Wednesday, March 16, 2022

From Ian:

Eli Lake: The World Has Changed and We Must Change Along With It
Zelensky’s bravery in the face of overwhelming odds has proved a reminder that great peril can produce great leaders. America is in desperate need of such leadership today. Our country has been mired in self-doubt. We have forgotten who we are. The nationalist right and the socialist left don’t agree on much, but they both regard America’s recent wars as moral abominations and the country’s economic realities as marks of an irredeemable corruption. Who are we to judge or intervene, when we have tortured prisoners and droned wedding parties? Who are we to promote equality when we have income inequality?

It’s time for both parties to soundly reject this myopic politics. American global leadership is the only way that weaker democracies can survive. It is the only chance for long-term peace. And for all the ugly chapters in American history, our enemies have done and are doing and will do worse. We remain a beacon of hope for all people who struggle for freedom, whether we know it or not.

Rejecting the recent myopia and division requires some faith in the American people as well. The campaign against “disinformation”—much of it based in the idea that stupid Americans were wildly susceptible to Russian manipulation—has resulted in pointless censorship. We should not make that mistake again. Consider that all of Russia’s propaganda and bribery in Europe, aimed at weakening the continent’s resolve during a war like this, has failed miserably. Putin’s menace and Zelensky’s heroism galvanized Europeans and their leaders to impose unprecedented sanctions on Russia and reinvestment in their militaries in record time. There is no need to ban Russian state propaganda from the Internet. Moscow’s lies are self-discrediting.

This moment should also stir the Republican Party to take a hard look at its future. Donald Trump is too enamored with strong men to carry on America’s tradition of fighting tyranny. He views their amorality as a new kind of realism. Republicans have every reason to look higher.

And so, too, does Joe Biden. He is the leader of the free world—but he seems be more concerned about his position as the leader of a domestic political party whose elites have spent the past two years embracing the idea that America was born in evil and is awash in racist sin even now. He has greeted the challenge from Putin with resolve, but he has also defaulted to a strangely passive notion that Putin will fail in his goals because “freedom” will somehow triumph over “tyranny.” That’s not how it works. Tyranny must be resisted and boxed in as a precondition for freedom’s eventual victory. It will not happen on its own. It never does, and it never will.

If Biden cannot find a way to greet this moment by saying unambiguously that we are the good guys, that our cause is just, and that we are engaged in a titanic struggle with evil regimes that believe that the only way they can rise is if we fall, history will dub him a dominated weakling.

We must prepare for the long struggle ahead. The world has changed. We must change along with it.
Putin’s American Apologists
On the left, the Democratic Socialists of America—once a fringe group but that now boasts in its ranks four members of the U.S. House of Representatives (Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush, and Jamaal Bowman) as well as dozens of state legislators and many local officials—issued a statement on January 31 in response to Russia’s massing its army on Ukraine’s borders. It began:

Following months of increased tensions and a sensationalist Western media blitz drumming up conflict in the Donbas, the US government is responding to the situation in Ukraine through the familiar guise of threats of sweeping sanctions, provision of military aid, and increased military deployment to the region. [DSA] opposes this ongoing US brinkmanship, which only further escalates the crisis, and reaffirms our previous statement saying no to NATO and its imperialist expansionism and disastrous interventions across the world.

Nowhere did the document attempt to explain what had caused the sudden “increased tensions,” or so much as mention the Russian forces. It called instead on the U.S. “to reverse its ongoing militarization of the region.”

When the Russians attacked, DSA issued a new statement, which did indeed condemn the invasion while opposing any “coercive measures… economic or military” to counter it. In contrast to the UN General Assembly, which voted almost unanimously to “demand” the immediate withdrawal of Russian forces, DSA merely “urge[d]” this. It went on to “reaffirm our call for the USA to withdraw from NATO, and to end the imperialist expansionism that set the stage for this conflict,” and it declared “solidarity with…antiwar protestors in both countries [Russia and Ukraine],” although it did not explain where the latter had been sighted.

