Predicting pogroms in the Ukraine is a safe way to get a prophet’s reputation. No other nation has exterminated so many Jews.
Slavs destroyed the Khazar Kingdom though assimilated much of its culture; the Russian language is heavily rooted in Hebrew.
In the 17th century, Bogdan Khmelnitsky’s hordes massacred between 100,000 and 250,000 Jews with a brutality unknown even at the time. Ukrainian historians claim his massacres were somehow related to alleged abuses of Jewish tax administrators and liquor sellers. Wow! As if most of them were Jewish, as if there were more than a few hundred Jews doing those jobs, as if the drunkard population resented tavern keepers. Jews were not tax farmers in scores of European countries, yet Christians killed them. Khmelnitsky is a hero of modern Ukraine, a country showered by US attention, welcomed by Israel, and aspiring to EU membership. Thousands of Ukrainians have received the government’s Bogdan Khmelnitsky medal. Schoolchildren learn from approving teachers of his struggle against the Jews who oppressed poor Ukrainian masses. In the 18th century, Pylyp Orlyk, Ukrainian warlord and a later convert to Islam, wrote a constitution. Ukrainian students now learn it as an early example of democratic liberalism. Indeed. I won’t repeat what the constitution says about the Jews.
Pogroms continued frequently, but tremendously increased in number and scope since the late 19th century. Liberation movement provoked politically motivated pogroms from 1905. Jews,who were banned from agriculture and did not join proletariat, became class enemies of Ukrainians - another good reason to kill us.
Socialist Revolution of 1917 pulled down even the nominal legislative safeguards against murder of Jews. Ukrainian warlords fought each other, but agreed on one point - kill the Jews. Meet Simon Petlyura, another hero of modern Ukraine. The U.S.-supported Ukrainian president passed executive order that requires regional authorities to build monuments to Petlyura and name streets after him. Curiously, Ukraine signed the European Convention on the International Validity ofCriminal Judgments. In 1926, French court acquitted a Jew who killed Petlyura on the grounds unprecedented in modern justice - the Jew, the court decided, justly avenged his family murdered by Petlyura’s troops. Thus, the Ukrainian hero turns out a convicted mass murderer. Another 250 thousand Jews killed in the extermination campaign larger than any that took place before.
Then came the Nazis. Independent Ukraine took compensation from Germany for the murdered Jews. Germans, sure, organized the extermination, but Ukrainians have carried it out. Queasily hypocritical Ukrainian government holds annual memorial parties at Babyi Yar, a notorious site of mass murder. No one admits that the executioners were Ukrainians, or that the Ukrainians reported Jews to the Nazis and cheered when Jews were marched to death.
the government always sanctioned and often encouraged Ukrainian pogroms. In 1905, police disarmed Jewish self-defense units to clear the path for Ukrainian murderers into Jewish quarters. Current president and major leaders keep close friendship with virulently anti-Semitic Ukrainian nationalists. Jewish barons add to the popular hatred. Ukraine is a poor country, but they steal, cheat on taxes, privatize state assets for pennies, and push their way into parliament. Jewish mayors came to power in rigged elections, and extort enormous bribes from local entrepreneurs, embezzle, and oppress the people. Gentile officials do likewise, but Jews are more visible.
No hand combat training or light firearms will protect Ukrainian Jews. Poor fellows, why do they stay there for certain death?
