Wednesday, March 09, 2022

03/09 Links Pt1: ‘Another Jewish Community Ceases to Exist’: Ukrainian Chief Rabbi Condemns Russian Advance, Attacks on Civilians; Russia’s Invasion Is a Wake-Up Call for Israel and the West

From Ian:

‘Another Jewish Community Ceases to Exist’: Ukrainian Chief Rabbi Condemns Russian Advance, Attacks on Civilians
One of Ukraine’s leading rabbis has excoriated the Russian troops invading the country for driving out the historic Jewish communities that were painstakingly revived in recent decades.

Chief Rabbi Yaakov Bleich on Wednesday shared an amateur video that showed a group of elderly Jews sitting on a bus as they waited to be evacuated from Bila Tserkva, 60 miles south of the capital Kyiv.

The city has been hit on multiple occasions by cruise missiles aimed at Kyiv by Russian forces. Russian air strikes against Bila Tserkva on Tuesday ripped through residential areas, leaving several apartment buildings destroyed.

Commenting on the departure of Bila Tserkva’s Jews, Bleich wrote: “Another Jewish community ceases to exist in Ukraine, losing everything they have gained over a lifetime, thanks to the ‘liberators’ from Russia.”

The image of scared, elderly Jews fleeing from a Ukrainian city was reminiscent of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Bleich remarked.

“When you watch this video, the first thought that comes to mind is that this is 1941 and the Jews are fleeing from advancing Wehrmacht units,” he wrote. “But it is not! This is the year 2022. Jewish grandparents from the Ukrainian town of Bila Tserkva are hastily fleeing the rocket and bomb attacks of the Russian army, deliberately shooting at civilians!”

Fourteen days into the Russian invasion, both sides have invoked the horrors of World War II, with Russia encountering severe criticism internationally for depicting Ukrainian leaders — including Volodymyr Zelensky, the country’s Jewish president — as “neo-Nazis.”

On Wednesday, one of Ukraine’s most popular television presenters delivered what he sarcastically called a “master class” in the dismissal of Russian propaganda points.

“Volodomyr Zelensky is Jewish; how is it that our president is a neo-Nazi?” said Anatoliy Anatolych, the presenter of the “Morning Ukraine” program.

Anatolych pointed out that Israel “provides maximum support” to Ukraine, citing the rally held in Tel Aviv at the start of the invasion that witnessed thousands of protesters unfurling Ukrainian flags in the city’s Habimah Square.


Russia’s Invasion Is a Wake-Up Call for Israel and the West
Irrespective of the final outcome of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it should serve as a wake-up call for Israeli and Western policymakers and molders of public opinion.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has exposed the flawed nature of certain assumptions, such as the worldview of a new world (and new Middle East) order, which is supposedly more stable, predictable, tolerant, and trending toward peaceful-coexistence; the ostensible end to the era of major wars and massive ground force invasions; and the self-destructive notion that a military posture of deterrence can be effectively-replaced by peace accords, security guarantees, and generous financial and diplomatic packages.

The war also highlights the tenuous, unreliable, unpredictable, and non-committal nature of security guarantees, and the delusion that peace and security agreements are more important than military capabilities and a geography/topography-driven posture of deterrence.

The war highlights that a gradual reduction of defense budgets is interpreted by most of the globe as an erosion of deterrence in a stormy world. It also exposes the presumed superiority of the diplomatic option as a more effective negotiation tool than the military option in settling conflicts with rogue regimes, which have systematically revealed themselves as bad-faith negotiators (e.g., Iran’s ayatollahs since assuming power in 1979).

It additionally exposes the speculative assessments of the future track records of rogue regimes over their realistic historical track records, and the illusion that rogue conduct (e.g., subversion, terrorism, and wars) is despair-driven, rather than ideology-driven.
UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer calls out Russian Foreign Minister’s lies in U.N. debate
When Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told lies at the United Nations to cover up Putin’s horrific aggression in Ukraine, UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer took the floor to call out his disinformation, and to demand that Putin’s regime be expelled from the U.N. Human Rights Council.


The cowardice of the far Left
They may be a pottage of vanity, self-deception, and rage, but they have been clear on Ukraine, even before the hammer and the sickle appeared at a rally in London this week. “In [the] game of great power politics, if we have to pick a side over Crimea let it be Russia,” they said in 2014, when Jeremy Corbyn was their chair. “Some of us have never supported Putin,” he says now, a coward among cowards.