Others on the left were less flagrant but also assigned more blame to Washington than Moscow. Noam Chomsky, in a lengthy interview in the online journal Truthout, explained:
The crisis has been brewing for 25 years as the US contemptuously rejected Russian security concerns, in particular their clear red lines: Georgia and especially Ukraine. There is good reason to believe that this tragedy could have been avoided.

Now, he said, focus must turn to the future. He warned, “repeatedly, [America’s] reaction has been to reach for the six-gun rather than the olive branch.” But the superior wisdom of a gentler approach, he explained, had been taught to him personally during his wartime travels to North Vietnam by representatives of the Viet Cong, a group whose penchant for gentleness was lost on less acute observers than Chomsky. Moreover, he added, “like it or not, the choices are now reduced to an ugly outcome that rewards rather than punishes Putin for the act of aggression—or the strong possibility of terminal war.” In short, our only sure path to avoid nuclear Armageddon is one that “rewards” Putin.
Lee Smith: Biden Blames the Jews for His Ukraine Policy
Even with Moscow supporting Assad’s war on their border, the Israelis stood publicly with Ukraine. Shortly after Putin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, Israel voted at the U.N. in defense of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Soon, Russian forces would move toward Israel’s border with its 2015 escalation in Syria, a move celebrated at the time by U.S. officials but in no way welcomed by the Israelis.

In public, Obama’s aides claimed Russia would help rid the world of ISIS and other terror groups, but that’s not why Putin dispatched his forces at the request of Iranian terror commander Qassem Soleimani. The Russians were there to support Iran. And that’s what Obama wanted, too. What was the point, after all, of legalizing Iran’s industrial-scale nuclear program, if the Iranian regime was going to lose its war in Syria? Iran had to win, which meant Putin had to help. The government of then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu understood that for the first time in half a century, Jerusalem would not have Washington’s support if it wound up in a shooting war with Moscow.

Accordingly, the Israelis worked out a modus vivendi with Putin, a “deconfliction” mechanism by which Israel was permitted in certain circumstances to attack Syrian and Iranian forces, including Hezbollah. But should the Israelis get it into their heads to conduct air strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, they’d have hell to pay on their border. Putin supplied the deterrence that protected the only foreign policy goal that really mattered to Obama. With Putin in Syria, Israel could only go so far.

Yet even then, in December 2016, Israel again took Kyiv’s side at the U.N. in a vote on the human rights situation in Crimea.

How did Vice President Biden show his appreciation for Israel’s principled stance against Putin’s war in Europe? Less than a week later, he strong-armed the Ukrainian president to vote for Security Council Resolution 2334, finding that Israel was in occupation of Palestinian land—which according to the resolution included historical Jewish holy sites. The Ukrainians asked to abstain, but Biden said no. Kyiv then asked for a delay. There was a large and influential Jewish community in Ukraine with family ties to Israel. And after all, what would the optics be of turning against Jerusalem just days after the Israelis had stood with Ukraine? That was not good enough for Biden. So the Ukrainians joined the other powers the Obama team had corralled into voting against Israel.

The Biden administration’s moves against Israel over Ukraine are part of a ghoulish puppet show. Yes, the administration will sanction the Russian economy until it bleeds—at the same time that the nuclear deal with Iran gives Russia a cash-rich client eager to buy Russian arms. And why not? From the perspective of the Obama-Biden faction, Russia is hardly the main problem. That distinction is reserved for Israel.


Zelensky invokes 9/11, Pearl Harbor in plea to US Congress for no-fly zone
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky cited Pearl Harbor and the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, on Wednesday as he appealed to US Congress to do more to help Ukraine’s fight against Russia, but he acknowledged the no-fly zone he has sought to “close the sky” over his country may not happen.

Livestreamed into the Capitol complex, Zelensky said the US must sanction Russian lawmakers and block imports, and he showed a packed auditorium of lawmakers an emotional video of the destruction and devastation his country has suffered in the war.

