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Bad Thoughts

(2,514 posts)
Sat Mar 1, 2014, 02:18 PM Mar 2014

Maidan and the Jews

This article in Haaretz, The ex-Israeli soldier who led a Kiev fighting unit, is an interview of a Jewish man's involvement in the Maidan revolution and his impressions of its antisemitism. It's interesting that he feels the effort is still worthwhile in spite of the role played by Svoboda, that the issues that are driving the revolution are not centrally identifiable with one group.

From the article:

“There are no signs for concern yet,” said Cohen, “but the West needs to make it clear to Ukraine that how it is seen depends on how minorities are treated.”

On Wednesday, Russian State Duma Chairman Sergey Naryshkin said Moscow was concerned about anti-Semitic declarations by radical groups in Ukraine.

But Delta says the Kremlin is using the anti-Semitism card falsely to delegitimize the Ukrainian revolution, which is distancing Ukraine from Russia’s sphere of influence.

“It’s bullshit. I never saw any expression of anti-Semitism during the protests, and the claims to the contrary were part of the reason I joined the movement. We’re trying to show that Jews care,” he said.
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Starry Messenger

(32,342 posts)
2. The Sad Progression of the Ukrainian Protest Movement From Democracy and the Rule of Law to Ultra-na
Sat Mar 1, 2014, 02:44 PM
Mar 2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/oleksandr-feldman/ukraine-protests-nationalism-anti-semitism_b_4588507.html


<snip>

"Ever since the breakthrough success of Svoboda in the 2010 elections and its entrance into Parliament after the 2010 elections, the leaders of Fatherland and UDAR have repeatedly declined entreaties from myself and many other supporters of democracy in Ukraine to break their electoral alliance with Svoboda; apparently seeing that party and its supreme leader, Oleh Tyahnybok, as essential partners in the coalition to topple Yanukovych. Yet during the last days of December, as momentum slipped away from the demonstrators with the news that Yanukovych had buttressed his political position by accepting a $15 billion loan package from Russian President Vladmiir Putin, Fatherland leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk and UDAR leader Vitali Klitschko must have become acutely aware that the ever-growing profile of Svoboda was tarnishing the claim of the Ukrainian opposition coalition protestors to belong in the camp of modern-day Europe instead of the neo-fascist Europe of 70 years ago.

All of this became crystal clear during a cringe-inducing vertep (comedic skit based on Ukrainian folk tradition) performed on the main stage at Euromaidan on New Year's Eve and based in equal parts on the story of the birth of Jesus and contemporary Ukrainian politics. Playing a lead role in the skit, a Svoboda MP named Bogdan Benyuk donned black garb and peyses to play a stereotypical Orthodox Jewish wheeler-dealer character called Zhyd (Kike) who creates obstacles for the new-born Jesus from behind the scenes, and contemplates taking a bribe from a character evoking both King Herod and President Yanukovych to help him crush the protestors. Explaining to the crowd that he is involved in various occupations, including banking, stock market speculation, loan sharking, and hosting a talk show, the Jewish oligarch character sings gleefully, "East and West belong to me; our people are everywhere."

Fascinatingly, however, the Jew switches sides and joins the opposition when he learns that on orders from Herod/Yanukovych, the regime's special forces are preparing to kill the first-born. Nevertheless, the audience is given to understand, the character apparently changes course not necessarily due to a belated outburst of conscience but rather because, in the last analysis, "There is no greater fighter than a frightened Jew." The bottom-line takeaway from the supposedly 'all in good fun' skit, which was followed by a solemn singing of the Ukrainian National anthem, and congratulatory speeches to the crowd from the 'power trinity' of Yatsenyuk, Klitchko and Tyahnybok; appeared to be that from the point of view of the opposition coalition, it is preferable to have the perfidious Jewish oligarch inside the tent pissing out rather than the other way around.

Even more jarring imagery came to the fore the following day, as 15,000 opposition members greeted the New Year by marching in a Svoboda-sponsored torchlight parade down Central Kiev's Kreshatik Boulevard in commemoration of the 105th anniversary of the birth of Stepan Bandera, who cooperated with Nazi Germany in the buildup to the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 and many of whose followers subsequently participated in massacres of Ukrainian Jews. Marchers carried red and black 'blood and soil' nationalist banners and shouted "Glory to the nation, death to the enemies" as they cheered Tyahnbok and expressed their undying love for Bandera."

<snip>

Disclaimer: I don't defend what Russia does either.
 

rdharma

(6,057 posts)
3. “There are no signs for concern yet,”
Sat Mar 1, 2014, 02:47 PM
Mar 2014

This was probably because the Right Sector was too busy with other things to act on their anti-Semitic hatred.

Bad Thoughts

(2,514 posts)
4. There is no easy answer for any minority ...
Sat Mar 1, 2014, 02:49 PM
Mar 2014

... when confronted with changes in the country. Questions of sovereignty touch raw nerves far too easily, and can, admittedly, turn into racism. It's useful to note the number of times that the principles of a political movement have been supported in order to temper that racism.

Igel

(35,197 posts)
7. It's what's not said in the media that's telling.
Sat Mar 1, 2014, 02:57 PM
Mar 2014

Yeah, some of the Ukrainians were anti-Semitic. Many of those were engaged in off-Maidan protests. No point denying that they were there.

But there's silence about the other side, so the other side must not be anti-Semitic.

They were. Not reporting that the two sides are about the same lets the claims of anti-Semitism go from being merely factual to being propagandistic. It allows the word "only" to be inferred--it's only the pro-Ukrainian side, not the pro-Russian side, that's anti-Semitic. Only one side is morally corrupt and fascist (which in this case doesn't mean those 20-some points often cited but just "anti-Semitic&quot .

Nobody need lie for a lie to be inferred by listeners. Esp. biased listeners.

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