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Tuesday, March 22, 2022

03/22 Links Pt1: 4 killed, 2 seriously hurt in stabbing attack at Beersheba mall; terrorist shot dead; 'We were wrong to think totalitarianism would disappear peacefully'

From Ian:

4 killed, 2 seriously hurt in stabbing attack at Beersheba mall; terrorist shot dead
Four people were killed and several others were wounded Tuesday in a ramming and stabbing attack at an outdoor shopping mall in Beersheba, officials said, in Israel’s deadliest terror attack in years.

According to police, the assailant first stabbed a woman to death at a gas station in the southern city. He then entered his car and rammed a cyclist, before getting out again and stabbing several people at the BIG shopping center.

Video from the scene then showed the terrorist confronted by an armed bus driver, who attempted to get him to lower his weapon. But the attacker lunged at him and was then shot several times, by the bus driver and by a second armed civilian.

The cyclist and two of the stabbing victims at the mall later died of their wounds.

The stabber was identified as 34-year-old Mohammad Ghaleb Abu al-Qi’an, a former terror convict from the Bedouin town of Hura in the Negev.

According to the Zaka emergency service, Abu al-Qi’an died of his wounds.

The Shin Bet said it was investigating the attack.

The Magen David Adom emergency service said a woman in her forties who had been stabbed by the assailant was declared dead at the scene. Five others were taken to the nearby Soroka Medical Center. Three of them died of their wounds shortly after admission, the hospital said.

The other two were listed in serious but stable condition at the hospital.

Tuesday’s rampage was the deadliest attack on Israeli civilians since June 2016, when two terrorists opened fire at Tel Aviv’s Sarona Market, killing four people and wounding 16.

The Hamas terror group praised the stabbing attack, saying it “salutes the executor of the heroic operation in occupied Beersheba.”




Terror attack in Be'er Sheva: 'He looked at me and continued to stab the young woman'
Terror attack in Be'er Sheva: 'He looked at me and continued to stab the young woman' Eyewitness recalls, 'I went to buy something at a store in BIG, when I suddenly heard screaming. I had chills over my whole body.'

Four people were killed Tuesday afternoon in a terror attack in the southern city of Be'er Sheva.

Among the victims were a woman of about 50, whose death was declared at the scene; and a woman of about 40 and a man of about 60, who were declared dead in Soroka Medical Center. A fourth person, who had been riding a bicycle, was killed after the terrorist rammed into him.

Two other women are in moderate condition and being treated at Soroka.

Yaron, an eyewitness to the terror attack, told Channel 13 News, "I had gone to buy something in a store in the BIG center, when I suddenly heard screaming. I ran to the place and I saw a terrorist stabbing one of the young women, and another woman running away from there. I ran towards the terrorist and began screaming at him, 'What are you doing?' He looked at me and continued stabbing the young woman, and did not say anything."
'We will find all those involved and bring them to justice'
A terror attack in Be'er Sheva has claimed the lives of four individuals when an Arab stabbed a number of people at a gas station in the commercial center on Derech Hevron of the city.

Three women and one man were murdered in the attack and two additional victims received moderate wounds before being evacuated to the city's Soroka Medical Center.

Initial police investigations show that the terrorist arrived at the gas station where he stabbed a woman before running down a bicycle rider with his vehicle, and stabbing a number of others after getting out of his car.

A bus driver who saw the stabbing take place fired at the terrorist, neutralizing the man, who was later declared dead at the scene.

According to police sources, the terrorist was an Arab Israeli citizen who lived in the Bedouin town of Hura and was known in the past to be a supporter of ISIS. The terrorist, who has been identified as Mohammad Jalab Abu al-Quian, was shot and killed at the scene.

According to Maariv, the terrorist had joined ISIS and was recently released from a 5 year prison term.