The willingness to understand Putin was obvious, again in 2014, when Corbyn’s spin doctor Seumas Milne, a rich Communist sympathiser, appeared with Putin at PR junket alongside leaders of the European far Right. A surprising number of far Left leaders are rich as if they, who don’t really need politics, can afford uniquely unserious ones. If you are rich, it doesn’t matter if the Socialist Utopia never comes. Dreaming, to steal their language, is a privilege.

For George Galloway, an original sponsor of Stop the War, closeness to tyranny seems to be a soothing and instinctive need. His address to Saddam Hussein in 1994 is infamous: “I still meet families who are calling their newborn sons Saddam. Sir, I salute your courage, your strength and your indefatigability and I want you to know that we are with you until victory, until victory in Jerusalem.” Another sponsor was Andrew Murray, a rich Communist sympathiser; yet another is Jeremy Corbyn himself. Plenty of them failed to oppose Bashar al-Assad, even as Muslim activists begged them to. They didn’t support aid convoys to Aleppo — too imperialist — or the White Helmets pulling bodies out of Russian-bombed rubble in Syria. They are only anti-war when the West is the aggressor. There are no just wars when the West fights them is their reasoning, if we are calling it that; but every war against the West is, if not just, then at least understandable.


Senior Ukraine official: Bennett’s mediation is ‘good’ but Putin’s demands ‘absurd’
A senior Ukrainian lawmaker said Wednesday that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s efforts to mediate a ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow to end their ongoing brutal conflict is a positive step but “unrealistic,” as Russia has no real interest in ending the fighting.

Oleksandr Merezhko, Chair of the Committee on Foreign Policy and Interparliamentary Cooperation, told the Ynet website in an English-language interview that what his country needs most from Israel are weapons to fight off the Russian invasion.

Bennett has held multiple conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as he attempts to mediate between the sides, including a lightning visit to Moscow over the weekend to speak directly with the Russian leader. He has had follow-up calls with both men since.

“I think it is a good move,” Merezhko said of Bennett’s diplomacy “We are in favor of such efforts.”

“But,” he added, “at the present time it isn’t realistic. Putin is not serious about holding negotiations. Any negotiations should start with a ceasefire and Putin doesn’t do [that].

“He is using this process of negotiations only to cover regrouping of his forces, to cover his attacks of civilian populations,” Merezhko said of Russia bombardments of Ukrainian cities, which have caused over two million people to flee the country as refugees and killed hundreds of civilians.

Merezhko, who said he has been involved in the negotiations, charged that it is up to the Russians to agree to at least a ceasefire as a first move.
Putin is using Bennett as a mediator for surrender, not peace - opinion
If Putin is using Bennett as a passive messenger to convey these terms of surrender to Zelensky, the European leaders, and the Biden administration, this would be far removed from the actions of an active mediator and peace broker. A mediated agreement, beginning with a ceasefire, consists of mutual concessions – both sides give up something significant for the sake of peace and an end to destruction. The core job of the mediator in such circumstances is to help facilitate the terms for this transition and then an agreement, including providing a communications channel when the two parties are not speaking to each other.

In many other cases, the mediator is more actively involved, proposing creative options to overcome stalemates and providing security or other guarantees. To end the 1973 Yom Kippur war, the US (Kissinger’s shuttle diplomacy) brokered a ceasefire, which included an American monitoring force, and was a form of pre-negotiation. A few years later, during the historic negotiations between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin that led to the 1979 treaty with Egypt, when a third-party was needed, the US government facilitated the Camp David talks, as well as side payments in the form of substantial economic and military aid to both sides. The Americans also helped overcome a major obstacle by guaranteeing Israel’s access to oil in exchange for withdrawal from the petroleum fields in the Sinai.

In the case of Russia and Ukraine, Israel has little to offer beyond the communications channel. Jerusalem has no real power or leverage and is not in a position to act as an economic or security guarantor for either side. Though it is possible that Putin, like other leaders far removed from the realities of US-Israel relations, subscribes to the myth of exaggerated Israeli and Jewish influence in Washington.

