Tuesday, March 08, 2022

03/08 Links Pt1: Ukraine’s Zelensky Pleads to American Jews for Support; Ukrainian Refugees Burst Into Applause Upon Arrival in Israel; IAM: Palestinians hijack Ukraine

From Ian:

Ukraine’s Zelensky Pleads to American Jews for Support
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to American Jews for support on Monday with an unsparing account of Russian destruction in his country that he compared to the Nazi German army marching across Europe.

“This is just a pure Nazi behavior. I can’t even qualify this in any different manner,” Zelensky told an umbrellas group, the Conference of Presidents of American Jewish Organizations, as he continued to press for more fighter planes from the West and a no-fly zone that NATO has so far rejected.

Zelensky ran through a list of the cities and towns he said had been destroyed by Russian forces, while outnumbered Ukrainians were fighting with everything they had, even when they had no weapons.

“They are throwing themselves under the tanks — just for you to understand what’s happening here,” the Ukrainian leader, who is Jewish, said in a Zoom call.

The Russians are not letting people leave towns and cities they have attacked, are not allowing food and water to be brought in and are disconnecting the internet, television and electricity, he said.

“All of this happened during Nazi times,” he said. “The survival of the Ukrainian nation — the question will be the same as antisemitism…. All of these millions of people are going to be exterminated.”
Poland: World’s largest yeshiva pre-Holocaust becomes camp for Jewish refugees
Who could imagine that what was once the largest yeshiva in the world is now a refugee camp in Poland for Ukrainian Jews.

“We have about 190 beds in Lublin,” American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee director in Poland Karina Sokolowska said Monday. “Some are regular hotel rooms, but we also have large halls in the building where we put many mattresses on the floor.”

Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva operated in Lublin, Poland, from 1930 to 1939.

Since there are no available hotel rooms in Warsaw, they had to find space, hotels and apartments around the country, Sokolowska said.

“Almost anyone I know in the Jewish community is hosting a Ukrainian family” she said.

The JDC has 500 beds across Poland in temporary refugee camps, Sokolowska said.

“People come to us in shock – they escaped a war,” she said. “Up until now, we didn’t have any element of therapy for the refugees. But we now have psychologists on the way to Poland to assist us in this terrible situation.”

“Until 12 days ago, my job was to promote Jewish education and culture in Poland,” Sokolowska said. “But now, I am dealing with a whole different world. I never thought I would need to run a huge operation for Jewish refugees – definitely not in Poland.”
Ukrainian Refugees Burst Into Applause Upon Arrival in Israel
Daria Garn was exhausted. After five grueling days traveling from war-torn Kyiv, Ukraine, through Moldova with her two young sons, she had finally arrived at the Romania International Airport in Iași, where she was waiting to board a flight to Israel. As tears welled, Garn, 29, told JNS she was forced to leave her husband behind as he had been unable to secure the proper paperwork to join her. Following Russia’s deadly invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, most Ukrainian adult males have been forbidden to leave the country.

Rubbing bloodshot eyes, Garn said that after 10 days of suffering through the bombings, she had decided that it was time to leave. “I’m so tired; I don’t eat, I don’t sleep—it’s like I don’t feel anything. I’m numb,” she said.

Garn and her children were joined at the airport by more than 100 other Jewish refugees who had secured seats on flights to Israel thanks to the United Hatzalah organization.

Monday night counted as Hatzalah’s third rescue mission in the past several days, as staff organized fully subsidized flights from Romania and Moldova.

Dovie Maisel, vice president of operations for United Hatzalah, told JNS the mission was actually three-fold.

In addition to saving Ukrainian Jews and stranded Israelis by getting them on a flight from Romania to Israel, 20 or so Hatzalah volunteers—including doctors, medics, EMTs, psychotrauma crisis experts and even medical clowns—traveled from Israel to Romania on their way to Hatzalah’s emergency operation center in Kishinev, Moldova. There, they will offer treatment and their expertise to those in need.