'We were wrong to think totalitarianism would disappear peacefully'
The last thing that Svetlana Alexievich, the 2015 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, wants to speak about these days is literature. From her exile in Germany, she studies the difficult events surrounding the Russian invasion to Ukraine and Russia's return to the totalitarianism of the Soviet past, and is terrified. So terrified that literature – her entire world for as long as she can remember – has been pushed into a corner.

Alexievich's 73 books, in which she described realistically, profoundly and sadly the horrors of the Second World War, the depressed reality of the Soviet Union and the difficulties of post-Soviet existence, have been translated into many languages and published in dozens of countries. They have won her many prizes, including the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the French Prix Medicis Essai, and the American National Book Critics Circle Award.

But the formal recognition and the aura of celebrity haven't turned Alexievich's head. They have not clouded her unique ability to study the depths of the soul of "Homo Sovieticus," the Soviet and post-Soviet person who, in her view, is not similar to anyone living in another society, free from the destructive influence of tyranny. Alexievich is sure that the roots of the war and the conflict that is spreading before our eyes are planted in this soul.

"There is a temptation to attribute the problem to evil leaders, whether it's Russia's President Putin or Belarus's President Lukashenko," she says in an exclusive interview with Israel Hayom.

"I don't doubt the role of the leader in history, but the main issue goes deeper. The main problem is that the totalitarian tradition of Communism didn't die. It nurtured people who lived within it for too long and absorbed it [the tradition] in their souls. They didn't just become slaves but romantics of slavery. They are still convinced that the Soviet world was founded on justice and are striving to return to how things were before."

"We are currently seeing before our eyes the collapse of the totalitarian empire. We wanted to believe that Communism already died 30 years ago, but that was just wishful thinking. In the 90s we were naïve and stuck with the belief that the people caused the revolution against the Soviet regime. We were wrong. The people did not revolt then against evil, the change was only led by a small group of the intelligentsia, who gathered around the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, and were supported by a thin layer of educated people. For the Soviet people the change was too sudden, they did not absorb, internalize or welcome the permutations.
Russian Nobel Peace Prize winner donates his medal to help Ukrainian refugees
The joint Russian winner of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, Dmitry Muratov, said Tuesday he will donate his medal to help Ukrainian refugees.

Muratov, editor of Russia’s leading opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was awarded the 2021 prize alongside Maria Ressa of the Philippines for their efforts “to safeguard freedom of expression.”

Writing on Telegram, he said that he and the newspaper had decided to donate the gold medal to a fund to help Ukrainian refugees.

“We ask auction houses that can put this world-famous award on sale to get in contact,” he wrote.

Muratov said he wanted to share the medal “with peaceful refugees and wounded and sick children who need emergency treatment.”

In his message, the journalist also called for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange, the return of the bodies of those killed and provision of humanitarian corridors and aid.
Noah Rothman: The War Crimes Conundrum
President Joe Biden was on his way out the door last week after an impromptu gathering with reporters when he was asked yet again if his Russian counterpart was a “war criminal.” Biden replied with a perfunctory “no,” which came as no surprise. The White House and the Pentagon had both been reluctant to confirm the allegations leveled by Biden’s secretary of state and UN ambassador affirming Vladimir Putin’s guilt in crimes against humanity. Suddenly, Biden wheeled around and contradicted himself. “Oh, I think he is a war criminal,” the president said.

The improvised dramaturgy of the president’s about-face on Putin’s complicity in war crimes leaves observers to wonder whether this was a considered strategic decision by the White House. By branding Putin a war criminal, Biden has raised the stakes of the conflict that the Russian president inaugurated. Haunted as he is by Russia’s historic humiliations, Putin surely remembers how Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic and his subordinates were handed over to The Hague by a successor regime. Preserving his hold on power is now an existential issue for Putin, as is his war in Ukraine. A Russian defeat would undermine Putin’s viability in the Kremlin.

In endorsing the charge of war crimes, though, the American administration has closed off one of the remaining avenues the Russian regime might have used to deescalate the crisis in Europe. That’s fraught, but what else could the administration do? After all, they’re right.