“We need you right now,” Zelensky said, adding, “I call on you to do more.”

In urging a steeper economic hit to the Russians, he said: “Peace is more important than income.”

Lawmakers gave him a standing ovation, before and after his short remarks, which Zelensky began in Ukrainian through an interpreter but then switched to English in a heartfelt appeal to help end the bloodshed.

“I see no sense in life if it cannot stop the deaths,” he told them.

Zelensky’s livestreamed address to the US Capitol was among the most important elements in a very public strategy in which he has invoked Winston Churchill, Hamlet and the power of world opinion in his fight to stop Russia.


World Court orders Russia to cease military operations in Ukraine
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Russia on Wednesday to stop the military actions it started in Ukraine on Feb. 24. President Zelensky demanded Russian must comply.

"The Russian Federation shall immediately suspend the military operations that it commenced on Feb 24, 2022 in the territory of Ukraine," the judges said.

The judges added Russia must also ensure that other forces under its control or supported by Moscow should not continue the military operation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that peace talks were beginning to sound more realistic but that more time is needed as Russian airstrikes killed five people in Kyiv and the refugee tally from Moscow's invasion reached 3 million.

Ukrainian officials have raised hopes the war could end sooner than expected, possibly by May, saying that Moscow may be coming to terms with its failure to impose a new government by force and running out of fresh troops.

"The meetings continue, and, I am informed, the positions during the negotiations already sound more realistic. But time is still needed for the decisions to be in the interests of Ukraine," Zelensky said in a video address ahead of the next round of talks.
Shabbat Among the Exiles
On February 24 , 2022, his wife woke him up to tell him the war had started. Gas stations in Kyiv were filled with cars, grocery stores were emptied of everything but coke and chocolate. “And then I started to understand that I am back to Donetsk time. We are again at war with Russia, with Putin.” Sasha laments that his father and grandmother wouldn’t leave Kyiv. “We have a kid,” he says, “so we need to run. For his future.” The family’s last stop before the Moldovan border was the grave of Rav Nachman of Breslov in Uman, the site of an enormous annual religious pilgrimage. Sasha credits his prayers in Uman for his family’s safe passage south. “God and Rabbi Nachman—they helped us.” Now the family waits for passports.

Once the travel documents come through, they’ll go to Israel, where Sasha sees parallels between the Jewish state and the “steel eggs” of the most famous living Jew, Volodymyr Zelensky. “For me, Zelensky was Jewish man who started to be Ukrainian president.” The Jews’ centuries of persecution, he says, prepared them for wars of all sorts. “We are lions,” Sasha tells me. “We are going only forward,” Sasha says. But he’s nervous about being an immigrant. “I’ll be a goy again,” he wryly remarks—just as he was in Kyiv after fleeing Donetsk, unwanted by people with whom he strongly identifies.

As Putin grows more desperate, Ukraine will become less livable, and more and more refugees will pour over the border. So we are preparing for their arrival, despite the local salt shortage and kashrut problems with Moldovan milk. It would help if the Israeli government got its bureaucratic act together, quadrupling the number of consular officers in Kishinev, and lowering standards for entry into Israel during wartime.

I’m not one for American-style contempt for the purely theoretical. When I’m not in Kishinev, I’m getting an M.A. in philosophy and studying in yeshiva. I’ve wanted to be an academic for some time. Whenever a friend or family member questions how I spend my days, I smile and think about Aristotle’s defense of the contemplative life—to say nothing of the Jewish tradition’s veneration of learning for the sake of learning..

Philosophy will remain the center of my intellectual life; Torah study the center of my religious life. But today I bought a kid who just lost his home green Skechers and he beamed at me and thanked me in broken English. I once claimed to my brother to have solved the theological problem of evil. Well, he said, now there’s just actual evil left. Reasonable people can dispute my philosophical arguments. But it’s a certainty that the world is way better off with one more boy who’s Israel-bound in a new pair of sneakers.
A Ukrainian Refugee’s Journey
How did I wind up celebrating my birthday eating a lukewarm shawarma in the back of a Red Cross ambulance on the Ukrainian-Romanian border? In retrospect, I can hardly believe the story myself.

