John Kerry: Jews In Ukrainian City Told To Identify - Reuters/HuffPo

[WillyT]

John Kerry: Jews In Ukrainian City Told To Identify
Reuters/HuffPo
Reuters Posted: 04/17/2014 1:29 pm EDT Updated: 04/17/2014 1:59 pm EDT

GENEVA (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday that Jews in a city in eastern Ukraine had been ordered to register with the authorities, calling the idea intolerable.

"Just in the last couple of days, notices were sent to Jews in one city indicating that they had to identify themselves as Jews ... or suffer the consequences," Kerry told reporters. "This is not just intolerable, it's grotesque."

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/17/john-kerry-jews-ukraine_n_5168358.html

[WillyT]

1. Kick !!!

[Octafish]

2. Why would they have to do that?

Ukraine’s Inconvenient Neo-Nazis

Exclusive: When Ukrainian neo-Nazis – infuriated over the killing of an ultranationalist leader – surrounded the Parliament in Kiev, the incident presented a problem for the U.S. news media which has been trying to airbrush the neo-Nazis out of the Ukraine narrative, Robert Parry reports.

By Robert Parry
ConsortiumNews.com, March 30, 2014

The U.S. media’s take on the Ukraine crisis is that a “democratic revolution” ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, followed by a “legitimate” change of government. So, to mention the key role played neo-Nazi militias in the putsch or to note that Yanukovych was democratically elected – and then illegally deposed – gets you dismissed as a “Russian propagandist.”

But Ukraine’s neo-Nazis are not some urban legend. Their presence is real, as they swagger in their paramilitary garb through the streets of Kiev, displaying Nazi insignias, honoring SS collaborators from World War II, and hoisting racist banners, including the white-power symbol of the Confederate battle flag.

Over the past few days, the neo-Nazis have surged to the front of Ukraine’s unrest again by furiously protesting the killing of one of their leaders, Oleksandr Muzychko, known as Sashko Bily. The Interior Ministry reported that Muzychko died in a Monday night shoot-out with police in Rivne in western Ukraine.

But the right-wing paramilitaries claim that Muzychko was murdered in a cold-blooded contract hit, and these modern-day storm troopers have threatened to storm the parliament building if the interim Interior Minister is not fired.

This renewed disorder has complicated the storytelling of the major U.S. news media by challenging the sweetness-and-light narrative preferred by U.S. policymakers. The New York Times, the Washington Post and other leading news outlets have worked hard to airbrush the well-established fact that neo-Nazi militants spearheaded the coup on Feb. 22.

To dismiss that inconvenient fact, the major U.S. media has stressed that the extreme rightists made up a minority of the demonstrators, which – while true – is largely irrelevant since it was the paramilitary Right Sektor that provided the armed force that removed Yanukovych and then dominated the “transition” period by patrolling key government buildings. As a reward, far-right parties were given control of four ministries.

Some U.S. outlets also have picked up on the unsubstantiated U.S. government theme that Russia is dispatching unidentified “provocateurs” to destabilize the coup regime in Kiev, though it doesn’t seem like Moscow would have to do much besides stand aside and watch the interim government’s unruly supporters turn on each other.

CONTINUED...

http://consortiumnews.com/2014/03/30/ukraines-inconvenient-neo-nazis/

[KoKo]

3. Nuland has his ear again...and John McCain is texting him?

Published on Wednesday, April 16, 2014 by Consortium News
Ukraine, Through the US Looking Glass
by Robert Parry

The acting president of the coup regime in Kiev announces that he is ordering an “anti-terrorist” operation against pro-Russian protesters in eastern Ukraine, while his national security chief says he has dispatched right-wing ultranationalist fighters who spearheaded the Feb. 22 coup that ousted elected President Viktor Yanukovych.The Times’ front page on Wednesday was a bizarre story by David M. Herszenhorn accusing the Russian government of engaging in a propaganda war by making many of the same points that you could find – albeit without the useful context about Parubiy’s neo-Nazi background – in the same newspaper.

On Tuesday, Andriy Parubiy, head of the Ukrainian National Security Council, went on Twitter to declare, “Reserve unit of National Guard formed #Maidan Self-defense volunteers was sent to the front line this morning.” Parubiy was referring to the neo-Nazi militias that provided the organized muscle that overthrew Yanukovych, forcing him to flee for his life. Some of these militias have since been incorporated into security forces as “National Guard.”

Parubiy himself is a well-known neo-Nazi, who founded the Social-National Party of Ukraine in 1991. The party blended radical Ukrainian nationalism with neo-Nazi symbols. Parubiy also formed a paramilitary spinoff, the Patriots of Ukraine, and defended the awarding of the title, “Hero of Ukraine,” to World War II Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera, whose own paramilitary forces exterminated thousands of Jews and Poles in pursuit of a racially pure Ukraine.

---------------
During the protests, neocon Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, took the stage with leaders of Svoboda – surrounded by banners honoring Stepan Bandera – and urged on the protesters. Even before the demonstrations began, prominent neocon Carl Gershman, president of the U.S.-funded National Endowment for Democracy, had dubbed Ukraine “the biggest prize.”

