injured.”

“Russian forces are right now firing missiles on the city of Kharkiv and slaughtering innocent civilians, and yet we are seeing the very opposite of a sense of urgency from the UN’s top human rights forum. It’s inexcusable, and a breach of the council’s founding mission to address gross and systematic violations of human rights,” said Neuer.

“While Ukraine’s victims await the urgent debate, the council will instead over the next week host a parade of dictators, including presidents and foreign ministers who spoke today on behalf of council members China, Qatar, Venezuela and Kazakhstan,” said Neuer.


Former IDF Soldier Helps Ukrainian Army Amid Russian Invasion: ‘Everyone Became a Fighter’
A former Israeli soldier from the elite “Golani” infantry brigade who fought Palestinian terrorists in Jenin 20 years ago is now involved in a different conflict — this time against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Zvi Arieli, 42, is originally from Latvia and is married to a Ukrainian Jewish woman. He lived in Israel for 20 years before moving permanently to Ukraine. Now, he is helping the embattled Ukrainian army in an auxiliary capacity.

“In Israel we’ve never known a situation like the one happening here now — maybe in 1948 during the War of Independence,” he told Israeli news site N12 on Sunday. “Here, it feels like World War III — just now I heard about a woman with a Molotov cocktail who burned a Russian tank … everyone has become a fighter.”

He said the current conflict is different from what he experienced in 2002, as “in Ukraine you reach a situation where the forces against you are 10 times larger [than yours]. … It’s impossible to prepare for a war like this.”

“The Ukrainians think I know what to do better than they do, but it’s not true,” Arieli said. “In Israel, they don’t teach soldiers things like this, they don’t teach them to fill a bottle with oil and gasoline and throw it on a tank.”
JPost Editorial: Ukrainian olim
Israel should continue to supply humanitarian aid to the refugees in general, and to help those who want to make aliyah do so by streamlining the process.

As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has banned men between 18 and 60 from leaving Ukraine in order to deploy them in the defense of the country, Israel needs to focus on rescuing the elderly and the young. This should include plans to help Righteous Gentiles and their families who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews during the Nazi occupation, and the hundreds of orphaned or semi-orphaned children being cared for by Chabad and other Jewish organizations.

The rescue efforts should also take into account something that former Prisoner of Zion Natan Sharansky has warned about. A former head of the Jewish Agency, Sharansky has voiced his concern that a mass aliyah from Ukraine at this juncture could play into the hands of the antisemitic trope of dual loyalty. It is worth noting that Zelensky himself is Jewish, but has acted as a role model by determining to stay in Ukraine rather than to flee and set up a government in exile.

Last year, just over 13,000 Jews made aliyah from Eastern Europe to Israel.

What Israel and these international Jewish organizations are doing is heartwarming in this difficult time in Europe. The speed with which the state mobilized is impressive and will no doubt help save lives.

It is part of the Jewish principle of “Kol yisrael arevim zeh lazeh” – all Jews are guarantors for one another – and illustrates how rescuing Jews in need is indeed a major raison d’etre of the Jewish state.

But Israel must realize that rescuing Jews in danger is not enough; the country has to be prepared to welcome them and successfully absorb them once they are here.
Israeli killed in Ukraine by Russian shelling - diplomatic source
One Israeli was killed on Monday evening in shelling in the Ukrainian town of Bila Tserkva, near Kyiv, a diplomatic source confirmed to The Jerusalem Post.

The man was 40 years old, the source added and was killed when bullets were fired towards a line of cars in the town.

Additionally, the source confirmed that an Israeli has been taken hostage on a Ukrainian ship.
Say goodbye to tank battles and dogfights in a 21st century war- analysis
In a 21st century war, tanks are still moving on land and planes are still in the air – but neither are fighting those of the enemy.

There have not been any large-scale tank battles or dogfights for years. Those have been relegated to the history books - at least for now.

Armored warfare doctrine was developed to break through the impasse of trench warfare during World War I and provide infantry with more mobile fire support than artillery.

But more than a century after they made their debut during World War One's Battle of the Somme and despite remaining a large aspect of most militaries, tanks fight each other with decreasing frequency.

Like tank battles, dogfights – which are still practiced by air forces across the globe including Israel's – have become just as rare in the post-Cold War era.

Despite upgrading their militaries over the years, the war in Ukraine is being primarily fought against Russians using aging Soviet weapons and platforms – until new weaponry, including anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles promised by the West arrive.