Another condition usually required for successful mediation during a conflict is known as ripeness, referring to the condition in which both sides have suffered enough, and any further gains through additional fighting appear to be lower than the likely costs (a mutual hurting stalemate). The relationship between the warring parties shifts from zero-sum (one side’s gain is the other’s loss) to win-win (both benefit). In the War of Independence and the Yom Kippur War, mediators were able to broker armistice agreements when this stage was reached. In contrast, in the absence of ripeness, when at least one side seeks to use the facade of negotiations to prepare for more attacks, the would-be mediator is also blamed, as in the case of Yasser Arafat and Norway during the infamous Oslo Accords.

In the Russian invasion, there is no clear evidence of ripeness or a transition away from a zero-sum conflict, as the conquest and destruction in Ukrainian cities continues. While there are many claims and videos of successful Ukrainian counter-attacks, it is difficult to separate the disinformation from reality. It is possible that the Ukrainian resistance and level of Russian casualties is more than Putin had planned on, and the same for the Western economic sanctions, but this is entirely speculative.

For these reasons, a darker scenario cannot be excluded, in which Putin is using Israel and Bennett more as a messenger to communicate and press his terms for total surrender, rather than as a third-party mediator, facilitator and peace broker. While optimism is important, particularly amidst terrible destruction, it needs to be tempered by cold realism.


Jpost Editorial: The Russian-Ukraine war may be a gas opportunity for Israel - editorial
Israel is poised to be a big help in alleviating the energy shortage that much of Europe could be facing.

In December, Bennett held talks with his Greek and Cypriot counterparts. Among the topics discussed were the EastMed gas pipeline and the Euro-Asia Interconnector, the world’s longest and deepest undersea power cable, which will help prepare the region for a clean-energy transition.

At a joint press conference, Bennett said the trilateral alliance was “good for our people, good for our countries and good for the region.”

With the current war, the pipeline could also be vital for Europe. But while it presents Israel an opportunity to revitalize the EastMed gas pipeline plan, which would benefit the state, caution is advised in proceeding.

Israel can’t be seen as taking advantage of, or exploiting for financial gain, the hardships facing Europe as a result of the continent’s energy crisis. It won’t take much – or anything – for Israel’s detractors to warp a prospective pipeline into a ploy by the Jewish state to gain an influential foothold on the European continent.

The EastMed pipeline could provide solutions to one of the biggest problems facing Europe that has emerged as a result of the brutal Russian aggression against the Ukrainian people. It is incumbent on Israel to explore ways to push forward the plan with or without the participation or approval of the US. But it needs to be done smartly, quietly and with nuance.

Israel may benefit by the pipeline, but the focus – for now at least – needs to be on the millions of people it will help.
Dore Gold: Europe’s Rising Need for Israeli Gas Production
The crisis over Ukraine in 2022 has illustrated just how important the diversification of the sources of European gas had 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 already in January 2022, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, based on his view that “we must reduce our dependency on Russian energy.”1

In late 2021, roughly 40 percent of the EU’s natural gas imports came from Russia. In early March, President Joe Biden announced a ban on Russian oil and gas imports into the United States. The EU announced, in response, that it planned to reduce its imports of Russian natural gas by two-thirds by the end of 2022.2

While Washington sought alternative sources of energy products from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, they declined to help at this stage, given the Biden administration’s policy on the Yemen War. Currently, other suppliers to Europe by pipeline include Norway (22%), Algeria (18%) and Azerbaijan (9%), but they cannot provide a substitute for Russian gas.3, 4

Coming up with a solution to the Russian gas question for Europe also has an Israeli angle.5 Russia ranks first in the world in the size of its natural gas reserves with 35 trillion cubic meters. It is followed by Iran and Qatar. The Eastern Mediterranean, as a whole, including Israel, has immense gas reserves that have been estimated to reach 10.8 trillion cubic meters of gas, or roughly 5 percent of the world’s gas reserves. This amount of gas has been estimated to be roughly equivalent to 76 years of gas consumption by the EU.
Israel to Host 25,000 Non-Jewish Ukrainians ‘Until Danger Subsides’
Israel will host 25,000 non-Jewish Ukrainians as the Russian invasion of their country continues, while simultaneously preparing for a “major wave” of Jewish immigration, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked announced Tuesday.

In the first leg of the plan, some 20,000 Ukrainian citizens who entered Israel prior to the fighting — mostly without legal status — will receive temporary protection from repatriation. The remaining 5,000 spots are reserved for Ukrainians “who arrived or will arrive after the outbreak of hostilities.”