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/04/16-6

[Octafish]

4. Just another stop on the road to Tehran.

Neocons make strange bedfellows with fascists, screwing whomever necessary to get their way.

Now, why would that be?



The people who tried to overthrow FDR in 1933 had kids.

Like the nut in Berlin, it seems like the neocons are herding humanity toward a point where they can take us all with them.

Do you think the Chinese and the Russians will mend their differences enough to ignite World War III?

[KoKo]

6. I think that there are very uninformed people...who still want to fight the "Cold War"

who are Militaristic and Easily Manipulated who are being duped. It's a Global Power Play...and you and I and the rest of the informed are just minor players here in the USA. But, I do believe the Young across the world won't stand for this stuff...because so many of the SEEKERS will have a more Global view and access to Info...and while not all of them will use it wisely for humantarian GOOD...there will be others who got past the Gatekeepers. And, that will be the difference.

[karynnj]

10. No - he said these were distributed -- and they were --

He did not accuse any specific group of doing it. There is no doubt it was distributed. The only question was by whom. Kerry said that ALL groups, etc must end these attacks.

Why do you have a problem with that? Not to mention nothing Parry writes is in disagreement with what Kerry said.

[KamaAina]

5. Whoops! Looks like Kerry got punk'd

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117415/ukraine-not-ordering-its-jews-register

Today, the Western press caught up with the Ukrainian rumor mill: apparently, the People's Republic of Donetsk had ordered all Jews over the age of 16 to pay a fee of $50 U.S. and register with the new "authorities," or face loss of citizenship or expulsion. This was laid out in officious-looking fliers pasted on the local synagogue. One local snapped a photo of the fliers and sent it to a friend in Israel, who then took it to the Israeli press and, voila, an international scandal: American Twitter is abuzz with it, Drudge is hawking it, and, today in Geneva, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry slammed the fliers as "grotesque."

The Donetsk Jewish community dismissed this as "a provocation," which it clearly is. "It's an obvious provocation designed to get this exact response, going all the way up to Kerry," says Fyodr Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs. "I have no doubt that there is a sizeable community of anti-Semites on both sides of the barricades, but for one of them to do something this stupid—this is done to compromise the pro-Russian groups in the east."

Why? The Russian government has been playing up the (real but small) role of fascists and neo-Nazis in the victory of the EuroMaidan in Kiev. The Ukrainian government, utterly powerless to fight off the Russians and their local stooges, have had to rely on other methods, like leaking taped phone calls of allegedly local separatists getting their commands from Moscow. This may be just another tactic to smear the so-called anti-Maidan in the east of Ukraine: you think we're fascists? Well, take a look at these guys.

Indeed, the Russian web chatter has sniffed the hand of the Dnipropetrovsk city government. (Dnipropetrovsk is another eastern Ukrainian city, but one that has been spared this chaos, in part because of the firm hand of its new regional governor, Jewish businessman Ihor Kolomoisky. One (Jewish) blogger said he received a similar looking flier from an official in the Dnipropetrovsk city administration.

D'oh!

[KoKo]

9. Interesting that ...isn't it. Glad she had courage to Update her former report.

There are many forces at odds in Ukraine..including our own interests. Good for her she has Updated her report...

[karynnj]

11. Not at all - the fact is that these fliers were put out by someone

I heard what Kerry said and he did not assign blame for them --- just said that they and ALL other similar attacks on any ethnicities are wrong.

[KoKo]

19. Why don't we WAIT to find out the "somone" who put them out there..

You are smart enough to know that there is Propaganda Flying from all sides about this.

So...instead we see "Jump to Gun" reports from even in one Post: "Radio Free Europe" spreading as much Propaganda as the Russian Sources that many DU'ers love to trash us who like to see news "from all sides" for posting here on DU.

So...I think it will "Sort Out.'

[karynnj]

20. Yes I know that

However, Kerry did NOT assign responsibility. The problem - no matter who put this out - is that it is despicable. Both sides, historically have a major history of antisemitism. No matter which side or group sent this out the key victims were any Jews who were intimidated by it.

Not to mention, he was not speaking of one incident or even just incidents against the Jews. A major point in the agreement is that there need to be safe guards for any minority. I suggest that you listen to more than a sentence before assuming that he was blaming the Russians for this - he wasn't. Not to mention, Lavrov made very similar points. They were in agreement that this is a key issue and these things must stop.

[KoKo]

21. Of course it should STOP...but the assignation of blame must be ferreted out, also

One needs to know sources of this kind of hate and see the affiliations and not just run arround screaming with Hair on Fire.

I know you are not one of those folks...but, in the heat of the moment our biases often factor in and can be used for evil purposes. That's why we need to check sources and track them down for the TRUTH if it can be found at all in the Global Power Plays.

I understand what you are saying...but still hold out to find better sources of info so that we can know what and who we are dealing with before we Jump the Gun.

Just saying...to hold back a bit and watch and wait a bit.

[karynnj]

22. Of course they should find who printed this

Apparently the Pro-Russia group does not deny that their organization distributed it.

