IPFS
Holocaust Remembrance Day Duplicity
Written by Stephen Lendman Subject: Israelby Stephen Lendman
It bears repeating what previous articles stressed. Washington bears full responsibility for Ukrainian crisis conditions.
Russia alone goes all-out to resolve them responsibly. It doesn't matter. Propaganda wars rage.
Brazen lies repeat. Lawless sanctions were imposed. New ones followed. On Sunday, Obama's deputy national security advisor Tony Blinkin said:
"We're going to save a little news for Monday but what I can tell you is this. We will be looking to designate people who are in (Putin's) inner circle, who have a significant impact on the Russian economy."
"Starting this week, in co-ordination with our allies and partners, we'll be exerting additional pressure on people closest to Putin, the companies they control, the defense industry, all of this."
"We'll be looking to designate companies that they and other inner circle people control. We'll be looking at taking steps, as well, with regard to high-technology exports to their defense industry."
"All of this together is going to have an impact."
Obama lied claiming "strong evidence that (Moscow) encourag(ed) the activities in Eastern and Southern Ukraine."
"The goal here is not to go after Mr. Putin personally. The goal is to change his calculus with respect to how the current actions that he's engaging in could have an adverse impact on the Russian economy over the long haul."
"We're going to be in a stronger position to deter Putin when he sees that the world is unified and the United States and Europe is unified rather than this is just a US-Russian conflict."
World unity doesn't exist. Washington bullies other nations to acquiesce. EU ones harm their own self-interest complying.
Days earlier, coup-appointed putschist prime minister Arseny Yatsenyuk lied claiming Russia wants to "start world war three." He said it's doing it by occupying Ukraine "militarily and politically."
"Attempts at military conflict in Ukraine will lead to military conflict in Europe," he added.
"It is clear that Russia's goal is to wreck the election in Ukraine, remove the pro-Western and pro-Ukrainian government and occupy Ukraine politically and militarily," he claimed.
"Russia's support for terrorists and bandits who torture peaceful citizens is an international crime."
"If the United States, the European Union and the entire international community continues to be united and act together to compel Russia to fulfill its obligations, then we will maintain the peace, stability and international security system that Russia wants to destroy."
Fact: Sanctioning Russia has no legitimacy. Doing so is political. No legal authority exists.
Fact: Washington wants challengers to its global dominance eliminated. It wants pro-Western puppet regimes replacing them.
Fact: It bears repeating. Washington threatens, pressures and bullies other nations into compliance. Hegemons operate this way.
Washington exceeds the worst of previous ones. It threatens humanity's survival.
Fact: Russia goes all-out to resolve Ukrainian crisis conditions responsibly. Washington bears full responsibility for escalating things.
Fact: Washington orchestrated democratically elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's ouster.
Fact: It elevated xenophobic, ultranationalist, anti-Semitic, hate-mongering fascist extremists to power. They have no legitimacy whatever. They represent mob rule.
Fact: Yatsenyuk is a convenient US stooge. Blaming Russia for Kiev crimes doesn't wash.
Fact: Washington is humanity's greatest threat. Lunatics influence policy. Ukraine is ground zero. Challenging Russia risks possible WW III. Great conflicts start this way.
Freedom House calls itself "an independent watchdog organization dedicated to the expansion of freedom around the world."
It deplores what it claims to support. It gets State Department and other US agency funding. It serves Washington's dark side. It furthers its imperial agenda.
David Kramer is executive director. He's hardcore neocon. He's a former Project for the New American Century (PNAC) senior fellow. He held various Bush administration positions.
He's a Russian specialist. He's an Obama task force member. It recommends Russian officials, business leaders and corporations to target.
"While imposing sanctions together with the EU would be nice, the US simply has to lead and not waste more time trying to present a united approach," he said.
"It's easier for us to do so than it is for the Europeans, and they will follow, as long as we lead."
China rejects US/EU sanctions. Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Beijing "consistently opposed threatening or imposing sanctions."
"We believe that sanctions are not conducive to an issue's resolution, and may worsen tensions."
"We call on all sides to keep using dialogue and negotiation to appropriately resolve disagreements, to push for a political resolution to the Ukraine crisis. Sanctions are not in any party's interests."
Aleksey Pushkov heads Russia's lower house State Duma foreign affairs committee. He's a Moscow State Institute of International Relations professor.
"For the United States, Russia is an enemy and China is a potential enemy. But the confrontation course with both major powers is a strategic mistake," he said.
Obama's policy shows "the depth of his despair over (Moscow's) growing international" influence.
Separately, peaceful Kharkov weekend rallies became violent. Right Sector thugs attacked anti-Kiev protesters.
Over a dozen people were injured. So were two police officers. Local TV channels aired masked thugs beating activists.
They used bats and sticks. Cars were vandalized. Beatings were random. Anti-Kiev activists plan a massive May 1 demonstration.
They demand local autonomy. They chanted "No to bloody Kiev junta!"
At 11:30AM local time Monday, Kharkov Mayor Gennady Kerness was shot in the back while jogging.
He's seriously wounded. He may not survive. Interfax reported police investigators "working at the scene. The fact of the event has been entered in the single register of pre-trial investigations," it said.
"(E)fforts are under way to investigate all circumstances of this incident."
At the same time, police detained 15 local residents. They had masks, sticks and Molotov cocktails.
Slavyansk self-defense forces seized six Right Sector gunmen. They're being questioned.