The incoming Ukrainians will receive a three-month visa, as is normal for foreigners visiting Israel. If the war is still underway when their visas expire, all those in the country will be granted permission to work.

Shaked said the government also expects about 100,000 Ukrainians to arrive in Israel under the Law of Return, which facilitates Jewish immigration. “For comparison, in relation to the population, this is equivalent to granting citizenship to 3.5 million people in the United States, or more than 700,00 new citizens in the United Kingdom,” she said.

There has been an ongoing debate within the Israeli government about how many Ukrainians refugees can be hosted in the country while it also absorbs Ukrainian immigrants under the Law of Return.
11 Ukrainian Children With Complex Medical Issues Arrive in Israel for Treatment
Eleven Ukrainian children with complex medical issues arrived in Israel late Tuesday night as part of a rescue mission arranged by Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel, the hospital announced in a statement.

Schneider staff flew to Kyiv to meet the children and transport them to Israel. The children were transferred from Ben-Gurion International Airport to the hospital’s emergency department, where they are being evaluated and assigned to the appropriate units according to their medical conditions.

Members of the Schneider medical team are also joining the Sheba Medical Center-led field hospital, which is expected to leave for Ukraine on Sunday.

“We at Schneider believe and know that children, wherever they are, are our future in Israel and around the world,” said the hospital’s deputy director, Dr. Efrat Baron-Harlev, on Saturday night. “The Schneider team volunteered to help with all their might, in order to take care of all of the physical and emotional needs of the children of Ukraine. We are proud to be part of this delegation and hope for better days.”

Also late Tuesday, the Jewish Agency for Israel and Israel’s national carrier El Al Airlines brought in two planes of Russian immigrants, all of whom are eligible for citizenship under Israel’s Law of Return, to settle in the country.
Odessa Jews stranded at Moldovan border want return to Ukraine
When you stand under the border post between Ukraine and Moldova, things feel almost normal. There are a dozen cars being processed. There is a border guard drawing on a cheap cigarette. There is even a duty-free shop where you can buy yourself a coffee.

And yet there was nothing normal about the scene on Saturday. Thousands of Ukrainians are waiting patiently in the freezing wind to enter the checkpoint, fleeing Russia’s attack on their homeland. Every so often, a border guard waves a few more in, and a trickle of children, women and old men pick up their suitcases and anxiously hurry towards a booth where they will be stamped into Moldova.

Sofia, 48, has just crossed. Around her, six buses of people from nearby Odessa — Jews and non-Jews — are standing beside a tent where Moldovan volunteers are handing out coffee and tea.

“I have to take my elderly aunt out of Ukraine,” Sofia explained, almost apologetically. “It will take at most two weeks, but then I am going back to Odessa.”

The evacuation has been organized by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, or JDC, whose volunteers are making sure that nobody misses the buses that they have organized to take everyone directly to Bucharest, Romania’s capital.

The JDC, which says it supports some 40,000 Jews across Ukraine, has snapped into action since the war began and is working with partners including the Jewish Agency — a nonprofit that aids Jews and helps them immigrate to Israel — to provide support to Jews withstanding or fleeing Russia’s assault.


Israeli Journalist Meets Ukrainian Soldier in Kyiv Who Is an Ardent ‘Zionist,’ Fan of Golda Meir
An Israeli journalist reporting from the besieged Ukrainian capital of Kyiv ran headlong into an apparently ardent, non-Jewish Zionist and fan of former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir.

Veteran reporter Ron Ben-Yishai wrote on Israel’s Ynet news outlet Tuesday that he was on the northern outskirts of Kyiv, which is the primary target of a massive Russian assault force that has thus far been held off by the Ukrainian military.

One Ukrainian lieutenant was shocked to learn Ben-Yishai was Israeli.

Lt. Alex Gorgen told the reporter, “My name is Alex, but my nickname is ‘Zion.’ Zion, like the holy mountain in Jerusalem. I am a Zionist.”

He then showed Ben-Yishai a copy of a biography of Golda Meir that he will take into combat.

“This is the pack I’m going to go into battle with,” he said. “There’s night vision equipment here, a bottle of water — and my favorite book, ‘Golda.’ I will take it even if it is the last battle.”

“I am not a Jew,” Gorgen explained. “I am a Ukrainian, I am a Ukrainian patriot, I am a Ukrainian nationalist, and I am a Zionist because I think that Ukraine is the second homeland.”