To say the least, the relationship between Jews and Ukrainians historically has been tense, violent, hateful, but also interdependent and human.The above account is very good at conflating elements of truth with lies. The fact that this is an emotional subject makes the matter that much easier.What is specifically wrong with the above opinion?For starters, it is incorrect that Ukrainians exterminated more Jews than any other nation. In this, they are beaten among others by Germans, Russians, and Arabs. The story of Bohdan Khmelnytsky is true. Under his uprising, many Jews were killed, and when I say many I mean the five digit number cited above. The store is however much more complex (isn't everything)? At the time, the Ukrainian nation - by the way, historians, such as Andrew Wilson, do not recognize existence of a Ukrainian nation until a couple of centuries later - comprised of the worker peasants was oppressed by Jew tax collectors and usurers. This similar type of hatred can be found in Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice" where Jews were hated by the non-Jews for guess what - charging high interest rates, et cetera. The Jews at the time of Bohdan's uprising were middlemen of Polish government walking and collecting the money. The also served the same function under the Tsar. Every now and then, the Poles and later Russians had to let their populations to vent their anger by allowing pogroms, and massacres. In the case of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, he used this mass hatred of the oppressing Jews to his advantage (as Henry Kissinger would call it - realpolitik).What does the Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk say about the Jews? I have no idea and the author does not say so I will just have to skip that rhetorical device. Orlyk however was not a warlord. Orlyk was a cossack Hetman who was elected following Hetman Mazepa's death (after the Battle of Poltava against Russians). Also, I am almost certain that Orlyk's constitution is not in Ukrainian children's curriculum or even at the high school level. It simply is not (maybe it should be, but I still have no idea what it says about the Jews).Another note about the pogroms, umm…Poles, Belarussians, Russians, Germans, French populace all had them against the Jews throughout their history. To single out Ukrainians as the worst is a biased and flat out wrong statement.The case of Petlura is similar to Khmelnytsky in that both are valued for their fight for freedom of Ukrainians from oppression. Both killed Jews and so will be hated by others. This cannot be reconciled. A modern comparison is Ariel Sharon who is respected and revered by many Jews, but is hated by Palestinians and Arabs. Who is right?Before discussing Nazis, let's look at the 1930s in Ukraine and the murder of millions of Ukranians by communist idealists during what is known as HOLODOMOR. Wikipedia I think has an article about that as well, and according to it between 7 to 10 millions of Ukrainians and then some of Kazakhs and in Kuban region were killed with artificial starvation. Lazar Kaganovich, a Jew, was the top dog. Another middle man?Anyhow, Holodomor is to Ukrainians what Holocaust is to Jews. That is a lot of people dead on both sides! One important distinction is of course that nobody knows about the Holodomor because unlike the Germans, the Soviets did not keep good records and that the KGB still refuses to release its Holodomor files.Finally, if there is a country that really hates Jews, RUSSIA is it. A simple search of internet produces credible evidence.Anyhow, the relations between Jews and Ukrainians are tense, but like I said above the two people do get along if they have to live together. Nothing will erase the history of pain on both sides and Ukrainian nationalists will continue to hate Jews just as the latter will continue to hate Ukrainians and write garbage like this on the internet.The bottom line is that Ukraine accepts Israel as an independent state and supports its right to exist and defend against any attacks. Writings like this belong in the refuse room after they have been critically processed.SEE BELOW:*Israel Voices Concern at Anti-Semitism in Russia, Calls Officials ?Drunks?http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/01/20/israeldrunks.shtml Here is a finding by Euro-Asian Jewish Congress:"In a comparison of anti-Semitism in Russia and Ukraine, researchers have concluded that the situation in Ukraine is noticeably calmer. Manifestations of interethnic conflicts in Ukraine are not as acute as in Russia. The level of Jewish phobia in particular and xenophobia in general is lower among Ukrainians than among Russians, and Ukrainian political groups employ anti-Semitic tactics less than Russia?s politicians."ANTI-SEMITISM IN UKRAINEVyacheslav LikhachevSource: http://www.eajc.org/program_art_e.php?id=10
As a Ukrainian, I am deeply outraged by this article. You all paint us as anti-semitic and in reality Ukrainians helped more Jews during WWII than any other country. I wish all this anti-ukrainianism by Jews would stop. Once both sides have come to agreements, then there will be peace and both sides can unite as one.
But, don't call Ukrainians anti-semitic because as a majority, we don't tolerate anti-semitism in any of our cities. And with Yushchenko, Anti-semitism is going to be harder to spring up in Ukraine.
Roman
Thanks, you made me laugh. I'm visiting Ukraine often, and the heaps of anti-Semitic publications sold at every corner in Kiev and other cities assure me that Ukrainians, Yuschenko included, oppose anti-Semitism.
Attacks on rabbis and Jews around Ukraine also confirm your point of view.
Then, there is a history of pogroms and massive cooperation with Nazis in Ukraine against Jews.
You gays have the slaughterers such as Khmelnitsky, Petlyura, Shuhevich, etc as your national heroes.
And there is MAUP, seething with anti-Semitism and teaching 50,000 young bureaucrats at any given moment.