Several weeks of indiscriminate bombing of Russian-speaking Ukrainian cities by the Russian air force has precipitated another massive refugee crisis in Europe. Ukraine is one of the largest European countries, and with its airspace having been closed off, about 3 million of its sons and daughters have fled the fighting by car or by foot, according to a conservative U.N. estimate (which does not count the millions who have relocated within the country). Most of them are women and children—military-aged men are not allowed out of the country after the Ukrainian parliament enforced emergency powers—and have left for Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, and Moldova. Many of these refugees are now also waiting to continue onward to Germany, Spain, or France, as I learned over the weekend when my Air France flight from Bucharest to Paris was almost totally filled with anxious Ukrainians.

Last week, in a concerted campaign matched in its determination only by that of the Ukrainian resistance, my Franco-Ukrainian wife, Regina Maryanovska-Davidzon, successfully convinced a part of her Ukrainian family that it was finally time to go. She was in Odessa as the Russian army started to build up forces to take the picturesque port town. My crusty old sailor of a father-in-law, who was born in the city in the spring of 1945 after the Red Army liberated it but before the war concluded, refused to leave. His own parents had not fled the city during the Romanian occupation of 1941-42, and his grandparents had stayed when the city changed hands almost a dozen times during World War I and the Russian Revolution. Why should he leave now? My wife also has a pair of cherubic blond nieces whom she desperately wanted to get out of the country, along with her sister-in-law and their grandmother. Their father, my relative by marriage, is an IT specialist with a talent for hacking. He stayed behind to pitch in with the Ukrainian cyber front against Russian government websites.

When the war began, I was in Kyiv, living in a safe house owned by a wealthy friend, which I had intended to use as my base when the bombing began. I was supplied with electricity, food, water, and weapons. Having seen my share of conflicts, I felt I could take the bombings, but I wanted to avoid being encircled by Russian troops, due to the combination of my Russian citizenship and my membership in various organizations deemed “undesirable” by Russian law. My elegant, bon vivant pal Yaroslav Trofimov, The Wall Street Journal‘s chief foreign affairs reporter and a Kyiv native, called me to ask if I would be “staying for the fireworks”? Of course I would, how could he even ask? “Well,” he he told me in his affable and unflappable manner, “you are the only Russian citizen I know in the city who is publicly involved in anti-Kremlin politics. I will be staying, but I certainly wouldn’t if I was you.”
Shivering refugees brave minefields, Russian fire to escape ‘dire’ Mariupol
Mariupol is facing a humanitarian catastrophe according to aid agencies, since heavy bombardment has left some 400,000 inhabitants with no running water or heating and food running short.

More than 2,100 residents have been killed in Mariupol since the Russian invasion, according to city authorities.

“Sometimes bodies are in the street for three days. The smell is in the air and you don’t want your children to smell it,” said Dmytro.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Tuesday the situation in Mariupol “remains dire” and that it was not able to deliver aid to the city.

“The bottom line is that hundreds of thousands of people are still suffering,” the ICRC said.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said that altogether, nearly 29,000 people managed to use humanitarian routes to flee encircled cities on Tuesday.
Pretending the Kindertransport was a part of a 'noble tradition' is ignorant of history
British Jewish leaders and their non-Jewish allies – like the independent MP Eleanor Rathbone – had to adapt to that political reality. They lowered their sights. And so they campaigned not for the admission of all Jews in mortal peril, but for an alternative they hoped would be more palatable to British public opinion: a scheme that would provide temporary refuge for Jewish children.

That is what put the kinder into kindertransport, and that is what led to those heartbreaking scenes that played out at railways stations across Nazi-occupied Europe – with families torn apart as parents were forced to hand over their children to get them to safety. Most would never see each other again.

