Monday, March 07, 2022

03/07 Links Pt1: Natan Sharansky: Israel, Russia and the U.S. Moral Abdication; Matti Friedman: The New Ukrainian Aliyah; Time to deal with delegitimization campaigns targeting Israel, Ukraine

From Ian:

Natan Sharansky (WSJ$): Israel, Russia and the U.S. Moral Abdication
Israel had no choice but to reach a strategic agreement with Russia to fight against Iran and its proxies. In protecting itself from terrorist aggression, Israel must consider Russia’s presence in Syria and secure Mr. Putin’s agreement for airstrikes against targets there. This arrangement, which began under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, renders Israel dependent on Russia’s goodwill even now, during Mr. Putin’s worst aggressions to date.

Making matters worse, an imminent nuclear deal with Iran will give yet more money to the regime without any linkage to its behavior. As a result, Israel will become even more dependent on Russia.

Israel would not have been forced to choose between its principles and survival had it not been for the lack of moral clarity in Europe and the U.S. The same free world that now stands in solidarity against one dictator is on the verge of signing—with that very dictator—an agreement that would give hundreds of billions of dollars to another corrupt, oppressive regime that has vowed to destroy Israel.

It isn’t too late to change this state of affairs. One option is to table the latest Iranian nuclear agreement and instead make clear to Tehran’s theocrats that their aggressions won’t be tolerated, let alone rewarded. If a deal is inevitable, another solution is to tie financial support for Iran to the latter’s verifiable commitment to protect human rights at home and cease its terrorist incitement abroad. This simple solution, which both the Obama and Biden administrations have thus far refused to accept, would not only reflect moral clarity, it would undermine Mr. Putin’s growing power on the world stage.

Russia’s actions in Ukraine are a test for the free world, which is why my government’s reluctance to oppose them forcefully is disappointing. Yet the reality of Israel’s dependence on Russia shows again that if the U.S. wants to lead the free world in confronting tyranny, its actions in confronting tyrants must be clear and consistent.


‘God will not forgive, ‘ Zelensky says as Russian forces kill fleeing civilians
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky lashed Western leaders and vowed no forgiveness for Russian “atrocities,” as its military intensified attacks on Ukraine’s cities and killed a group of civilians fleeing violence.

After Russia said it will attack Ukrainian defense industry facilities, some of which are in cities, Zelensky said early Monday morning, “It’s murder, simply murder, and I didn’t see any world leader react to it today, any Western politician.”

“The audacity of the aggressor is a clear signal for the West that the imposed sanctions aren’t enough,” he said in a video posted to his Facebook account.

He raged at Russian forces over a family of four that was killed by a mortar round while attempting to escape the city of Irpin, near Kyiv. About eight civilians were killed in total by Russian shelling in the town, according to Mayor Oleksander Markyshin.

Video footage showed a shell slamming into a city street, not far from a bridge used by people fleeing the fighting. New York Times journalists witnessed the attack, and said it took place in a residential area, where Ukraine’s military was not active, except for helping civilians flee.


Matti Friedman: The New Ukrainian Aliyah
New people with old stories are sitting on the benches in Nahariya, the beach town in northern Israel where my parents live. One woman sits in a park near the Jewish Agency’s immigrant absorption center, holding her smartphone and crying as another woman’s voice says on the speaker from Ukraine, “There are fatalities in Kharkiv.” A crew from the TV news is there to interview these first arrivals, and for an Israeli watching, it seems like headlines and history at once. Kyiv, Lviv, Moscow, the Jewish Agency. Is it the 1990s, or the 1930s? Another woman, Tatyana, embraces two of her three children, fresh from the airport. Her eldest son stayed behind to fight near Dnipro. “It’s a miracle we made it here,” she says.

Israelis are as glued to the war in Ukraine as the rest of the Western world, so involved in the extraordinary course of events that most of us haven’t yet considered the most immediate way this is going to manifest itself here: in a new wave of aliyah, “ascent,” the word we like to use for immigration. On Sunday three planes landed with 300 people, and it’s only beginning. Some estimates say 10,000 are coming, some say 10 times that; some, like the Interior Minister, say it could be hundreds of thousands and won’t be limited to people from Ukraine.