A Winning Strategy in Ukraine
The war in Ukraine is, geopolitically speaking, two wars in one: the war in the north; and the war in the south. The differences between the two are so great that they remind one of the opening stages of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, when distinctly different conditions shaped Israel’s two fronts, in the Sinai and Golan Heights. A smart strategy requires winning both wars simultaneously. Western attention, however, has been disproportionally focused on the northern front, where no major cities (at the time of writing) have been captured. Russia’s slowness in conquering Kyiv has created the sense that things are going better, in general, for Ukraine than they really are.

In the south, Russia’s advance has been radically more successful. There, Russian forces managed to penetrate deep, exploding north out of Crimea and taking the cities of Kherson and Melitopol, while besieging Mariupol, thereby cutting off Ukraine’s access to the Sea of Azov and securing a land corridor extending all the way from Donbas to Crimea.

As a result, the way is now open for Russian leader Vladimir Putin to conquer Odesa, which currently stands before a double threat. From the East, the Russian forces are fighting their way toward the city overland from Kherson, through Mykolaiv. At the same time, a huge armada is already positioned offshore, ready to strike. If Putin gives the order to take Odesa and the city falls, the blow to Ukrainian independence will be every bit as great as the conquest of Kyiv, and in some ways even greater.

Of course, Kyiv is the seat of the government and the birthplace of historic Rus. Its independence has deep cultural, political, and symbolic value that Odesa’s independence does not carry. But if Kyiv falls, the government and the military could still move westward to Lviv, where it would enjoy overwhelming international legitimacy and from which it could continue to lead the fight for independence. By contrast, if the Russians conquer Odesa, which is Ukraine’s busiest international port, thorough which most of its exports flow, the blow would be irrevocable. Ukraine would become a landlocked country.

Simultaneously, the power of Putin would increase dramatically. Not only would a revived Odesa become an economic jewel in the crown of the Russian Federation, but Russian forces would control the entire Black Sea coastline down to Romania and Moldova, both of which would become targets of coercive diplomacy. Without Ukraine to counterbalance Russia, the Black Sea would almost become a Russian lake. In sum, a Russian Federation in control of Crimea, much of Eastern Ukraine, the Sea of Azov and Odesa would be a much more powerful and dangerous beast than we have known since the end of the Cold War.


As temperatures warm in Ukraine, Russian advance could get stuck in the mud
Having failed to make a decisive advance in the early phase of its Ukraine campaign, the Russian army is now facing a thaw that could make progression on key routes problematic due to mud.

Like the armies of Napoleon and Hitler before them, Russian mechanized divisions are likely to be slowed down or halted as unpaved roads become treacherous quagmires.

Locals have a word for the twice-yearly season of mud-bound roads in the region: Rasputitsa, a term that refers to both to the seasons themselves, and the resulting muddy conditions on the roads created by thawing snow in the spring combined with wet weather, or heavy rains in the autumn.

As Russian President Vladimir Putin massed his army at the Ukrainian border, many Western experts expected him to abstain from marching in as the weeks passed, because time was running out before the great thaw.

“Early spring is a bad time to invade Ukraine if the main roads have been destroyed, a task well within Ukraine’s irregular warfare toolkit,” wrote Spencer Meredith, a professor at the US National Defense University, in an article published a week before Putin gave the order for the invasion.

While some experts may have misread Putin’s intentions, their assessment of weather conditions has been spot-on, as pictures of Russian tanks stuck in the mud have begun to appear frequently on social media.
Ukraine claims it killed senior Russian general near Kharkiv
A Russian general was killed in the fighting around Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, which Russian forces have been trying to seize since the invasion began, the Ukrainian military intelligence agency said.

It identified him as Maj. Gen. Vitaly Gerasimov, 45, and said he had fought with Russian forces in Syria and Chechnya and had taken part in the seizure of Crimea in 2014.

It was not possible to confirm the death independently. Russia has not commented.

Another Russian general was killed earlier in the fighting. A local officers’ organization in Russia confirmed the death in Ukraine of Maj. Gen. Andrei Sukhovetsky, the commanding general of the Russian 7th Airborne Division.

Sukhovetsky also took part in Russia’s military campaign in Syria.

Christo Grozev, the executive director of the investigative journalism group Bellingcat, tweeted that Gerasimov’s death was confirmed by a Russian source.

