Zelenskyy To Israel: It's Time To Take Sides

Zelenskyy Tells Israel It’s Time To Take Sides, Compares Russian Invasion to Holocaust

Niamh Harris

Addressing Israeli lawmakers on Sunday Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky criticised Israel for not doing enough to help his country, saying they should now step up to help prevent a Russian “final solution.”

In his fiery zoom speech Zelenskyy compared Russia’s invasion of his country to the actions of Nazi Germany and told Israeli lawmakers that it was finally time for Israel to take sides.

“Ukraine made the choice to save Jews 80 years ago Zelensky said, and “Now it’s time for Israel to make its choice.”

Breitbart reports: He said “102 years after the Nazi party was established, on February 24, an order was given for a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine

“They are using the terminology of the Nazi party. This is a tragedy. When they wanted to destroy Europe and have it surrender, they didn’t want to leave any of you remaining. And now us. They called it the final solution to the Jewish question,” Zelenskyy said while also criticizing Israel for not arming Ukraine.

“We can ask why we can’t receive weapons from you, why Israel has not imposed powerful sanctions on Russia or is not putting pressure on Russian business. Either way, the choice is yours to make, brothers and sisters, and you must then live with your answer, the people of Israel,” the Ukrainian President added. The speech, which was also broadcast live to thousands of pro-Ukraine demonstrators in the central Habima square in Tel Aviv, was also a plea to Israel’s government to provide weapons to Ukraine.

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Zelensky’s Address to Israel Didn’t Go Over Very Well

Ryan Jones

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky finally got his chance to directly address Members of Knesset and the Israeli public on Sunday, but it didn’t go over very well.

While Zelensky has taken a conciliatory and pleading tone in similar addresses to other parliaments and to the US Congress, he was far more combative in speaking to Israel.

The bottom line:

Zelensky wants Israel to explicitly condemn Russia, join Western sanctions against Moscow, and provide Ukraine with military equipment, as many other Western nations have done.

From the perspective of Israel’s government (and putting aside all other considerations, such as maintaining freedom of operation in Russian-controlled Syria) mediating a ceasefire will save far more lives than providing Ukraine with the weapons needed to fight on, even if it fails to fully protect Ukrainian sovereignty.

In this light, Israeli leaders believe they are actually doing more to save Ukraine than any other nation.

In a speech riddled with Holocaust references, Zelensky criticized Israel for in his estimation doing far too little to help Ukraine fight the Russian invaders.

“The Russians use the terminology of the Nazi party, they want to destroy everything. The Nazis called this ‘the final solution to the Jewish question,’” he said. “And now… in Moscow… they’re using those words, ‘the final solution.’ But now it’s directed against us and the Ukrainian question.”

“I’m sure you feel our pain, but can you explain why we’re still waiting… for your help… when other countries are giving help? Why isn’t Israeli help, or even entry permits, forthcoming?” continued Zelensky. “What is it? Indifference? Political calculation? Mediation without choosing sides?”

In conclusion, the Ukrainian leader stressed: “I’ll 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.”

Outrageous comparison

Israeli government ministers weren’t impressed, and panned the Ukrainian president for what they called his “blunt and exaggerated” criticism. They were particularly unsettled by Zelensky, who is Jewish, repeatedly invoking Holocaust imagery to shame Israel into action.

The Ynet news portal quoted one senior government official as slamming Zelensky for referencing the Holocaust when so many Ukrainians had actively aided the Nazis in their efforts to exterminate local Jews.

In a response posted to Twitter, Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel noted that while he “admires the Ukraine president and supports the Ukrainian people in heart and deed, the terrible history of the Holocaust cannot be rewritten. …This war is horrific, but the comparison to the horrors of the Holocaust and the final solution is outrageous.”

The Ukrainian leader also earned the ire of figures in the Likud-led opposition.

Zelensky is trying “to rewrite history and erase the involvement of the Ukrainian people in the extermination of Jews,” charged far-right MK Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionism).

Senior Likud MK Yuval Steinitz warned that the Ukrainian president’s words “bordered on Holocaust denial.”

“War is always a terrible thing,” wrote Steinitz in his response to the speech, “but every comparison between a regular war, as difficult as it is, and the extermination of millions of Jews in gas chambers in the framework of the Final Solution is a complete distortion of history.”

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