The old Zionist absorption machinery—ignored by nearly all Israelis nearly all of the time, though it’s more or less the reason the country exists and the reason we’re all here—is creaking back into motion. Israel will try to work its narrative magic, issuing the newcomers a story of strength that obscures their weakness, telling them they’re not homeless but home and that they’re not refugees but olim, “those who ascend,” masters of their own fate. This story is one of the secrets of the country’s success. A version of it is shared by everyone else in this town: the original Germans, the Moroccans and Tunisians, the Romanians, the earlier Russians and Ukrainians, the Ethiopians. The rooms at the absorption center probably still smell of injera. That’s why, although Elena and Tatyana may never have been here before, they somehow don’t seem out of place.

Roman Polonsky, the Jewish Agency’s man in charge of the countries of the former Soviet Union, was born 67 years ago outside Odesa, Ukraine—the target, as I write these lines, of an approaching Russian naval force. When we spoke he was rushing from Israel to Budapest to help get people out of his former country. Growing up in the Soviet Union with a mix of Ukrainians, Russians, Moldovans, and Jews, he said, the idea of a Russia-Ukraine war would have seemed “far less likely than an alien invasion from Mars.” He moved to Israel in 1990, when he was 35, at the beginning of the great aliyah that brought more than a million people here as the Soviet world collapsed. (All the newcomers became known collectively as “Russians,” even through a third were from Ukraine and another third from the smaller Soviet republics; it will be interesting to see if the distinction between Russians and Ukrainians now catches on.)




JPost Editorial: Russia-Ukraine: Naftali Bennett's gamble to stop Putin's war - editorial
Undoubtedly one of the topics discussed by Bennett and Putin was the return to the 2015 Iran deal which is reportedly close to being finalized in Vienna. Indeed, some Israelis on the Right have criticized Bennett for not focusing on the dangers of the deal with Iran rather than the Russia-Ukraine war.

Iran is proving one of Russia’s biggest backers. One of the risks of Bennett’s self-appointed role as mediator is that it could create a linkage between the Iran deal and the conflict in Ukraine.

Already, according to a Wall Street Journal report, Russia is now demanding that the US and Europe carve out an exception from their Ukraine-related sanctions so that Moscow can trade with Tehran after a new deal. On the other hand, if Bennett succeeds, Israel will be in a stronger position to make demands to amend the emerging deal.

Bennett’s move was bold, but also a gamble. If mediation fails, the image of the Israeli prime minister sitting across the table from Putin while the Russian president still pounds Ukraine could haunt Bennett and the country.

There will always be plenty of people happy to place the blame for the conflict on the Jews and to see Bennett playing the role of Putin’s puppet.

Israel must not forget that even when relations are strained, it is the US, not Russia, that is the country’s main ally. Israel must ensure that it remains firmly in the Western camp when it comes to democratic ideals. Furthermore, it is unwise to trust a dictator like Putin who could easily break promises and agreements reached with Bennett, causing further harm.

It is too early to say whether Bennett’s mediation effort will come to fruition. We certainly hope so, for everyone’s sake.

Bennett and the Israeli government need to remain cautious and make sure they do not turn into another pawn in Putin’s war, but the prime minister should be praised for stepping up and making an effort to end it.
Is Putin walking Bennett straight into a trap? - analysis
When Bennett became prime minister, it turned out he did not have all the answers, and his government frequently changed course. In fact, he has been quipping to interlocutors who ask him about how Israel is faring that “there is no manual to defeating a pandemic, even though I wrote one.” His focus on keeping businesses and schools open has kept the Israeli economy afloat, but the high death toll in the Omicron wave has been the severe downside.

Bennett’s tunnel vision and penchant for heroics is now leading him into the role of intermediary between Ukraine and Russia.

It’s clear that Bennett’s heart is in a good place, and he wants to stop “the immense human suffering that could become even greater if things continue on the current path.”

“We will help as long as we are asked,” Bennett said Sunday. “Even if the chance is not great, the moment there is even a small opening, and we have access to all sides and the ability, I see it as our moral duty to make every attempt.”

But it’s also clear that Putin is not looking to alleviate human suffering, considering that his army is bombing cities and even agreed-upon humanitarian corridors in Ukraine.

That means Putin finds talking to Bennett to be useful in other ways, whether it’s being able to say there are still leaders of democracies willing to meet him or to pass messages to the West.

There have already been reports that Putin demanded that Israel not provide weapons to Ukraine during the meeting, and that may have been reason enough for him to agree to meet with Bennett. The best-case scenario is that Putin is keeping the channel with Bennett open in case he needs it for the end of the war in Ukraine.