Grozev also wrote that Ukraine intercepted a phone call between a Russian officer and his boss informing him of Gerasimov’s death, and also noting that the Russian military’s encrypted phones are not working.
Tom Gross: The west is willing to fight to the last Ukrainian – but it’s not willing to fight itself
Tom Gross discusses whether Putin has suddenly “gone mad” as some western leaders claim (or “full tonto,” in the words of the British defense secretary). Answer: no… So how can Putin be stopped in the most effective way? ...

And whether increasing economic and cultural measures against Russians will turn them against their government, or boycotting Russian ballet, Eurovision and cats will make them rally round it.

And whether, if Putin is pushed out of office, Russia’s next leader would be better -- or could he or she be even worse.

There is also discussion of Iran, of the Israeli PM’s attempt to negotiate between Russia and Ukraine, and of the forthcoming Turkish-Israeli reconciliation and what it means.


Interior Minister Shaked announces new plan for Ukrainian refugees
Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked announced Tuesday a new plan for the entry of Ukrainian citizens into Israel.

The main principles include:
- The State of Israel will temporarily host about 20,000 Ukrainian citizens who were in Israel before the outbreak of hostilities, most of them illegally - until the war ends and except in exceptional cases, it will not act to forcibly evict them.

- An additional quota of accommodation was set for 5,000 Ukrainian citizens who arrived or will arrive after the outbreak of hostilities.

- Ukrainian citizens who arrive in Israel will receive a temporary visa for a period of three months. Interior Monister Ayelet Shaked speaks to Population Authority officials at Ben-Gurion Airport on Sunday about the process of absorbing Ukrainian refugees. (credit: INTERIOR MINISTRY) Interior Monister Ayelet Shaked speaks to Population Authority officials at Ben-Gurion Airport on Sunday about the process of absorbing Ukrainian refugees. (credit: INTERIOR MINISTRY)

- If the fighting does not stop, Ukrainian citizens will later also be allowed to work in Israel. This is valid for Ukrainian citizens already in Israel and those who will arrive later.

- Ukrainian citizens who will now arrive in Israel under the humanitarian quota will not be forced to deposit any guarantee at the airport. They will only be excepted to sign an undertaking to leave Israel as soon as the state of emergency ends.

- Any Ukrainian citizen who wishes to come to Israel will have to submit an online application on the Foreign Ministry's website to present the permit they received upon boarding the plane.
Hebrew University offers emergency aid to Ukrainian students, professors
In a show of solidarity with the Ukrainian people, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Hebrew University Student Union hoisted the Ukrainian flag on its campus on Mount Scopus.

The university and its students seek to send a message of support and encouragement to Ukraine, now in the throes of the second week of invasion by the Russian military.

University president Professor Asher Cohen said “hoisting the Ukrainian flag on campus is an important statement. It says we at the Hebrew University are deeply troubled by the crisis unfolding in Ukraine, and send a message of support and strength to the people of Ukraine. Our heart is with the Ukrainian people.”

At the outbreak of the war, dean Guy Harpaz reached out to students of Ukrainian origin who have been personally or whose families have been directly affected by the war in Ukraine to offer immediate financial, emotional and academic support.

Additionally, the university is offering temporary posts to Ukrainian academics and graduate students, and has also invited professors to continue their research at Hebrew University for a period of up to four months. Suitable candidates will receive monthly stipends of up to $2,800, as well as free room and board at on-campus residences.
Ukrainian FM Apologizes to El Al for Claiming It Accepts ‘Blood-Soaked’ Money
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba apologized on Tuesday for accusing Israel’s El Al airline of attempting to bypass sanctions on Russia by accepting payments through the country’s Mir electronic fund transfer system.

In a tweet on Monday, Kuleba posted a screenshot of a booking page on El Al’s website showing the Mir logo along with Visa and Mastercard.

“While the world sanctions Russia for its barbaric atrocities in Ukraine, some prefer to make money soaked in Ukrainian blood,” he alleged. “Immoral and a blow to Ukrainian-Israeli relations.”

El Al stated shortly after that it stopped accepting Mir on February 28, four days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“It is unfortunate that a simple check was not done with us before the misleading tweet, as the facts are entirely different,” the airline responded.

Kuleba acknowledged his mistake Tuesday morning, responding to El Al’s clarification stating, “Indeed, the ‘Mir’ payment button remained on the website, but the use of it was blocked.”