UN Watch: UNOPS warns staff not to share even UN posts on Ukraine that use ’stronger’ language
The UN’s global agency for operations has warned staff from sharing even official UN posts on Ukraine which adopt strong language. See below the March 7th email from UNOPS communications chief Peter Browne, as reported exclusively by the Geneva-based monitoring group UN Watch. UNOPS, based in Copenhagen, implements more than $2 billion a year worth of peace and security, humanitarian and development projects for its partners every year, operating in more than 80 countries. The deference to Russian political sensitivities in the email below is similar to the email exposed by the Irish Times from the UN Department of Global Communications.
From: Peter BROWNE
To: UNOPS
Subject: Guidance on communications about the situation in Ukraine
Date: 7 March 2022
Dear colleagues
The ongoing crisis in Ukraine is deeply upsetting and a matter of grave concern.
Although the current situation has affected our ability to deliver, we remain determined to find ways to continue helping the people of Ukraine.
While it is understandable that many of us feel compelled to share views about the events that are unfolding, including in personal fora such as social media, personnel are reminded of their rights and duties which require us to act independently and impartially.

General points:
• UNOPS does not have a political or advocacy mandate within the UN system. We are a project implementer and service provider, supporting our partners.
• In relation to political crises, conflicts and/or other sensitive, rapidly evolving humanitarian situations: our approach should always be guided by the principle of supporting broader UN system messaging.
• In these situations, UNOPS neutrality is critical. UNOPS does not provide any commentary that could be perceived as jeopardizing our neutrality, which may be considered as going outside of our mandated areas and role within the UN system.
Accordingly, personnel are asked to frame any communications on Ukraine in alignment with the UNOPS approach.


US ban on Russian oil a 'rounding error' to Putin | NewsNation
Richard Goldberg, former White House National Security Council Member, explains what he would do to target Vladimir Putin without hurting the American economy.




Hijacking Solidarity: anti-Israel activists exploit Ukraine’s suffering
Palestinians are not victims of genocide akin to Native Americans. In fact, their population has multiplied since the establishment of Israel. Nor are they victims of an institutionalized regime of racial segregation, à la South Africa or Jim Crow America, since all differences in terms of rights granted by the Israeli government stem from differences in citizenship, not ethnicity or race. Indeed, Arab Israelis enjoy equal rights as Jewish Israelis and serve at the highest levels of the country’s parliament, government, judiciary, and military.

We may never truly understand the source of their pathological need to employ such dishonest tactics. Perhaps these activists have been so profoundly corrupted by their visceral disdain for the Jewish state that they have truly lost their moral compass.

Or maybe they know deep down that the Palestinian movement does not warrant the degree of international attention it receives, and so the only way to keep it in the headlines is to piggyback off others. After all, as Seth Frantzman of the Jerusalem Post pointed out, “the eviction of one or two families in Sheikh Jarrah compared with 300,000 Ukrainians driven from their homes in five days of fighting” do not deserve equal levels of media attention, especially considering the endless sympathetic coverage Palestinians have enjoyed for over 70 years.

Whatever the case may be, the sole aim of hijacking solidarity is to unfairly tarnish Israel’s image and delegitimize it. And while that goal is despicable enough on its own, it descends to new levels of low by damaging the reputation of the very communities whose solidarity is being exploited.

Ukraine may not yet be a shining beacon of democracy. But unlike so-called Palestinians engaging in “resistance” (often used as a transparent euphemism for terror), Ukrainians have not fired indiscriminate rockets, blown up jampacked buses, or launched scores of suicide attacks against innocent civilians. Put simply, Ukrainians using guerilla warfare techniques to stave off a rogue communist dictator invading their sovereign territory is completely different from Palestinian terrorists hurling Molotov cocktails at Israeli civilians, despite what Israel-haters want the world to believe.

When Palestinians liken Ukrainian defiance to their own violent actions – including all those named above – they inadvertently paint them as terrorists too.