Within a week after the outbreak of fighting in Ukraine, the American diplomatic corps began leveling accusations of war crimes—some of which were plainly fueled by emotion rather than a prosecutorial review of Russian conduct. A mechanized assault on a Ukrainian nuclear plant, for example, was labeled by the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv “a war crime.” The State Department, which operates that mission, reportedly tamped down that claim, as it should have. UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield was on firmer ground when she accused Russia of using “cluster munitions and vacuum bombs” against civilian targets, warning the soldiers charged with carrying out those orders to “not commit war crimes.” But the Defense Department and the White House refused to fully endorse her accusation.

Now, however, nearly a month into the war, it is impossible to avoid acknowledging that banned munitions are being used on the battlefield and in populated areas of Ukraine. International monitoring and human-rights groups have verified through interviews with dozens of witnesses and analysis of photographic and video evidence the use of fragmentation submunitions in civilian centers. The Kremlin has confirmed the use of thermobaric weapons in Ukraine. As Russian battlefield losses mount and the conflict settles into a protracted stalemate, Russia’s use of even conventional ordnance has become more indiscriminate.


Washington Free Beacon Editorial: Israel Owes Ukraine Nothing
Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has been heroic since Russia invaded his country last month, and his skillful communication on his country's behalf has been an integral part of that heroism.

But the Ukrainian leader had us rubbing our eyes over the weekend when he bungled an attempt to rally Israel to the Ukrainian cause by comparing the war against his own population to … the Holocaust.

Zelensky's argument: Israel has a moral obligation to aid his country because righteous Ukrainians aided Jews during the Second World War.

His remarks landed with a thud in Israel, where lawmakers have a firm grasp of Jewish history and know damn well that there were far more Ukrainians who eagerly participated in Hitler's slaughter than there were righteous gentiles who tried to save their Jewish countrymen. In fact, the perpetrators at the massacre of Baba Yar, which killed 33,771 Jewish civilians over two days, were primarily Ukrainians.

The same cannot be said for how Zelensky’s remarks were received by some in our own country, where historically illiterate analogies pollute our politics. Lawmakers and journalists alike wasted no time seizing them to bludgeon and shame the Jewish state and to snipe at America's alliance with it.

There was Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R., Ill.), who tweeted on Sunday that Israel's response to the Ukraine crisis "will have bearing on future aid from the US to Israel." There was Russiagate all-star Benjamin Wittes, who declared, "After 70 years of ‘Never Again,' the Israeli state's reaction to an invasion of a democratic and peaceable country, in which the aggressor is committing both resort to force and jus in bello crimes is to … mediate. It is not defensible." And there was the journalist Matt Yglesias of the Emirati-backed news outlet Grid, who whined, "The fact that none of America's Middle Eastern client states will do anything we want in the middle of a major crisis seems relevant to considering the amount of assistance we should give them with their Iran problems." (Then again, maybe he was talking about the Emiratis?)

Israel's security depends on an arrangement with Russia that allows Israel Defense Forces jets to strike Hezbollah arms shipments in Syria, and it is unconscionable to demand that the Jewish state endanger itself for the sake of Ukrainians based on a history rewritten to suit contemporary causes, however worthy they may be.

Israel doesn't owe Ukraine anything. Its sole obligation is to do what it can to help Ukrainian and Russian Jews who, having endured pogroms and slaughter and persecution, may yet seek the safety of the Jewish state.
Israel must help Ukraine even though its soil is soaked in Jewish blood
Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky accused Israel of abandoning his country while it is being bombarded by Russian forces. That was pretty much the bottom line of his address to the Knesset and the people of Israel on Sunday evening.

Zelensky’s speech was a blunt and rather direct attempt to embarrass the entire country, to tug at Israel’s already wounded and guilt-ridden heartstrings.

At the beginning of the war he told the Americans who wanted to rescue him from the war-torn Ukraine, "I need ammunition, not a ride.” This is effectively what he told Israel in his virtual address.

What he wants from us is military help: weapons, the Iron Dome, imposing sanctions on Russia an effectively picking a side in this gruesome war.