Naturally, there are important caveats. For one thing, some Jewish adults did make it to Britain. The rules on entry for domestic servants were relaxed, for example, which allowed around 14,000 Jewish women to come to work as maids. And Britain’s hard line on immigration was far from unique. Some 32 countries gathered for a US-convened conference in Evian in July 1938 to discuss the “refugee problem” where there was broad agreement on only one thing: that no one wanted to let in Jews.

For all that, the facts of British policy are pretty stark. As Cesarani writes, Britain "was prepared to allow refuge for children, but not for adults who might enter the labour market." Or to quote the historian Louise London: "Admission saved the children's lives. Exclusion sealed the fate of many of their parents."

It has to be stressed that the 9,000 or so children – and their descendants – saved through the kindertransport would be forever grateful to Britain for saving their lives. But they were a tiny, tiny fraction of the many millions of Jews who would be murdered, including many of those Jewish parents who Britain had turned away.

So yes, the kindertransport saved lives. But evidence of a “noble tradition” of welcoming refugees? Not quite, no matter what stories we like to tell ourselves.
Lahav Harkov: The False Narrative of Israeli Neutrality in Russia’s Ukraine Invasion
So what is Israel doing?

Israel sent over 100 tons of humanitarian aid, mostly for refugees crossing Ukraine’s western borders, at the beginning of the month. That aid included 17 tons of medical equipment and medicines, such as antibiotics, dressings for wounds, and hospital supplies. It also included emergency water-purifying kits, 3,000 tents, 15,000 blankets, 3,000 sleeping bags, and 2,700 down coats.

The cabinet approved funding for a field hospital to be constructed in Ukraine that will include pediatric and maternity wards, as well as a telemedicine center, so that doctors located in Israel can help with the efforts.

Israel is also ready to accept a huge number of refugees. As mentioned, Israel has prepared to absorb up to 100,000 new immigrants from Ukraine and Russia. In addition, Ukrainians who do not qualify to immigrate will be allowed to seek refuge temporarily if they have friends or family in Israel.

Considering Israel’s small size — in both land and population — and its location, far from the warzone, it’s doing a lot to help.

There are always arguments to be made that Israel could be doing more.

In light of its sensitive position, Israel has declined to send any military aid to Ukraine. The calls for Israel to give Ukraine an Iron Dome show a lack of understanding of this war, the missile-defense system, or both. It defends against much cruder rockets and missiles than the ones Russia is using. Plus, Israel doesn’t have enough to cover its own small territory, transporting Iron Dome batteries from one location to another at wartime, so how can it cover a country that is 27 times larger?

Approving more relevant requests from other countries that want to give Israeli weapons, such as Spike anti-tank missiles, to Ukraine would probably cross a dangerous line that could risk a conflagration in Syria.

However, the Israeli government could be sending protective gear to the Ukrainian army, such as helmets and ceramic vests, which the ambassador to Israel has emphasized are needed, and still toe the delicate line with Russia. And Bennett can say more; no one can seriously believe that he doesn’t agree with Lapid’s condemnation of the invasion at this point.

But the pernicious message, echoing through social and traditional media, that Israel is neutral or silent in this war just because it doesn’t sound the same as the U.S. is simply false.


Israel Approves Plan to Rapidly Absorb 100,000 Ukrainian Jews
The Israeli government approved a plan on Tuesday to rapidly absorb the wave of Ukrainians who are fleeing Russia’s invasion and immigrating to the Jewish state.

The approval comes as Israel’s interior minister estimated last week that as many as 100,000 Ukrainians will immigrate, or make aliyah, under the Law of Return, which provides citizenship to Jews and their relatives.

The plan will be overseen by Meir Spiegler, who leads Israel’s national task force on the Ukrainian aliyah, and includes three main elements, Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported.

The first is establishing an emergency headquarters in Europe to coordinate between various organizations helping transport refugees out of the warzone, and assist the rescue of Jews to Israel.