Obviously, the Ukrainian fighters are not terrorists, but heroes. And the heroism they display as they take up arms against the Russian thugocracy deserves the world’s attention and support. Instead, Palestinians have appropriated the solidarity as their own. We must expose this ploy and ensure that the Ukrainian struggle is not tainted by cynical political trickery.
ALERT: News Outlet Blasts ‘Hypocrisy’ of Sanctioning Russia But Not Israel
Anti-Israel activists are exploiting the Russian invasion of Ukraine in an effort to make a (dubious) political point about their (even more dubious) cause. Supporters of the controversial Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement appear to view the ongoing world crisis as little more than an opportunity to attack the Jewish state, and they've found at least one mainstream news outlet willing to provide a platform for their outlandish grievances.

A real article published by THE POLITICO on Monday alleges that Republican lawmakers are "completely hypocritical" for supporting sanctions against Vladimir Putin's regime but opposing economic warfare against Israel. The headline reads: "‘Hypocrisy': Lawmakers fighting Israel boycott now all-in for Russia sanctions." The report earnestly touts the concerns of BDS advocates who feel "iced out of public debate" and are annoyed that sanctioning Russia for its unprovoked attack on Ukraine is far more popular than sanctioning Israel for existing as an "apartheid state."

In fact, the BDS movement is about as unpopular as Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The article accurately describes the "anti-BDS sentiment" among American lawmakers as "widespread." In 2019, for example, the House of Representatives voted 398-17 in support of a resolution condemning BDS. A poll released that same year found that a majority of Americans considered the BDS movement to be rooted in anti-Semitism. The most prominent BDS advocates in Congress, Reps. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.), have repeatedly been criticized for making anti-Semitic remarks and for associating with terrorists.

Perhaps that's why the article cites only two BDS advocates to support its ludicrous premise that Israel and Russia are equally deserving of international condemnation and retribution in the form of economic sanctions. "Let's be perfectly clear: Russia should be held accountable," said Yousef Munayyer, a senior fellow at the Arab Center in Washington, D.C. "Members of Congress have shown their hypocrisy on this issue by supporting anti-BDS legislation when it comes to demanding accountability for Israel's human rights violations, but now they are all for these kinds of efforts."

Munayyer is best known for getting into a shouting match with Fox News host Sean Hannity in 2014 after refusing to describe the terrorist organization Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Ilhan Omar says she'll vote against a bill to ban Russian oil, citing the 'devastating impact' on the Russian people
Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota says she will vote against a forthcoming bill that would ban the importation of Russian oil and levy further sanctions against Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine.

"That's not only going to have a devastating impact on the people of Russia, but on Europe as well," Omar said in an interview on "Rising" on The Hill TV. "When we're having these conversations, they can't be about just the immediate, gratifying response that we want to come up with."

President Joe Biden on Tuesday banned US imports of Russian oil, liquefied natural gas, and coal after coming under pressure from Congress to do so, declaring that the US "will not be subsidizing Putin's war." The UK similarly announced on Tuesday that it will phase out Russian oil and gas imports by the end of 2022. The bans will likely raise gas prices, which reached an average of $4.17 per gallon in the US on Tuesday.

The House is working on a broader bill to do the same thing, and the body is expected to vote on that legislation on Tuesday night.


After Outcry, Vogue Removes Gigi Hadid’s Claim That Palestinians ‘Experience the Same’ as Ukrainian War Victims
Vogue magazine edited an Instagram post on Monday that amplified supermodel Gigi Hadid’s comparison of Ukrainians suffering amid Russia’s invasion of their country to “those experiencing the same in Palestine,” after social media users slammed the claim as dishonest and offensive.

Hadid, whose father is Nazareth-born, Jordanian-American real estate developer Mohamed Hadid and sister is fellow supermodel Bella Hadid, announced Monday on Instagram that she will donate earnings from her Fall 2022 runway shows to help those suffering from the war in Ukraine, “as well as continuing to support those experiencing the same in Palestine.”

“HANDS OFF UKRAINE. HANDS OFF PALESTINE. PEACE. PEACE. PEACE,” she added.

Vogue uploaded its own Instagram post about Gigi’s decision, which quoted the model’s controversial comparison between Ukrainians and Palestinians. The magazine removed the comparison hours later, after coming under fire for giving it a greater platform, but it remains in Vogue‘s news article on its website.

“While Gigi is pushing a false political narrative to demonize the world’s only [Jewish] state, Israel is actively negotiating peace between Ukraine and Russia. The appropriation of other people’s pain is truly a new low, come on!” StopAntisemitism.org wrote in response to Vogue‘s post.