He even criticized Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's shuttle diplomacy efforts, claiming mediation cannot occur "between good and evil".

It is easy for Israelis to emphasize with the young president, who looks like your old buddy from the IDF, who appeals to us from his hiding place somewhere in Kyiv amid piles of dead bodies and flocks of refugees.

You can also understand where his criticism comes from. Zelensky is fighting for nothing less than the survival of his people, using any means necessary. Therefor, evoking the Holocaust memories to gain our sympathy is only reasonable.

You can also sympathize with his claims that Ukraine turned to Israel for help and received nothing but "indifference, calculation [of interests] and mediation," while continuing to sit on the fence.

Zelensky’s accusations are largely correct, especially considering Jerusalem's initial and continued reluctance to unequivocally support Ukraine and condemn Russia.

Israel has also piled its fair share of hardships on Ukrainian refugees, seeking shelter within its borders. This fact is a source of great shame for many Israelis due to our history and past, and Zelensky knows this.

What we cannot agree on or sympathize with is Zelensky’s attempt to distort history and disturbing comparisons between the war in Ukraine and the Holocaust.


Emily Schrader: Reporting on Ukraine, obsessed with Israel
Even in times of war, in wars that don’t even involve Israel, Israel seems to get the short end of the stick when it comes to media coverage and unjustified criticism on social media.

The Israeli response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine was admittedly slower than other countries – a response that makes sense when examined through the lens of a country that has Russia and Iran on its northern border in Syria.

Israel is in the challenging and precarious political situation of having good relations with both Ukraine and Russia, unlike Israel’s greatest ally, the United States. Despite that, Israel has taken tremendous measures not only to condemn Russia’s actions, but also to help the Ukrainian people.

Yet, Israel has been hounded and criticized in the international arena for not doing enough. In one example, NPR reported that Putin is beloved as an ally in Israel – an utterly ridiculous claim, especially given the fact that tens of thousands of Israelis marched in the streets protesting Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. It was in viral videos from the streets of Tel Aviv that Israelis with dual Russian citizenship burned their Russian passports in the streets. Public buildings have also lit up with the Ukrainian flag in solidarity.

At the government level, Israel, while initially hesitating to condemn Russia, did condemn Russia in the United Nations. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid also explicitly condemned Putin’s crimes, and going even further, has announced that Israel will comply with international sanctions against Russia, adding that Israel will not be a route to bypass said international sanctions.

Then comes the issue of humanitarian aid. Israel is already known for its exceptional humanitarian efforts globally, providing help for victims of disasters, whether man-made or otherwise. As rockets continued to pound Ukrainian cities, it was Israeli organizations like United Hatzalah who first set up emergency services, followed by IsrAid, MASHAV, the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Magen David Adom, and others. In the immediate aftermath of the war’s outbreak, it was the Israeli government that helped secure safe passage of not only Israeli citizens but also Arabs from enemy states like Lebanon, as well as a Palestinian from Gaza.


Kyiv's Jews, persecuted under Polish-Lithuanian, Russian, Nazi and Soviet regimes, now face the onslaught of Putin's forces
While hundreds of Jews are leaving Kyiv amid Russian attacks, many more, led by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, who is of Jewish origin, are staying on to defend the country.

Jews have always been part of the long history of Kyiv, which has been ruled for a thousand years by Slavic princes, Normans, Tatars, Lithuanians, Poles, Russians, the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and Ukrainians. A popular song from 1977 stated that without the Jewish district of Podil, Kyiv would be like St. Vladimir without his cross. Jews comprised 26% of the city’s inhabitants before World War II. Before the current Russian invasion of Ukraine, about 18,000 Jews lived in Kyiv, less than 1% of the total population.