A second headquarters will be set up at Ben-Gurion Airport to assist those making aliyah, known as olim. It will streamline the absorption process by issuing immediate visas and entry permits, and organizing transportation to the olim’s new places of residence. Representatives from the Aliyah and Absorption Ministry and IDF Homefront Command, as well as Ukrainian speakers, will be on hand.

The third and central element of the plan focuses on the Aliyah and Absorption Ministry itself, which in collaboration with local authorities will help with housing, employment, education, welfare benefits, and other necessities for the olim.
Three Ukrainian Women Airlifted to Israel for Emergency Medical Treatment
Three women who were wounded in the Ukrainian war zone were treated Wednesday morning at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, after being airlifted to safety by Hatzolah Air.

According to Shaare Zedek, the injured included a 30-year-old whose leg was hurt when her home was hit directly by a missile; an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor in stable condition; and a 97-year-old, also in stable condition, who is planning to make aliyah and officially immigrate to and settle in Israel.

“The women underwent an initial assessment and treatments and are accompanied by social and psychological teams,” said Dr. Alon Schwarz, the hospital’s director of trauma.

The rescue mission was organized in advance by Hatzolah and Shaare Zedek.

“We will continue to rescue the wounded from the war zone and bring them to safety,” said Hatzolah Air CEO Aaron Adler.


Ukraine-Russia war: Russia bans 2 Israeli news sites - report
Russia has blocked Israeli news websites in its continuing ban of media outlets amid its ongoing war in Ukraine.

The Israeli sites banned were that of Channel 9, a Russian-language Israeli channel, and Vesti, the Russian-language site belonging to Yediot Aharonot, according to Ynet.

These two are among the many foreign news sites Russia has blocked as the state's communication regulator works to control what information is being spread about the ongoing conflict with Ukraine, chief among them being that it should not be called a war or invasion but a military operation.

However, this is the first time that Israeli sites have been blocked.

Several countries worldwide have banned Russian state media outlets such as Channel 1, Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik. However, no Russian media sites have been banned in Israel thus far.


MEMRI: Column In Egyptian Daily 'Al-Ahram': The Arabs Must Not Forget The Lessons Of Fighting Other People's Wars In The Current Crisis In Ukraine
Against the backdrop of reports that Russia is recruiting Syrian mercenaries to help it fight its war in Ukraine,[1] and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's announcement last month of the formation of an international league for the defense of Ukraine and appealed to foreign veterans to join the fight,[2] Salah Nasrawi wrote in his March 15, 2022 column for the Egyptian Ahramonline website that the Arabs must not forget the lessons of fighting other people's wars in the current crisis in Ukraine. The column was titled "Fears For Young Arabs Lured To War In Ukraine."

The following is the column, in the original English.[3]
"Most Of The Fighters Who Responded" To Saddam Hussein's Call For Arab Volunteers "Later Joined The Al-Qaeda Terror Group"

"Shortly before the U.S. war on Iraq in 2003, Saddam Hussein called on Arab volunteers willing to fight along with his soldiers against the invading U.S. forces. Most of the volunteers were Islamist activists coming from a number of countries and members of pan-Arab groups that maintained close ties with the Saddam regime.

"Most of the fighters who responded to the call later joined the Al-Qaeda terror group, which played a major role in the ensuing carnage and carried out suicide bombings and indiscriminate attacks against Iraqi civilians. The group soon morphed into the Islamic State (IS) group, which attracted thousands of foreign fighters and its model and influence spread worldwide.

"As IS began rapidly losing territory and support after its military defeat in Iraq and Syria in 2017, the question of what the world should do with the thousands of foreign fighters who joined it and remain defiant is still unanswered.

"While Iraq and Syria face a substantial rebuilding and stabilization process and are still grappling with 'what next' for the thousands of their citizens who fought with IS, a new challenge is emerging from the conflict in Ukraine, as reports swirl about the two warring parties courting foreign fighters to enter the conflict."









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