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<\/p>\nIn a caustic address to Knesset members on Sunday, during which he repeatedly invoked the Holocaust and criticized Israel for failing to arm his country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded for help defending against a Russian \u201cfinal solution\u201d for his people.<\/p>\n
Beginning his speech via Zoom to Knesset members, Zelensky said Ukraine and Israel face the same threat from their respective enemies \u2014 \u201cthe total destruction of our people, our state, our people, our state, our culture, even the name: Ukraine, Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zelensky, who is Jewish, noted that February 24 \u2014 the date Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine \u2014 was also the date on which the National Socialist German Workers\u2019 Party, the Nazi party, was founded in Germany in 1920. \u201cIt destroyed entire states and tried to carry out genocide,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
On February 24, 2022, he said, \u201c102 years after the Nazis, the order was given to begin the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has already killed thousands of people and left millions without homes. They\u2019ve become refugees\u2026 in dozens of countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur people are now wandering the world, searching for a place, just as you once wandered\u2026 seeking security, trying to stay alive, and in peace. Exactly what you have sought,\u201d said Zelensky.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Russian invasion of Ukraine is not a military operation as it\u2019s presented in Moscow,\u201d he added. \u201cIt is an all-out war, illegitimate, intended to destroy our people, our country, our cities, our culture and our children. Everything that makes Ukrainians Ukrainians.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zelensky then doubled down on the comparison with the Holocaust, which he has invoked repeatedly since the Russian invasion, at times drawing criticism from Jewish groups.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
(MKs watch Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s address, March 20, 2022. (Knesset channel screenshot)<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Russians use the terminology of the Nazi party, they want to destroy everything. The Nazis called this \u2018the final solution to the Jewish question,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cAnd now\u2026 in Moscow\u2026 they\u2019re using those words, \u2018the final solution.\u2019 But now it\u2019s directed against us and the Ukrainian question.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zelensky noted a Russian missile attack that struck near the Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial in Ukraine\u2019s capital Kyiv \u2014 \u201cYou know that there\u2019s a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust and a Jewish cemetery there\u201d \u2014 and said missiles have targeted Uman, \u201cwhere tens of thousands of Israelis come each year to visit the grave of Rabbi Nachman.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat will remain of Ukraine\u2019s cities after this war?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
Zelensky then appealed to Israeli lawmakers for assistance and criticized them for failing to arm his country, refusing to take in large numbers of refugees, and opting out of many of the biting sanctions against Russia and its interests that have been imposed by the West.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure you feel our pain, but can you explain why we\u2019re still waiting\u2026 for your help\u2026 when other countries are giving help? Why isn\u2019t Israeli help, or even entry permits, forthcoming?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is it? Indifference? Political calculation? Mediation without choosing sides?\u201d Zelensky added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll leave you to provide the answers to these questions, but I want to point out that indifference kills. Calculations can be wrong. You can mediate between countries, but not between good and evil.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zelensky questioned specifically why Israel has not provided weapons to Ukraine nor imposed sanctions on Russia. He said that Israel\u2019s Iron Dome rocket defense system is considered the best in the world \u2014 apparently referring to Israel\u2019s unwillingness to supply it to Ukraine, as Zelensky had previously requested.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know how to defend your interests and help Ukraine. To defend Ukrainians. To protect the Jews of Ukraine,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can ask many times why we\u2019re not getting weapons from you, why Israel hasn\u2019t imposed serious sanctions on Russia.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to provide answers to these questions and live with them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ukrainians made their choice 80 years ago. We saved Jews and that\u2019s why there are Righteous Gentiles among us,\u201d added Zelensky, seemingly ignoring the complicity of some Ukrainians in the Nazi extermination plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople of Israel, you too now have a choice,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\nIsrael has long maintained good relations with both Ukraine and Russia, and has been seeking to use its unique position to broker an agreement between the two sides, as it tries to walk a tightrope maintaining its ties to both countries.<\/p>\n
Ukraine has repeatedly pushed Israel for more support since Russia launched its invasion. But Israel has been seeking to avoid antagonizing Russia, which has a strong presence in Syria, where Israel carries out military action against Iran-linked groups.<\/p>\n
There have been numerous apparent ups and downs in Kyiv\u2019s relations with Jerusalem in recent days, with Ukraine at times lauding Israel\u2019s diplomatic and humanitarian efforts and at other times strongly criticizing its reluctance to help more than it had done.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s relationship with Kyiv has also been strained by the fact that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has avoided directly blaming Russia for the war, although Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has done so on several occasions.<\/p>\n
Channel 12 news reported that 119 lawmakers participated in the online event \u2014 out of approximately 140, which includes all 120 MKs and ministers who are not members of parliament.<\/p>\n
Zelensky\u2019s speech was also broadcast at Tel Aviv\u2019s Habima Square, where thousands of antiwar protests gathered to show their support.<\/p>\n
Following his speech, several Israeli lawmakers criticize Zelensky for drawing comparisons between the Holocaust and Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Hebrew media outlets quoted unnamed senior ministers railing at Zelensky\u2019s \u201coutrageous comparison.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cZelensky also distorted the part his country played in the murder of Jews\u201d during the Holocaust, they said, according to the Ynet news site.<\/p>\n
A number of\u00a0MKs from the far-right Religious Zionism party also criticized Zelensky, with party leader Bezalel Smotrich slamming the Holocaust comparisons and accusing the Ukrainian leader of trying \u201cto rewrite history and erase the involvement of the Ukrainian people in the extermination of Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foreign Minister Lapid, in an initial response to the speech, refrained from criticizing Zelensky.<\/p>\n
\u201cI reiterate my condemnation of the attack on Ukraine and thank President Zelensky for sharing his feelings and the plight of the Ukrainian people with members of the Knesset and the government,\u201d he said in a tweet. \u201cWe will continue to assist the Ukrainian people as much as we can and we will never turn our backs to the plight of people who know the horrors of war.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zelensky had initially sought to give a more formal\u00a0video address before the Knesset plenum, as he has done to other parliaments, but the request was denied by Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy, who explained that the Knesset would not be able to hold such a session while in recess without calling a special meeting.<\/p>\n
Critics said Jerusalem\u2019s decision was motivated by an unwillingness to be seen as siding too closely with Ukraine, while it seeks to maintain working ties with Russia and Bennett tries to mediate between Moscow and Kyiv.<\/p>\n
source:thetimesof israel<\/p>\n
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