Jews first arrived in Kyiv from the medieval Khazarian State, which was located between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, in the 10th century and settled in the Kyivan Rus’ State. While Jews built and developed Kyiv, the city also shaped and developed the identity of Kyivan Jews. Jewish businessmen provided funds for construction of universities, schools, hospitals, markets, research institutes, city public transportation and movie theaters. Kyiv would be quite a different city without Jewish businesses and Jewish humor, Jewish medical doctors and lawyers, who had reputations as among the best in the city.

As a scholar who has written a book on the Jews of Kyiv, I know that there have been many times that Jews were forced to flee from the city – but they always came back.

The rulers of the Polish–Lithuanian State, and of the Russian Empire, expelled Jews from Kyiv repeatedly in the 15th to 19th centuries. The expulsions hurt the city economically, so each time, authorities allowed the Jews back, and they had to restart their Jewish community from scratch.
Ukraine accuses Kremlin of transferring civilians to Russia
Russia was accused by Ukraine of forcibly transferring Ukrainian civilians out of the occupied territory and moving them into Russia, in allegations made by Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko on Monday and the Mariupol city council on Sunday.

Nikolenko alleged that Russian forces had relocated 2,389 children from the separatist Donbas into Russia on Saturday.

"Abducting civilians is strictly prohibited by international humanitarian law," said Nikolenko. "The Russian army deprives our children of parental care and endangers their lives in Russia. These heinous crimes must be stopped."

The Mariupol city council alleged on Sunday that Russian forces had transferred Mariupol area residents to Russia or to the separatist Donbas region.

The leadership of the besieged port city claimed that the expelled residents had their Ukrainian passports confiscated, and had been issued new identification papers.

This report came after a Mariupol school sheltering 400 Ukrainian civilians was reportedly hit by a Russian airstrike on Saturday.
Report: Israel to prepare for Bennett trip to Kyiv

Israel becomes first country to launch field hospital in Ukraine
The "Kohav Meir" (Shining Star) field hospital in the town of Mostyska near the Polish border was set to begin accepting patients Tuesday, with an inauguration ceremony also scheduled for that day

Israel is the first country to set up a field hospital inside Ukraine.

The Shining Star facility is a collaborative effort of the Health and Foreign Ministries, and Sheba Medical Center, the latter of which is operating the hospital.

With the field hospital situated in a small and fairly remote town, not many Ukrainians are expected to arrive in the early days. In addition, refugees fleeing the country for Poland will likely prefer to receive medical treatment there rather than wait in Ukraine for treatment.

The hospital, which is expected to treat dozens of patients each day, will be operated by a team of 80 people. The plan is for the hospital to operate for at least a month, with the staff being replaced in another two weeks. Doctors working at the field hospital will also train local teams.

Dr. David Dagan, who heads the Israeli delegation to the field hospital, said delegation members "know our job is to reach out and that we must not sit idly by. There are men and women doctors, nurses, paramedics, midwives, pharmacists, and lab technicians, everything so that we can provide service to the hundreds of thousands of new refugees making their way to the country's borders."

He noted, "We've had full and appreciable cooperation on the part of local authorities, and we truly believe our hospital will provide a glimmer of hope."


Idan Goldberger at Rita Panahi Show (Sky News) 21-03-2022
Hear Rita Panahi talk to Idan Goldberger from SHEBA about Israel's 'Shining star' hospital, operating from tomorrow in west #Ukraine.

As the only civilian field hospital inside????, the ????medical team will be supporting the most vulnerable war victims.


Jewish Agency Launches ‘Aliyah Express’ to Expedite Ukrainian Move to Israel
In anticipation of a massive wave of immigration from Ukraine, the Jewish Agency for Israel has launched an “Aliyah Express” program to expedite the immigration process resulting in thousands of Ukrainian Jewish refugees arriving in Israel.

Since Russia’s onslaught into the country last month, some 4,000 Jewish Ukrainian refugees have come to Israel. That number is expected to dramatically increase, especially as the situation worsens. As such, the express program will significantly reduce the timeline for aliyah eligibility checks, and with assistance from the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, private donors and foundations, those fleeing the country will be able to board flights to Israel faster.