“I am grateful to El Al for its important humanitarian operations and convey my apologies,” he continued.

He deleted the original tweet shortly after.
Time for Jews to abandon Ukraine
Ukrainians have a long history of murdering Jews. We do not need to save them. We need to save the Jews and get out of there. Time to abandon Ukraine.

There are about 200,000 Jews in Ukraine, but there are about 10 times more Jews who were murdered and buried there, and in the last century alone. Ukraine is a Jewish graveyard. We need to get out of there.

In fact, Jewish graves have been attracting Jews back to Ukraine, particularly to Uman, where Rebbe Nachman of Breslov is buried. We haven’t been able to escape yet because a large part of our nation is buried there. Many Jews still feel a strong attachment to them.

The dead will forgive us if we move on towards our Redemption. We do not need to live with the dead in that graveyard of a nation. Rise up from the ashes, O Israel, and abandon the lands of your torment. Time for all Jews to come to Israel, to the Land of the living.

A Jewish President in Ukraine
Ironically, we now have a Jew in charge of Ukraine (Volodymyr Zelensky). He is fighting for them and has chosen to remain. He might even be blocking Jewish men from leaving. He needs all men of fighting age to remain, to resist the Russian invasion. He is even calling for other Jews to fight for Ukraine.

We don’t need a Jew to fight for Ukraine. If anything, it could only make matters worse for Jews everywhere. The main benefit of a Jewish Ukrainian president would be if he had enough compassion for the Jews of that country to help them escape to Israel.

A Gentile leader could be ruthless to the Jews of Ukraine. He could blame them for all his problems. He could let the Ukrainians vent their anger upon them, or trap them in the crossfire, blocking their escape. Zelensky can help facilitate the exodus of hundreds of thousands of imperiled Jews to Israel.
Smotrich: Israel must bring in as many Jews from Ukraine, Russia as possible
“Representatives of the State of Israel are not inside Ukraine,” Religious Zionist Party MK Bezalel Smotrich said Monday. “For obvious reasons, the emissaries of the [Jewish] Agency and employees of Nativ have left Ukraine and are together with Foreign Ministry personnel mainly at the border crossings. They do not take care of rescuing Jews from the war zones and bringing them to Ukraine’s borders.”

“The stronger Jewish population has already left the borders of Ukraine,” he said. “Those who remain are mostly people with health problems, the elderly and families who do not want to stay away from the men who are committed to army recruitment.

“The people who have a close and effective connection to those who remain on ground are mainly the wonderful Chabad emissaries who give their lives, in the simplest way, to help and take care of everyone who needs it.”

Smotrich is promoting a plan he calls “No Jew is left behind.”

“There are many organizations working on the ground, but [no one] is integrating all of the work,” he said. Ukrainian Jewish refugees arriving at Ben-Gurion Airport, March 6, 2022. (credit: HADAS PARUSH) Ukrainian Jewish refugees arriving at Ben-Gurion Airport, March 6, 2022. (credit: HADAS PARUSH)

Smotrich offered to establish a unified “war room” in the Knesset, “where all relevant organizations will sit in one room 24/7.”

The entities he would like to be part of the unified effort are “the Foreign Ministry, the Mossad, Nativ, the Jewish Agency, the Aliyah and Integration Ministry, Magen David Adom, representatives of the Red Cross in Israel, the JDC [Joint Distribution Committee] and, of course, Chabad.”

Smotrich called for creating a national aliyah program.
Emily Schrader: For Russian and Palestinian leaders, it's a war over ideology
Palestinian activists were also quick to compare how civilians are being targeted in this conflict, but again, the difference is that Israel goes to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties, whereas Russia is intentionally targeting civilians to wreak havoc over the country and then lying about it to the media.

Unlike Russia, Israel doesn’t censor social media or traditional media, it doesn’t pass laws stating those who spread “fake news” will go to prison for up to 15 years, nor does it arrest protesters for opposing IDF military action.

Ironically, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas both imprison and in some cases execute those who dissent their leadership. They do not have a free press, they use human shields and they haven’t had elections in more than a decade. It turns out the Palestinian leadership seems to have a lot more in common with Russia than with Ukraine.