However, here is what Kerry actually said as given in the FULL TEXT of the remarks:

The parties agreed today that all sides must refrain from the use of violence, intimidation, or provocative actions. And we strongly condemned and rejected all expressions of extremism, racism, and religious intolerance, including anti-Semitism.

Let me say a quick word about that. Just in the last couple of days, notices were sent to Jews in one city indicating that they had to identify themselves as Jews. And obviously, the accompanying threat implied is – or threatened – or suffer the consequences, one way or the other.

In the year 2014, after all of the miles traveled and all of the journey of history, this is not just intolerable; it’s grotesque. It is beyond unacceptable. And any of the people who engage in these kinds of activities, from whatever party or whatever ideology or whatever place they crawl out of, there is no place for that. And unanimously, every party today joined in this condemnation of that kind of behavior.

In addition, recently, the Ukrainian – the Russian Orthodox Church members in Ukraine were threatened that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was somehow going to attack them in the course of the next days. That kind of behavior, that kind of threat, has no place. And all parties agreed that that kind of behavior is not just grotesque and unacceptable, but it will not stand the test of the direction that Ukraine wants to move in.

http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2014/04/224947.htm

Note that Kerry is condemning ALL attacks - Note that speaking of Russian Orthodox Church members being threatened that the Ukrainian church would attack them that he uses the same words "grotesque and unacceptable". In both cases, he does not state who has made the threats - just that they have been made and used to intimidate.

Don't you agree that given that BOTH sides have had a history of bad behavior towards minorities that it should be condemned? Not to mention, one of the demands of the Russians was that the rights of (at least some - ie the Russian speaking) minorities be protected. What Ukraine is agreeing to do is to enact the reforms that protect the minorities. From the reports of Lavrov's comments, he too spoke of ending these behaviors as well.

I am Jewish and my husband's maternal grandmother and grandfather immigrated from near Odessa. Years ago, in Hebrew school, my kids all learned of life in the shtetls and the pograms. They knew that my husband's grandmother thought that she had lost the entire family she left behind to illness, pograms and then the Nazis. (In fact, we learned from a descendant, that while many did die in a typhoid epidemic and pograms, her sister's family stopped writing because it was dangerous. Her husband later accepted an engineering job in Siberia before the war -- saving them from the Nazis. A combination of the likely unique name of my husband's uncle, an old photo sent back to his grandmother's family, and the internet resulted in meeting some of relatives who came to the US in recent years.) That the Ukrainians have a very bad history is not questionable. The same though is true of the Russians.

At this point, especially if these steps laid out in Geneva are actually taken, it is possible - that like Germany - Ukraine may confront their past or at least begin to teach that these actions against any group - whether religious, ethnic or anything else are as Kerry said "grotesque".

[malaise]

7. BS

That's the best response they have to the neo-fascists in Western Ukraine.

[WillyT]

8. I'm Just Reporting What's Out There... Gotta Admit...

I figured it was some sort of local provocation...

Until I heard Kerry's remarks on NPR this morning.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. There is a huge grain of historic truth

and those who can are getting out

[KoKo]

14. You feel that Kerry is being muzzled and doesn't have Full USA Media Reporting

What he Says?

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. As I said, I will not engage you on this subject any more

I trashed that thread, and I am willing to trash this one too.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Well at least you got more of a response than I did

One of my neighbors went to his investment guy and withdraw a large amount of cash after talking with family members in Kiev. He bought each of them a one way to Israel. They will be out of Kiev by the day after tomorrow. This ranges from the 90+ patriarch who was around the last time around, and was the most vocal about getting out, to a three month old.

I take that as evidence that things are hotter than some folks here want to admit.

[KoKo]

17. Look if your friends and relatives are Business People in Ukraine then it's

THEIR INTERESTS that are causing them to leave because they are worried about Ukraine Economy...and not that Putin is going to do a Pogrom like Hitler to send them to Concentration Camps.

It's the BUSINESS INTERESTS pushing Obama to go to WAR with RUSSIA..

Have you thought about that? I have no problem with your Jewish Relatives being afraid....and if I were in that situation I would find a way to FLEE also...because things will be destabilized over there for a long while. But this is NOT Nazi Germany that's going on...it's Global Interests at play and your savvy business friends and family can see that it's time to cut out and continue elsewhere. That's a Business Decision and not Fear of Gas Chambers.

Just saying........

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. hmm hm...

[WillyT]

18. Yeah... If I Were Jewish And Living There... And Had The Means... I'd Take A Nice Looong Vacation...

Out Of The Country/Area/Region/Continent...

How worried should we be?

Our reporters in Donetsk have spoken to members of the Jewish community, who say that while the letters do appear to have been handed out, it doesn't seem to be a big deal.

Whatever actually happened, there is one clear takeaway here: With both sides accusing the other of being "Nazis," and accusing the other of anti-Semitism, Eastern Ukraine's Jewish community is having an especially tough time during the Ukrainian crisis.

At the end of: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/04/17/what-we-know-about-the-grotesque-leaflet-handed-out-to-jews-in-donetsk/

[RainDog]

16. smgdh n/t