Jews, Ukraine and the BBC

 

I have just watched a remarkable clip from BBC Channel 4 News as President Zelensky was told that the Russians had bombed the Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial. Babyn Yar (still best known to many as Babi Yar) is a ravine in Kyiv where nearly 34,000 Jews were killed by Ukrainian troops at the end of September 1941. It was one of the worst single massacres during the Holocaust. 

DIN: (The report that the Russians bombed the site is now proven to be untrue)

In other massacres at that site victims included Soviet prisoners of war, communists, Ukrainian nationalists and Roma. News reached Victor Klemperer in Dresden. He noted in his diary in April 1942 the “ghastly mass murders of Jews in Kiev. The heads of small children smashed against walls, thousands of men, women, adolescents shot down in a great heap, a hillock blown up and the mass of bodies buried under the exploding earth.” Half of the victims were never named.

Babyn Yar was the subject of poems by Lev Ozerov, Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Ilya Ehrenburg among others. In the first movement of Shostakovich’s 13th Symphony, Shostakovich and Yevtushenko transform the massacre of Jews at Babi Yar into a denunciation of antisemitism in all its forms. In DM Thomas’s novel, The White Hotel (1981), there is a famous scene when the central character, Elisabeth (Lisa) Erdman, and her young son are sent to Babyn Yar.

Babi Yar wasn’t bombed - but Zelensky finds a useful tool to rally Jews to his cause

 

Zelensky at Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s direct and emotional appeal to the world’s Jews on Wednesday marked something of a departure for him.

Before and during Russia’s war on his country, Zelensky had spoken plainly to civilians on both sides of the conflict, but he hadn’t directly addressed those outside the country. And for his entire career, he has not been outspoken about his Jewish identity.

So when he and his aides repeatedly drew attention to what they said was happening to sites of Jewish significance this week, some saw a strategic decision at a perilous time for Ukraine.

“He’s using the Jewish angle – and it’s absolutely kosher,” Roman Bronfman, a Ukraine-born former Israeli lawmaker and the author of a book on the immigration of Russian-speaking Jews to Israel, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Zelensky has never hidden his Jewish identity, but he has never called attention to it, either. At a ceremony last year in Babyn Yar, the site near Kyiv of a massacre of Jews during the Holocaust, Zelensky did not mention the fact that some of his relatives were murdered there, delivering a speech that could have come from any of his non-Jewish predecessors.

During his presidential campaign, Zelensky, a comedian turned politician, dismissed the subject of his Jewish identity with typical self-deprecating humor.

In a 2019 interview with Bernard-Henri Levy, a French-Jewish philosopher, Zelensky declined to explore his Jewish identity at any length, responding to a question about it by saying: “The fact that I am Jewish barely makes 20 in my long list of faults.”

Bennett meets Putin at the Kremlin

 

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with  Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Saturday night  to discuss Ukraine crisis, a Kremlin spokesperson said.

 The Israeli Prime Minister left Israel in the Mossad's private jet early on Saturday morning, when Jewish law usually forbids travel, in light of a conversation held between himself and Putin on Wednesday.

Participating in the meeting is Construction and Housing Minister Ze'ev Elkin, who accompanied former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his meetings with Putin and who serves as translator. Also participating in the meeting are National Security Council chief Dr. Eyal Hulata, diplomatic adviser Shimrit Meir, and the Prime Minister's spokesman, Matan Sidi.

According to Kan 11, both the Ukraine and the US were updated prior to the Bennett-Putin meeting, and the American government gave Bennett their blessing prior to his meeting with Putin.

On Sunday, Bennett spoke with Putin about the war with Ukraine, and said that Israel is ready to assist as much as is needed and at any time in resolving the crisis and bringing the parties closer.

According to the Kremlin, in the conversation between the leaders, Bennett suggested mediating talks between Russia and Ukraine, but Putin refused the offer.

While Ukraine is Burning Biden ready to making worst deal ever with Iran

 

As the civilian death toll mounts in Ukraine and the world prepares for unspeakable crimes against humanity yet to come, the Biden administration said Friday it’s close to announcing a Russian-brokered deal with Iran that will flood the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism with billions of dollars and leave Tehran on the nuclear weapons threshold.

While the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was bad enough, the coming deal is even worse.

Zera Shimshon Parshas Pekudei

 

Nathan Sharansky's Interesting take on the Russian-Ukraine Conflict

 Natan Sharansky spoke at a Sheva Brachot gathering in honor of the wedding of Benaya and Neta Dickstein. Benaya's parents, Yossi and Chanah, were murdered in a terrorist attack when he was seven years old. It's too bad that only those in attendance heard Sharansky, the famous prisoner of Zion, speak as follows:

"When I was growing up in Ukraine, in Donetsk, there were many nations and nationalities. There were those with identity papers that read 'Russian,' 'Ukrainian,' 'Georgian,' or 'Kozak.' This was not so important since there was not much difference between them. The single designation that stood out was 'Jew.'  If that was written as your identity, it was as if you had a disease.

"We knew nothing about Judaism. There was nothing signficant about our Jewish identity other than the anti-Semitism, hatred, and discriminatory treatment we experienced because of it. When it came to a university application, for example, no one tried to change his designation from 'Russian' to 'Ukrainian' because it did not matter. However, if you could change your designation of 'Jew,' it substantially improved your chances of university admission.