Bennett is smart, but it’s possible that his earnestness and unwavering resolve could be leading him straight into a trap set by a far more cynical Putin.
Russia snubs ICJ hearings in case brought by Ukraine
A representative for Kyiv urged the United Nations' top court on Monday to order Russia to halt its devastating invasion of Ukraine, at a hearing snubbed by Russia amid its ongoing assault on its neighbor.

Ukrainian representative Anton Korynevych told judges at the International Court of Justice: "Russia must be stopped and the court has a role to play in stopping it."

Ukraine has asked the court to order Russia to "immediately suspend the military operations" launched Feb. 24 "that have as their stated purpose and objective the prevention and punishment of a claimed genocide" in the separatist eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Lawyers for Kyiv dismissed the Russian claim.

"Ukraine comes to this court because of a grotesque lie and to seek protection from the devastating consequences of that lie," David Zionts told the court. "The lie is the Russian Federation's claim of genocide in Ukraine. The consequences are unprovoked aggression, cities under siege, civilians under fire, humanitarian catastrophe and refugees fleeing for their lives."

A decision on Ukraine's request is expected within days.

If the court were to order a halt to hostilities, "I think the chance of that happening is zero," said Terry Gill, a professor of military law at the University of Amsterdam. He noted that if a nation does not abide by the court's order, judges could seek action from the United Nations Security Council, where Russia holds a veto.

Russia's seats at the Great Hall of Justice in the court's Peace Palace headquarters were empty for the hearing.

The court's president, American judge Joan E. Donoghue, said Russia's ambassador to the Netherlands, Alexander Shulgin, informed judges that "his government did not intend to participate in the oral proceedings."

Korynevych condemned Moscow's snub.
Russia publishes an official list of states 'unfriendly' to it
A list of foreign states that Russia considers as having committed "unfriendly actions" against "Russia, Russian companies and citizens" was published on the Russian government's website on Monday.

The countries, international organizations and territories considered "unfriendly" include: "Australia, Albania, Andorra, United Kingdom, including Jersey, Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Gibraltar, the member states of the European Union, Iceland, Canada, Liechtenstein, Micronesia, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, Republic of Korea, San Marino, North Macedonia, Singapore, USA, Taiwan, Ukraine, Montenegro, Switzerland, Japan."

Russia lists Taiwan as being part of China.

A complimentary item of legislation from Sunday states that Russian citizens and companies must apply for a special permit to deal with "unfriendly" foreign entities.

The list was created as part of a series of laws to follow a Saturday decree by Russian President Vladimir Putin for "temporary economic measures to ensure the financial stability of the Russian Federation."

Part of the measures the list was to enforce was the law that allows Russian citizens, companies and state bodies to pay back foreign creditors in rubles.
Russia-Ukraine war: Remember the good, bad of Ukrainian Jewish history
It’s blasphemy, I know, but I am torn when it comes to Ukraine.

I am of two minds, not about the atrocities Putin is committing – every good person can only conclude that Russia violated human rights and international law by invading Ukraine. That Russia is dead wrong vis-a-vis Ukraine. That case is open and shut.

It’s the historian in me that is conflicted. For the past 1,000 years, even longer, Ukraine has been home to a robust and exciting Jewish history. Jews lived there even before the area was called Ukraine. The Jewish heritage of Ukraine was creative, rich, robust. The history is so wondrous it is unimaginable.

More than 1.5 million Jews lived there in 1939. Before this current conflict, Ukraine was thought to be one of the three largest Jewish populations in the world. Before this massive exodus, which includes untold numbers of Jews, there was an estimated Jewish population of 400,000, according to the European Jewish Congress.

Once upon a time, so prominent and so integrated were the Jews of Ukraine that during the life of a fledgling and failed independent state called “The Ukrainian People’s Republic,” (which only lasted from 1917, right after World War I, through 1920), Yiddish was one of the three official languages. The others were, of course, Ukrainian and Russian. Yiddish was even clearly embossed on some of the currency that was minted.

Ukraine was where the Ba’al Shem Tov revolutionized Judaism when he began his hassidic movement. Ukraine was where the great Hebrew writers wrote their journals and newspapers, plays and books, works that transformed Jewish life and injected Zionism into the masses.

Ukraine was where Golda Meir was born. In Kyiv. Ukraine was where Jabotinsky was born. In Odessa. The list of notables can go on for pages.