Nevertheless, facing weapons like Javelin anti-tank and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles already provided to Kyiv, Russian armor and aircraft have become sitting ducks for Ukrainians who fire at their targets from standoff ranges.
MEMRI: Russian Opposition To The Ukraine War: The Expected And The Unexpected
It came as no surprise that liberal Russian politicians such as Leonid Gozman, of the Union of Rightist Forces, would strongly oppose the war and mock the failed predictions of the Russian leadership. A greater surprise has been the position a trio of Duma deputies representing the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), who voiced their opposition to the war. It was the Communist Party that took the lead in pushing for recognition of the breakaway regions in Ukraine. Its leader, Gennady Zyuganov has employed rhetoric indistinguishable from that of Vladimir Putin with regards to Kiev, and has staunchly supported the war. The Communist Party from the time of Lenin established the principle of "democratic-centralism" within its ranks, according to which, decisions taken by the top leadership are binding upon all party members. Yet, Oleg Smolin and Mikhail Matveev now joined by Vyacheslav Marhaev have not faced the usual party discipline.

Marhaev wrote recently: “To my great regret, the entire campaign to recognize the DPR and LPR had a completely different intention and plan, which was initially hidden, and as a result, we ended up in a state of war between the two states. We did not have enough restraint or political will to try, after recognizing the republics of the DPR and LPR, to continue to regain our positions by peaceful means."[1]

Markhaev added "I condemn any radical nationalist movement, I do not accept genocide, devastation and lawlessness. But in the same way, I hate war and the military solution of issues. I say this not as an outside observer or politician, but as a direct participant in similar, very recent, events in Russian history. It is very painful to lose colleagues, colleagues, colleagues, ordinary young and promising fellows. It is very painful to look into the eyes of their parents, children and loved ones."[2]

Some believe that the trio of CPRF Duma deputies are acting on their own beliefs, another theory is that the CPRF is playing a double game. Via Zyuganov and the party majority the CPRF appeals to the patriotic electorate. By tolerating the deputies opposed to the war, the party maintains its ties with the generally liberal protest voters, who see the CPRF as the only alternative to Putin on the ballot box, but would otherwise be repelled by Zyuganov's rhetoric. As the conservative electorate is declining, the party cannot afford to lose the protest voters.

Below is Leonid Gozman's condemnation of the Ukraine war followed by an analysis that appeared in Nezavisimaya Gazeta on the apparent split in the Communist Party.
Olympic committee calls to bar Russia from international sports over Ukraine attack
In a sweeping move to isolate and condemn Russia after it invaded Ukraine, the International Olympic Committee urged sports bodies on Monday to exclude the country’s athletes and officials from international events.

The IOC said it was needed to “protect the integrity of global sports competitions and for the safety of all the participants.”

The decision opened the way for FIFA, the governing body of soccer, to exclude Russia from a World Cup qualifying playoff match on March 24. Poland has refused to play the scheduled game against Russia.

The Olympic body’s call also applied to athletes and officials from Belarus, which has abetted Russia’s invasion by allowing its territory to be used to station troops and launch military attacks.

The IOC said it acted “with a heavy heart,” but the impact of war on Ukrainian sports outweighed the potential damage done to athletes from Russia and Belarus.

It was not a total blanket ban by the IOC. Where exclusion was “not possible on short notice for organizational or legal reasons,” then teams from Russia and Belarus should compete as neutral athletes with no national flag, anthem or symbols, including at the upcoming Winter Paralympics in Beijing.

The IOC also withdrew the Olympic Order it gave Vladimir Putin in 2001, and other Russian officials since.
FIFA set to expel Russia from World Cup, suspend team 'until further notice'
International soccer's governing body FIFA is set to expel Russia from the World Cup due to its invasion of Ukraine, several news outlets reported on Monday.

On Sunday, as Ukrainian cities were blasted by Russian bombs, FIFA announced light sanctions against the Russian national team.

FIFA stated that the national team will no longer be allowed to associate itself with the Russian flag and anthem and can only play using the name of its football federation, the Football Union of Russia (RFU).

In addition, Russia's national team will not be allowed to play any games on home soil, with home games set to be played in neutral venues. Stadiums in pro-Russia nations, such as Belarus and Serbia, have been brought up as alternatives.

FIFA's original decision to not suspend the Russian team immediately came under intense scrutiny by fans, footballers and football associations of other nations who have already announced a boycott of planned matches against the Russians.

Dozens of football associations across Europe, most notably the English, Polish, Irish and Czech, already announced they will not play any matches against the Russian national team prior to FIFA's statement.

FIFA was also criticized for giving no mention to Belarus, which has openly aided Russia in the war.
Chinese FM Spokesperson on Ukraine, U.S., and Taiwan: U.S. Is the Culprit Behind Ukraine Conflict

Michigan Friday Sermon by Shiite-American Imam Hassan Qazwini: The West, U.S. Are Hypocrites
Imam Hassan Qazwini said in a Friday sermon at the Islamic Institute of America in Dearborn Heights, MI that the West and the United States have a double standard regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Stating that “there is never any justification for any country to invade another country” and that Russia “must respect the sovereignty and independence of other nations,” Qazwini said that the West and the U.S. have failed to condemn Israeli and Saudi violations of human rights in Palestine and in Yemen in the same fashion that they have condemned Russia’s and human rights violations against Ukraine. The sermon was posted to the Islamic Institute of America's YouTube channel on February 25, 2022.