While Palestinian activists were busy tweeting their inaccurate comparisons, Israel sent more than 100 tons of aid to Ukraine and began building a field hospital and a refugee aid center. Israel also oversaw the rescue of Lebanese, Syrian, Egyptian and, yes, Palestinian nationals from Ukraine.

Obviously no two conflicts are the same, but the heart of the issue between Israel and the Palestinians and Ukraine and Russia actually does have some similarities. Palestinian leaders reject the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish and democratic state in the historical homeland of the Jewish people. Russia rejects the right of Ukraine to exist as a sovereign and democratic country.

For both Russia and the Palestinian leaders, as it stands today, this is not a war over territory, it’s a war over ideology.

In both cases, the genocidal agenda to wipe out the rights of the other has already proven to be self-sabotaging, yet for both regimes, they’d rather see their victims, Israel and Ukraine, suffer, than accept their right to exist. A meaningful change cannot and will not occur until the mentality of the leaders in both Russia and the Palestinian territories changes.


Israel Advocacy Movement: Palestinians hijack Ukraine Pro-Palestinian activists are hijacking Ukrainian suffering and trying to make it about 'Palestine'



To help Ukraine, these Jewish bakers are making Hamantaschen
With Purim just a few weeks away, a Berlin baker has turned to her kitchen to whip up hamantaschen to support Ukrainian refugees fleeing the ongoing Russian invasion.

Laurel Kratochvila, the Jewish-American owner of Fine Bagels, a New York-style bagel shop on Berlin’s East Side, got the idea when she was stuck at home quarantining with COVID and spent an entire day watching the news.

“My husband was raised in Czechoslovakia in the post-’68 Russian occupation and we were both heartbroken –– him even more so,” Kratochvila said.

That led to a discussion between the two about how they could contribute to the Ukrainian cause. Purim was around the corner, when they would normally be making poppy seed and chocolate hamantaschen anyway, so they decided to launch “Hamantashen For Ukraine” and to donate their proceeds to Polish Humanitarian Action, an organization that is distributing food, hot drinks, diapers, hygiene products and blankets, as well as providing information and transportation for newly arrived refugees from Ukraine.

So far, over 30 home bakers and bakeries from Warsaw to Portland have signed up. A full list of participants can be found under “where to find hamantashen!” on their site.
16 Jews from Ukraine Who Changed the World
Ukraine has had a significant and vibrant Jewish community going all the way back to the Middle Ages, but the history of Ukrainian Jewry has been difficult, and often marked by periods of intense antisemitism. In addition, it was not always easy to live in a region that was frequently unstable.

Borders shifted following the collapse of the Russian Empire — and later, the Soviet Union — and near-constant persecution and surveillance led many Jews to emigrate elsewhere. But an astonishing number of Ukrainian Jews, whether they spent their entire lives in the country or traveled elsewhere, have made remarkable contributions to the world in art, culture, science, politics, sports and more. Ukraine was also the birthplace of important Jewish developments, most notably Hasidism.

Baal Shem Tov
The Baal Shem Tov was the founder of Hasidic Judaism, an Orthodox spiritual revivalist movement that has hundreds of thousands of adherents today. Born Israel ben Eliezer in 1698 in Okopy, Ukraine, Baal Shem Tov literally means “Master of the Good Name” and is often abbreviated as Besht.

Golda Meir
While Golda Meir ascended to international prominence when she was elected prime minister of Israel in 1969, she was born in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, in 1898. Meir was the fourth woman in the world to serve as a head of state. Other Israeli leaders who were born in Ukraine include Israel’s second prime minister Moshe Sharett, as well as his successor, Levi Eshkol.

Sholem Aleichem
Born Sholem Rabinovitz in 1859 in Pereyaslav, Ukraine, Sholem Aleichem is considered one of the most beloved Yiddish writers of all time. His short stories about Tevye the Dairyman inspired the hit musical and film Fiddler on the Roof.

Mila Kunis
Born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine in 1983, Mila Kunis and her family fled the Soviet Union when she was seven years old. Her family was resettled in Los Angeles with the help of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. Kunis ascended to fame by starring in That 70’s Show and has had major roles in dozens of shows and films since then.






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