"This week, I was reminded of those days when I saw thousands of people standing at the borders of Ukraine trying to escape. They are standing there day and night and there is only one word that can help them get out: 'Jew.' If you are a Jew, there are Jews outside who care about and are waiting for you. There is someone on the other side of the border who is searching for you. Your chances of leaving are excellent.

"The world has changed. When I was a child, 'Jew' was an unfortunate designation. No one envied us. But today on the Ukrainian border, identifying as a Jew is a most fortunate circumstance. It describes those who have a place to go, where their family, an entire nation, is waiting for them on the other side."

10K Seminary Women Block 100s WOW, Reform & Conservative at Rosh Chodesh Adar-B War on the Kotel

 Hundreds of members of the Reform and Conservative movements from Israel and the United States arrived on Friday morning at the Kotel plaza for the Rosh Chodesh Adar B prayer. They were met with enormous resistance from mostly Haredi Jews, including an estimated ten thousand seminary women who followed the instructions of two leaders of the Haredi Lithuanian public, Rabbis Chaim Kanievsky and Gershon Edelstein, to protest the Reform and Conservative presence. Large police forces separated the two parties of obviously God-loving Jews.

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The Reform prayer was held in the presence of the President of the Reform Movement in the United States, Rick Jacobs, who is on a visit to Israel.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with the leaders of the Reform movement in Israel and the Diaspora and stressed the need to allow the Reform members to enjoy equality in their prayer at the Kotel plaza, “the remains of our Temple.”

Just a reminder: the remains of our Temple are several yards up from the Kotel plaza, and Jews up there still have to struggle every day for their right to equality in prayer, but that’s not anything that seemed to bother Bennett or his Reform guests.

US Ambassador Throws Israel Under the Russian Bus

 

US Ambassador to Jerusalem Tom Nides was trying his best to get Israel deeper in trouble with its neighbor to the north, Vladimir Putin, by tweeting glowing praise giving it credit for its wonderful work against the nasty Russians: “Enormous thanks to Israel for helping rally more members to stand with Ukraine in today’s historic UN vote. Over 141 votes to hold Russia accountable. Diplomacy matters.

 

Enormous thanks to Israel for helping rally more members to stand with Ukraine in today’s historic @UN vote. Over 141 votes to hold Russia accountable. Diplomacy matters. pic.twitter.com/ZIsO8XYe0z

— Ambassador Tom Nides (@USAmbIsrael) March 2, 2022

 Gee, thanks, Tom.

Biden's Black Supreme Court Nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is a "Heartless Calculating Political Opportunist"

 

While running for the Presidency in 2020 Joe Biden promised to appoint the first black, female Supreme Court justice. In January when a place opened up on the court, he repeated that pledge. To only murmurs of concern. Is this really how things have to work in America?

Last week the president announced that he was going to put forward Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the lifetime appointment. Democrats were thrilled. Most Republicans saw a trap and kept away. Almost no one dug any deeper. But they should.

Because if they did, they would find out a number of things. Not just that there are far better qualified candidates, including better qualified black female candidates. But that Jackson’s own career shows she is unsuitable for the role.

It is now eight years ago since Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 crashed into the sea, killing all 239 people on board. Among them was one American man, Philip Wood, a 50-year-old IBM executive from Texas.

In the traumatic months after the crash, Wood’s family sought to gain justice for their family in the courts. They imagined the American court system would help them. They were wrong.

Why are so many Idolizing Zelensky and Ukraine?

 

Chelmanetski Statue Still Standing in Kiev

The following article is from the Leonupsidedown Blog!

If my dear mother, a Holocaust survivor, was alive, she would have this to say about Ukraine: 'Loz em brennan' (let them burn).

To help understand her statement, you might recall one of the most terrible events in WWII, known as Babi Yar. It's a deep ravine in the main city, Kiev in Ukraine. In 1941 in the period of just 2 days, almost 34,000 Jews were murdered there! Think about that number. And it was all done by men shooting at innocent civilians. A very personal way to commit mass murder. 

That was nothing like carpet bombing a city from the air.  As far as we know, that extreme murder rate had never been achieved until then. Of course the Nazis organized the killing. But it was the Ukrainians who actually did the killing. You see, the Ukrainians had such a blood lust for killing Jews that even the Nazis had to stop them. The Germans were in love with organized killing and documenting every 'perfect' thing they did. So when the Ukrainians were running around trying to murder every Jew they saw, the Nazis intervened and instructed them on how to do it efficiently and more organized.

Since then the Germans have laws (serious laws) against joining any neo-Nazi party. They have also paid out millions of dollars to Holocaust survivors and their families. The Ukrainians have literally gotten away with murder. 

Today, decades after the war, Ukraine has more neo-Nazi groups than any other country in the world! (Yet another world record) And they are not forced underground in any way. The largest of these, Azov, is unofficially part of their parliament. Many fools consider them to just be nationalistic. Although some members might be, most are thugs. Their flag is similar to a swastika and they are antisemitic to the core, just like their grandfathers were.

Azov flag

When Putin says he wants to de-nazify Ukraine, he's not lying. I have no doubt that we will soon be hearing of stories leaked out of Ukraine, blaming it's small Jewish population for the trouble they are in now. I already have heard some.