The Jewish Agency will also assist in absorbing immigrants when they arrive in Israel. Dozens of employees are being recruited to assist the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration with housing new immigrants in hotels upon their arrival, as well as working with an emergency program that will enroll young Ukrainians in Masa, a program co-founded by the Jewish Agency.

Following a request from the Israeli government, the Jewish Agency will also help establish a situation room to coordinate organizations working on the ground in the region.

“The Jewish Agency continues to be at the forefront of aliyah mobilization efforts, in particular when it comes to Ukrainian refugees,” said its Acting Chairman and Chairman of the World Zionist Organization Yaakov Hagoel. “Combining our organization’s forces with other formidable bodies that facilitate aliyah will help resolve this emergency crisis facing Ukrainian Jewry. Now, they can be rescued and absorbed much faster so they can settle into their new home in Israel.”
US Secretary of State Highlights Plight of Nearly 10,000 Holocaust Survivors in Ukraine
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday highlighted the plight of elderly Holocaust survivors in Ukraine as they endure the ongoing Russian invasion during a speech at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington, D.C.

“Ukraine is home to nearly 10,000 Holocaust survivors, including an 88-year-old woman, Natalia Berezhnaya of Odessa,” Blinken said. “Here’s what she said in a recent interview, and I quote: ‘It’s hard to wrap my mind around the fact that in 1941, I had to hide in the basement of this building, and that I’m going to have to do that again now.'”

Blinken noted that one of the “unsettling truths of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is that there’s never a time I visit here when its lessons do not feel deeply resonant. But I have to tell you, I can recall few times when that history felt so urgent, or the responsibility it imparts on all of us so pressing.”

Russia had launched an “unprovoked, brutal war on Ukraine,” Blinken declared. “Each day brings more harrowing attacks, more innocent men, women, and children killed.”

He stressed that this included “the five people who were killed in a strike on March 1, on a TV tower and the surrounding area on the outskirts of Kyiv, the same site where, just over 80 years ago, 33,771 Jews were killed by the Nazis in just 2 days, Babyn Yar.”

The Russian government “tried to justify this war by falsely claiming that it’s intervening to stop genocide, abusing the term that we reserve for the gravest atrocities, disrespecting every victim of this heinous crime,” the secretary added.
Peter Beinart Sinks Even Lower, Comparing Israel to Putin
Peter Beinart has written, “It’s time to imagine a Jewish home that is not a Jewish state,” and later added that Jews were never entitled to a state in the first place. More recently, he has said that Israelis should seek repentance for the Nakba (Israel’s creation) by forfeiting Jewish sovereignty and allowing five million Palestinian refugees to “return” to the land inside the Green Line. For Beinart, the very existence of the Jewish state is an injustice, and the only proper solution is to dismantle it. To end the conflict, he maintains, there must be an end to Zionism.

In his latest effort to delegitimize the Jewish state, “Justifications for Destroying a People” (Jewish Currents), Beinart argues that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is worthy of Vladimir Putin.

The article’s subtitle is, “The arguments Russia’s government deploys to dehumanize Ukrainians are strikingly similar to the ones Israel’s government uses to dehumanize Palestinians.” Beneath that is a menacing picture of Putin.

Beinart then begins: “In the days since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Ukrainians and their supporters have been lionized for the same forms of resistance to oppression for which Palestinians are routinely condemned.” For Beinart, if we approve of Ukrainians using Molotov cocktails, we shouldn’t condemn Palestinian terrorism or the countless attacks exclusively directed at civilians, including children. And the international boycott of Russia is a lot like the BDS movement. Makes sense, right?

Pursuing the analogy, Beinart then goes on to play the race card: “In mainstream American discourse, Ukrainians, a mostly white and Christian people battling an American foe, are viewed as fully human, and thus entitled to fight for their freedom. Palestinians, a mostly nonwhite and non-Christian people battling an American ally, are not.” So if we could get over those prejudices, we would realize that Palestinian stabbing attacks and rocket barrages into civilian areas have the same moral value as Ukrainian attempts to fight off an unprovoked foreign invasion. Sure, that works.