Jewish actress Emmanuelle Chriqui also commented on the post, writing, “I can’t believe @voguemagazine is supporting this false and dangerous narrative … well done @voguemagazine [for] fanning the flames of antisemitism.”
While Israel Aids Ukrainian People, Palestinian Authority Mum & Hamas Sides With Russia’s Aggression
Israel's position on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been widely scrutinized. Since February 24, a sample of 18 major US news outlets produced a whopping 175 articles analyzing Jerusalem's approach. Even as Israel has taken the lead in diplomatic efforts to help end the bloodshed -- while providing humanitarian assistance to Kiev and condemning Moscow -- many outlets have seemingly intentionally misrepresented Jerusalem as insufficiently invested.

Meanwhile, not one of these same media have addressed the Palestinian Authority's near-total silence regarding the crisis.

In the words of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken: "The entire world stands with Ukraine" -- but not, apparently, the Palestinians. Will the media take notice?




Israeli mogul Leonid Nevzlin renounces Russian citizenship, says Russia turning fascist
Russian-born Israeli businessman, investor and philanthropist Leonid Nevzlin announced he is renouncing his Russian citizenship in protest over President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Calling the burden of his Russian citizenship a “disgrace” he no longer wishes to bear upon him, the Israeli entrepreneur said on Wednesday that he “simply cannot afford to be a citizen of a nation that kills another nation’s children. I am against war, I am against the occupation, and I am against the annihilation of the Ukrainian people.”

Nevzlin said that if he was to get another citizenship in addition to his Israeli one, he would be honored to receive Ukrainian citizenship, but that he also might wish to regain his Russian citizenship one day as his Russian “roots, culture and language” will remain with him.

He characterized Russia now as being “too fascist,” and said everything touched by Putin “is dying.”

The businessman was a partner at Russian oil and gas company Yukon and immigrated to Israel following the arrest of owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky and subsequent bankruptcy.


MEMRI: Arab Writers On Lessons Of War In Ukraine: U.S. Cannot Be Relied Upon; We Must Unite Into One Independent Political, Economic, Military Force
In light of the war between Russia and Ukraine, articles in the Arab press called on the Arab states to draw lessons from the war and its repercussions. Some of the writers argued that the Arab and Islamic countries must act to improve their global standing, so as to keep themselves from facing the fate of Ukraine and ensure their strength and their deterrence capabilities. For example, one columnist wrote that, had Ukraine been part of the EU, Russia would not have dared to attack it, and therefore advised to form a united bloc of Arab countries, similar to the EU. Another wrote that, in the multipolar world order that is currently taking shape, there is room for an "Islamic giant," i.e., a powerful Islamic-Arab axis.

Others wrote that the main lesson to be drawn from the war is that the West, and especially the U.S., cannot be relied upon to help the Arabs confront the Iranian threat, just as they could not be relied upon to come to the aid of Ukraine. Instead, the Arabs must take care of themselves and act to build up their armies, and even form a joint Arab military force.[1]

Many of the writers addressed an issue that is currently of grave concern to the Arab world, namely a possible shortage of wheat and other cereals due to the war, given that many Arab countries rely heavily on the import of wheat and cereals from Russia and Ukraine. The writers argued that this dependence is a threat to the Arabs' food security, and called on them to unify their agrarian policy, prioritize important crops like wheat and seek agrarian self-sufficiency.

Arabs Must Act To Improve Their Global Political Standing

Bahraini Former Minister: Forming A Union, Like The EU, Will Strengthen Arab Countries And Increase their Deterrence Capabilities
In his March 3, 2022 column in the London-based Qatari daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, 'Ali Muhammad Fakhro, Bahrain's former minister of education and culture, wrote that the lesson to be drawn from the Russia-Ukraine war is that the Arab countries should form a union, which would deter external enemies from attacking them, just as Putin is deterred from attacking the European Union. He wrote: "The events in Europe have one aspect that the Arabs can learn from… The lesson is encapsulated in the following question: Would Russia have treated Ukraine this way if Ukraine had been a member of the European Union? Of course not. The Russian leadership would have calculated its moves very carefully [before attacking] a large, strong and significant union of dozens of countries that form a political, economic and security bloc.

"The painful and saddening fact is that, when pan-Arabists utter slogans of unity… some writers and intellectuals attack, vilify and slander them, saying that the call for [Arab] unity is part of an obsolete ideology and foolish dreams. Will those who oppose the unity of this [Arab] nation… learn a lesson from the bitter Ukrainian experience? Will they realize that the large superpowers in this world, such as China, America, Europe, Russia and India, draw their strength from the unity among their parts and components…?