Amb. Dore Gold: Europe’s Urgent Need for Israeli Gas Production
The crisis over Ukraine in 2022 has illustrated just how important the diversification of the sources of European gas has become and the urgency of finding alternatives to Russian gas, if only to reduce Moscow’s leverage over Europe and the NATO alliance. The EU Foreign Policy Chief, Josep Borrell, was able to voice a united policy for Europe, in January 2022, based on his view that “we must reduce our dependency on Russian energy.”1

Coming up with a solution to the Russian gas question for Europe also has an Israeli angle.2 The new Israeli government, headed by Prime Minister Bennet, modified Israeli energy policy; the Israeli Minister of Energy, Karine Elharrar, appeared to be adopting some of the preferences of the U.S. renewable energy industry. Indeed, she halted the granting of licenses for natural gas exploration for one year while her ministry devoted its efforts to work on renewable energy.

Despite the postponement of Israel’s gas pipeline to Europe by the Biden administration, for reasons that are not entirely clear, Israeli gas is still used for its Middle Eastern partners, particularly Egypt and Jordan. For the last decade, Iran has been seeking to export its gas to Iraq and even Jordan, thereby extending its influence to Israel’s east.

With the anticipated improvement of Israeli ties to Turkey, Ankara could emerge as an export hub for Israeli gas in the future. Thus, in the aftermath of the war in Ukraine, there are multiple reasons why the work on the East Med pipeline must be resumed as soon as possible, along with gas exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean. Moreover, increasing the supply of gas to the West will also help drive down its price, thereby undermining Russia’s ability to fund its war machine in the future.
MEMRI: Editor Of Saudi Daily: In Light Of The Western Policy In The Current Crisis, Ukraine Can Be Forgiven For Thinking, 'With Friends Like These – Who Needs Enemies?"
In a February 26, 2022 article in the English-language Saudi daily Arab News, the paper's editor-in-chief, Faisal Abbas, writes that what is currently happening in Ukraine is "a stark reminder" of the unreliability of the West and the U.S. 'Abbas states that Ukraine, "a democracy which did everything by the book and hoped to join NATO one day," believed that the West would protect it against Russia's brutality. However, instead of coming to the aid of its ally and implementing its stated principles of supporting democracy and freedom, the West – and especially the U.S. under President Joe Biden – have sufficed with rebukes and condemnations of Russia's conduct. Even the "harsh" sanctions that the U.S. is leveling, says 'Abbas, are unlikely to be effective against Russia, especially considering that some in the West are unwilling to maximize these sanctions, for fear of harming their own economic interests. He remarks that, in this situation, nobody can blame Kiev for thinking, "with friends like these, who needs enemies?"

'Abbas contrasts the current U.S. policy with the policy of presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton in the 1990s, who took steps to liberate Kuwait from the Iraqi occupation and helped to end the massacres in Bosnia and in Kosovo. Conversely, under president Barack Obama, the U.S. took a passive position, and did nothing when Syria's president Assad used chemical weapons against his own people in 2012, or when Russia occupied Crimea in 2014. Biden, he adds, is continuing the Obama policy, as evident not only in its policy towards Ukraine, but in his decisions to revoke the terrorist designation of the Houthis in Yemen and also to remove the Patriot missile batteries that were helping defend Saudi Arabia form the Houthi attacks.

Faisal 'Abbas concludes that all countries should follow the example of Saudi Arabia and invest in building up their own military capabilities, rather than rely on the U.S. to help them in their hour of need.

The following is his article.[1]
"On Feb. 17, we ran an interview in Arab News with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti coinciding with his country’s 14th anniversary of independence.

"Throughout the interview, I repeatedly asked whether he still thought the West – namely the US, NATO and the EU – remained reliable, and whether these entities, should push come to shove, would stand up for Kosovo or abandon it as they did in Afghanistan and, as we are now seeing, in Ukraine.

"Prime Minister Kurti defended the West and said that he thought America and NATO were there to stay. Kurti, 47, belongs to the same generation as I do. It is a generation that saw the US – under the leadership of George H.W. Bush – rush to help liberate Kuwait in the 1990s with the help of regional allies. Later in the decade, the US – under Bill Clinton – helped end the Balkan War and halt the Serbian massacres in Kosovo and Bosnia.

"However, in more recent years our generation also saw embarrassing acts by the same superpower not standing up for its own values or acting upon its own red lines. We saw that happen in both Syria and Ukraine. Former US President Barack Obama threatened Syrian dictator Bashar Assad with an imaginary red line if he used chemical weapons in 2012. There was also a similar threat if Russia took over Crimea in 2014. On both occasions, the former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner did absolutely nothing.






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