MEMRI: Russian Commentator Mikhail Rostovsky: ' Russia Before February 24 This Year And Russia After February 24 This Year Are Two Fundamentally Different Countries'
At a March 16, 2022 on socio-economic support measures for Russia's regions, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that the West was attempting to divide Russian society by employing those hedonistic Russian elites, who while resident in Russia had their hearts in the West, as a fifth column.[1]

Some like the blogger Anatoly Nesmiyan aka "El-Murid" viewed Putin's outburst as a calculated and cynical attempt to deflect blame for the difficulties that Russia is encountering in Ukraine: " Putin, from his bunker, held another meeting with the TV. And he delivered a speech too. Everything is going according to plan, alas there is a 5th column that prevents its implementation. He didn't have to say anything. It's the same as always. The man is basically incapable of analyzing and admitting his own mistakes, miscalculations, and failures. He always has someone else to blame.

It was also a bit rich of Putin to excoriate the dolce vita of the elites. Putin himself personified the good life with his comprehensive karate classes and alpine skiing. His underling were merely copying him. Besides "You yourself set the example for them, it's you, who select such trash for state offices, so now all of a sudden to complain about the "mentally off" owners of villas and haciendas.Now you guys are living in what you've yourself created. You can only blame yourself, which you don't want to, we understand."[2]

In contrast to Nesmiyan, Moskovskiy Komsomolets senior commentator Mikhail Rostovsky believes that the speech disclosed Vladimir Putin's long held beliefs that he hitherto had to soft-pedal and camouflage. Now he feels himself free to give his voice to his true feelings and set the tone for the rest of the country. The goalposts in terms of what is permissible and what is impermissible have been moved and Russian society has internalized the new reality. As for himself, Rostovsky intends to comply with the new standards, as he wants to continue as a journalist in Russia rather than emigrate and does not see himself as a Don Quixote. However, not as a challenge to Putin but in the realm of constructive advice, Rostovsky reminds the top leadership that the Soviet Union's defeat in the Cold War was not due to military inferiority, but to the fact that a closed system while displaying temporary staying power, eventually falls behind an open system.


BBC WS radio claims Israel has ‘schizophrenic position’ on Ukraine
Once again listeners were given no reminder of the factors – including decisions taken by Western governments – which led to Russia controlling Syria’s airspace and Israel hence having to coordinate with Russia. The fact that other states, including members of the EU, are also employing pragmatic policies – such as the continued import of Russian gas – does not have a place in Knell’s framing of the story.

To date BBC audiences have not been informed of a video put out by Zelensky later the same day in which he appeared to moderate his position.

“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky late on Sunday changed tack and thanked Israel in his nightly video address, after criticizing Israel bitterly in a speech to its lawmakers earlier in the day.

“Of course, Israel has its interests, strategy to protect its citizens. We understand all of it,” Zelensky said in a video he posts daily to social media.

“The prime minister of Israel, Mr. [Naftali] Bennett, is trying to find a way of holding talks. And we are grateful for this. We are grateful for his efforts, so that sooner or later we will begin to have talks with Russia, possibly in Jerusalem,” he said, according to a translation by Reuters.”

Interestingly, none of Knell’s reports inform BBC audiences that not all the members of the Knesset were present for Zelensky’s speech.

“The two Arab Israeli parties chose to snub Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech to the Knesset on Sunday night, with only one Arab lawmaker out of their 10 MKs showing up.

Joint List chief Ayman Odeh skipped the speech, as did the two other lawmakers from his Hadash faction, party officials said. A spokesperson for Odeh did not respond to a request for comment.

“Our position is that NATO and its leader America imposed this war,” said Mansour Dahamsheh, the Hadash party’s secretary-general, in a phone call with The Times of Israel.”

Clearly both the framing and omissions in Knell’s reports compromise audience understanding of the story she purports to tell.






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