"Oh Young Arab men and women, fight for the unity of your nation and carefully learn the lesson of the past and present. For without uniting your nation, none of your demands will come to be."[2]


Lebanese Researcher: The Ukraine-Russia War Is a Conflict between Ukrainian Jews and Russian Jews
Lebanese researcher ‘Imad Rizq said in a March 1, 2022 show on Al-Manar TV (Hizbullah – Lebanon) that the Ukraine-Russia war is part of a conflict between Ukrainian Jews and Russian Jews. He described Odessa as a "stronghold" of Ukrainian Jews, and claimed that Ukraine's president and prime minister both hold Israeli citizenship. Claiming that Israel benefits from the war, Rizq said that there is a plan to transfer 200,000 poor Jewish farmers from Lviv to Israel. The host interjected that since there is a "demographic problem” in Israel, it will benefit from the immigration. For more about ‘Imad Rizq, see MEMRI TV Clips No. 9175 and No. 4298.

The MEMRI Lantos Project exposes anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in the Middle East region and Middle Eastern communities in the West with the aim of supporting legislation and educating media and the general public.

Lebanese TV Show Claims Jewish, Israeli Control of Media: This Enemy Infiltrates into Our Culture In a February 18, 2022 show on Mayadeen TV (Lebanon), show host Yahya Abu Zakariya said that Jews own half of the world's media, including influential Arab TV channels, and that Western platforms bankroll films that call for “Arab-Israeli love,” for outlawing "the resistance," and that support homosexuality and pedophilia. Sheikh Muhammad Khidr, the head of the Islamic Forum for Da’wa and Dialogue, claimed that the Israeli Radio and Television Law talks about broadcasting Arabic programs outside Israel "in order to achieve the goals of Zionism and defend the Israeli policy of settlement, Judaization, and all the violent acts of war carried out by Israel.” He said: “This enemy infiltrates into our culture, our societies, and our moral system.”

The MEMRI Lantos Project exposes anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in the Middle East region and Middle Eastern communities in the West with the aim of supporting legislation and educating media and the general public.


The New York Times Is No Friend to Victims of Iranian Terror
As the father of a victim of Iranian-sponsored terrorism, it’s hard to understand what drives the New York Times to take inconsistent positions on the same issue. After reading Ira Stoll’s recent column in The Algemeiner — New York Times Refuses Ad Opposing Iran Nuclear Deal, Demanding Changes: ‘We Can’t Accept Paragraph Two — one has to wonder who’s making these decisions.

Stoll reported that “The New York Times is refusing to publish a full-page advertisement advocating against a new Iran nuclear deal unless the advertiser changes it to remove references to Iran murdering Americans.” The ad as submitted by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach was rejected because, as he was told: “You are accusing a country … you can’t say it directly.”

In the version of the ad that eventually received a green light from the Times, Boteach’s initial assertion — that “the Iranian regime and the terrorists of the IRGC have caused rivers of American blood to flow, all while promising that Israel would be exterminated” — was nowhere to be found.

It’s puzzling — precisely because the Times itself has reported on Iran’s involvement as a state-sponsor of terrorism for more than 20 years.

After the April 1995 murder of my daughter Alisa while she was a student in Israel, I sued the Islamic Republic of Iran using the provision of a new United States law, for providing financing to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group that carried out the attack. Judge Royce Lamberth of the US District Court in Washington, DC, agreed with me, awarding our family nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in damages.

Over three stories between 1997 and 1999, the Times covered our initiation of the lawsuit, the judgement we won, and a review of what drove me to compel Iran to answer for its crime.


Iranian International Affairs Expert: Russians Have a Hit List of 14,000 Ukrainian Nazi Terrorists
Iranian international affairs expert Farshid Bagherian said in an interview that aired on Channel 1 (Iran) on March 3, 2022 that Russia has a hit list of 14,000 Nazis, but getting rid of them has been “not such an easy task.” He explained that those 14,000 people are “what is left” of Stepan Bandera’s 1941 nationalist movement, and therefore they are actual Nazis and not merely neo-Nazis. He said that although it seems like a fake report, reports of an attempted assassination of Ukrainian President Zelensky could be true.






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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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