SO WHY am I of two minds? Because with the good came the bad. Because Ukraine was where Bogdan Chmielnicki – the 17th-century leader of the Cossack Rebellion who fought against the Poles to recapture the Lowlands – committed his dastardly deeds. Because in that process, Chmielnicki and his Ukrainian Cossacks murdered Jews and burned Jewish communities.
Jews fled Ukrainian pogroms for Egypt and the Levant
All eyes are on the war in Ukraine. An overwhelming number of Jews are among those expressing support for its beleaguered civilians – and rightly so. But it must not be forgotten that the Jewish people and the Ukraine have a checkered history. Even before the so-called ‘Shoah of bullets’, resulting in the murder of a million Jews in the Ukraine and Baltic states during WWII, the Ukraine was the scene of appalling pogroms, such as the Chelmniki massacres of 1648, which claimed 100,000 Jewish lives. Then came the terrible pogroms of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, resulting in a massive wave of Jewish migration to the US and Europe. A small number of refugees fled to the Middle East.

In April and May 1881, terrible pogroms erupted in Elisavetgrad, the Jewish quarter of Kyiv, Chipola, Ananiev, Vasilkiv and Konotop. There were also pogroms in Poland and Romania.

Some Ashkenazi families moved to Egypt. From 1865, the Ashkenazim of Cairo maintained a separate communal organisation from the dominant Sephardim and Mizrahim. They were concentrated in the Darb al-Barabira quarter. in 1917 the Ashkenazi population was swollen by the arrival of 10,000 Ashkenazim chased out of Palestine by the Ottoman governor Jamal Pasha.

Compiling a list of Egyptian-Jewish surnames, an Israeli diplomat, Jacob Rosen, was surprised to find many Ashkenazi names. He estimated that the Ashkenazim comprised 20 percent of the Jewish community in the 1930s and 40s. Many intermarried with the local Sephardim.

In 1894, the Ashkenazi synagogue was built in Cairo. It was damaged in riots in 1945 but was restored in 1950.

A few families also moved to Syria and Lebanon. A group of Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazim arrived in Beirut in the 19th century.

Historian, author and expert on Lebanese Jewry Nagi Georges Zeidan says that this community intermarried with the Jews of Beirut but continued to retain an Eastern European accent in Hebrew. In time their Yiddish names were replaced with Sephardi ones.
The West prefers its heroes dead
The war in Ukraine is being waged by way of two paradigms: on the one hand, the realistic-modernist paradigm, which Russia represents; and on the other hand, the postmodern and symbolic paradigm represented by the West.

The concept of victory as defined by Russia is based on elements of blood, iron, and territory. As such, it focuses on classic warfare involving tanks, infantry, and the occupation of Ukrainian nerve centers with aim of toppling the government as preconditions for Moscow's desired strategic change in Eastern Europe.

Contrary to the Russians, the West's concept of victory is based mainly on symbolic elements, which turn the war into a representation of the struggle between the forces of light – pursuing liberty and liberalism – and the forces of darkness – synonymous with centralism and political oppression.

As far as the West is concerned, the outcome of war is not measured in physical and absolute terms, but in relative ones that tend to be shaped in direct correlation to the image of the aggressor and the victim. This is why according to the West's definition of victory, the Jewish president of Ukraine has become a symbol representing the idea of resistance.

Under current war conditions, it seems that the concept of resistance, which connects to a world of liberal views, post-colonial discourse, and the values of freedom with a dash of historical touches from World War II, has never been so popular.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, an actor-turned-statesman fills the role assigned to him by the West well, even if the ending to this play has already been written. Zelenskyy is no stranger to new media and he has lent himself to it and to the idea of creating images that large publics in the West (and also in Israel) find addictive, as they want to see how the idea of freedom is translated into resolutely resisting an invading force and civilian sacrifice.

Yet in a vicious paraphrase of Voltaire, the West loves to see the blood of others shed on the altar of his ideals. The effort to search for heroes and an image of victory based on symbolism fails to obscure the bleak reality on the ground in Ukraine – on the shelled streets of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odessa, Kherson, and other cities.


Israel to establish field hospital in Ukraine

Jewish-American duo create UkraineTakeShelter.Com for Ukrainian refugees

At Solidarity Concert With Ukraine, Israeli Conductor Daniel Barenboim Recalls How Grandparents Fled Russian Pogroms
The celebrated Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim on Sunday delivered an impassioned speech at a solidarity concert in Berlin for Ukraine, in which he recalled how his family had fled the violent pogroms during the early 20th century.

Noting his family origins in Ukraine and Belarus, the 79-year-old Barenboim said that his grandparents had fled the “antisemitic pogroms” carried out by the Black Hundreds — a virulently antisemitic Russian nationalist organization active in the first decades of the 1900s — for a new home in Argentina.

Addressing an audience at Berlin’s State Opera House that included German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht, Barenboim urged solidarity with Ukrainians in the face of the ongoing Russian invasion.

“We are all incredibly moved by the courage and determination of the Ukrainians who are heroically defending their country, their lives and their freedom against the cruel invasion of a superior force,” he declared. “But it’s more than that, because we recognize that Ukrainians also defend our freedom and our values.”

At the same time, Barenboim counseled against a boycott of Russia in the cultural sphere, arguing that this would be counterproductive.

“We must not allow a witch hunt against Russian people and Russian culture, and upcoming bans and boycotts of Russian music and literature in various European countries, for example, awaken the very worst associations in my mind,” Barenboim said. As examples, he cited a ban in Poland on the public performance of music by Russian composers and the suspension — later reversed — of a course on the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky at an Italian university.
Israeli peace event draws people from Ukraine & Mideast



Time to deal with delegitimization campaigns targeting Israel, Ukraine
Attempting to refute the spreading claim that Russian soldiers wounded in Ukraine were receiving only $100 in compensation (the official line is that they receive $28,000), Russian President Vladimir Putin didn't miss the opportunity to return to his latest favorite theme.

"Russians and Ukrainians are one nation," Putin told a meeting of his Security Council last Thursday. "I will never give that up."

On that last point at least, Putin is telling the truth. He really won't give it up. The belief that Ukrainian nationhood is a false construct imposed upon Russia by an expansionist west lies at the root of Moscow's devastating campaign to crush its neighbor.

To Jews and Israelis, this sort of eliminationist program should be very familiar. For decades, Arab nationalists and Islamists have been saying much the same about Israel – that the Jewish state is both a false construct and a beachhead for various global conspiracies, and that it has no sovereign legitimacy, despite being a member state of the United Nations. According to Article 20 of the Palestinian National Covenant, "Claims of historical or religious ties of Jews with Palestine are incompatible with the facts of history and the true conception of what constitutes statehood. Judaism, being a religion, is not an independent nationality. Nor do Jews constitute a single nation with an identity of its own; they are citizens of the states to which they belong."
IAEA ‘deeply concerned’ by Russia’s actions since takeover of Ukraine nuclear plant
The UN nuclear watchdog on Sunday expressed “deep concern” over reports that communication from Europe’s largest nuclear power plant seized by Russia in Ukraine has been disrupted.

Invading Russian forces attacked and seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine on Friday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a statement that Ukraine informed it that the plant management is now under orders from the commander of the Russian forces.

Ukraine has also reported that the Russian forces have switched off some mobile networks and the internet, and that telephone lines, emails and fax lines were not functioning anymore.

Mobile phone communication was still possible, though with poor quality, the IAEA said.

“I’m extremely concerned about these developments that were reported to me today,” IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said.

“In order to be able to operate the plant safely and securely, management and staff must be allowed to carry out their vital duties in stable conditions without undue external interference or pressure,” he added.


BBC contributor gives his views on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Over the years we have periodically documented statements and claims made by a journalist regularly brought in by the BBC (and other British media outlets) to provide comment and analysis on the Middle East.

The extremist and often downright bizarre opinions of Abdel Bari Atwan on topics such as chemical weapons in Syria, a potential nuclear strike on Israel, the death of Yasser Arafat, Arabs and Muslims – together with his justification of terror attacks on Israeli civilians and incitement to violence – have so far not deterred the BBC from providing him with a platform.

Courtesy of MEMRI, we learn that Atwan also holds opinions on the topic currently heading the news.

“British-Palestinian journalist Abdel Bari Atwan said in video that was uploaded to his YouTube channel on February 28, 2022 that the Arabs should not side against Russia in the Ukraine-Russia war, since it is America – which is on the other side – that supports Israel and that is responsible for the destruction of Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Palestine, as well as for the occupation of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. He emphasized that the war in Ukraine has nothing to do with the Arabs, who he said should thank Allah that the war is taking place in Europe, which has enjoyed peace and prosperity for decades while the Middle East was being ravaged by wars. In addition, Atwan criticized journalists who have called for opposing Russia…”

Once again Atwan’s politically motivated analysis of current affairs and distortions of history (such as the notion that America “is responsible for the destruction of Syria” rather than Russian bombings and support for that country’s brutal regime) raise serious questions concerning his suitability and efficacy as a BBC current affairs contributor.






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