Other self-defense forces were attacked en route to Kramatorsk's airport. Their spokesman said:
"We have obtained information that armed foreigners, mainly from the NATO countries, will be landing at the Kramatorsk airport, and sent our mobile group to check this information."
"We came under fire and had to retreat. However, none of our fighters were injured."
Journal Dmitry Timchuk coordinates anti-Kiev information resistance.
"The night went calmly," he said. "The only exception was the shots fired in the direction of our troops in the area of the Kramatorsk aerodrome."
"In the morning, law enforcement agencies came under fire here again."
On Sunday, pro-Russian activists seized a Donetsk TV station. They want blocked Russian channels reinstated. Technical work is underway to do it.
They plan Donetsk People's Republic television. They want Russian programming aired.
Channel 27 was removed. Russia 24 replaced it. According to station CEO Oleg Dzholos:
"There were many demands. First - switch off Ukrainian channels. I explained that we are Donetsk state TV and radio station and from our central control room, there is only our signal."
"There were experts and they understood me. The following demand was - not a demand, an ultimatum - to switch on, if I am not mistaken, Russia-24 TV channel."
Protesters brought satellite antennas and other equipment. Guards protected them.
In March, putschists blocked at least five Russian channels. They included Vesti, Russia-24, Channel One international broadcasts, RTR 'Pleneta,' and NTV World.
At the time an OSCE statement called doing so "repressive." It's "censorship," it added.
The battle for Ukraine's soul just began. It continues. It threatens to escalate out-of-control. At risk is potential East/West confrontation. All bets are off if it happens.
A Final Comment
Russia bashing propaganda remains intense. Anti-Russian Professor Keith Darden got feature New York Times op-ed space.
He headlined "The War on Truth in Ukraine." He lied claiming "Russian television made Slovyansk look like Guernica."
He cited Washington blaming Russia for crisis conditions beyond "a shadow of a doubt." He ignored clear evidence implicating putschists in Maidan killings.
He nonsensically called it "hard to pinpoint when (things) began." He equivocated on calling what happened a coup. He suggested sham May elections will be legitimate.
He said Russia may intervene "at the point of its own guns." He omitted what readers most need to know.
Washington installed putschists run things. They militant fascist thugs. They have no legitimacy whatever. Darden didn't explain.
Neocon Washington Post editors headlined "In Mr. Putin's Russia, the lights of liberty are flickering," saying:
"As Mr. Putin works to undermine Ukraine, he also is smothering what remains of the independent Internet-based news media and social media amid signs that discredited old Soviet tactics such as travel restrictions are coming back."
"The spark of free expression" is fading, they claimed. They praised Boris Yeltzin. He "g(ave) rise to a society freer than any in Russian history."
They ignored his dark side. He instituted Western-style shock therapy. He bled Russia dry.
He handed its wealth to kleptocratic oligarchs. He committed economic genocide.
He impoverished millions. He hung them out to dry. He let corruption and criminality flourish.
Grand theft became sport. Billions in stolen wealth were hidden in Western banks or offshore tax havens.
He surrounded himself with like-minded apparachiks. He used his presidency for unchallenged political power. He implemented policies behind closed doors.
Democracy was fantasy. Ordinary people had no say. Former Nezavisimaia Gazeta editor-in-chief Vitali Tret'iakov said earlier:
"(F)or the greater part of his presidency, Yeltsin slept, drank, was ill, relaxed, didn't show his face before the people and simply did nothing."
"Despised by the majority of (Russians, he'll) go down in history as the first president of Russia, having corrupted (the country) to the breaking point, not by his virtues and or by his defects, but rather by his dullness, primitiveness, and unbridled power lust of a hooligan."
He represented "free market" gangsterism. He was a Western darling. His human wreckage was ignored. WaPo editors turned a blind eye.
They bashed Putin irresponsibly for "working overtime to dismantle (his) legacy…(T)herein lies a second tragedy of the Ukraine coercion," they claimed.
They lied saying "(t)he rollback of democracy in Russia is not a new story. It began under Mr. Putin more than a decade ago."
Russian democracy shames America's fantasy version. WaPo editors didn't explain.
Wall Street Journal editors headlined "The Russia Problem," saying:
Western countries "need…rethinking (on) how to handle a revanchist Russia."
"…Mr. Putin grabbed Crimea…(H)is special forces are now fueling unrest in eastern Ukraine."
Russia "is an authoritarian regime bent on rewriting the rules of post-Cold War Europe."
"Lacking democratic legitimacy, (it) must employ an increasingly virulent nationalism and foreign conquest to maintain power."
"…(I)f unchecked (it) will continue beyond Ukraine."
Fact: Putin "grabbed" nothing.
Fact: Eastern Ukrainians act entirely on their own volition. No evidence suggests Russian involvement. Plenty indicts America overwhelmingly nationwide.
Fact: No Russian revanchism exists.
Fact: Putin respects national sovereignty and rule of law principles. He champions responsible polar-world policies.
Fact: Washington's hegemonic ambitions threatens humanity.
Fact: Foreign conquest is official US policy.
Fact: It bears repeating. Russian democracy shames America's sham version.
"The West…needs to act with more unity and conviction," said Journal editors. They want tougher anti-Russian policies.
They want more NATO involvement. They called Putin "a growing threat to Europe's peace and stability."
They barely stopped short of urging war. They substituted irresponsible hate-mongering rubbish for legitimate opinion. It's longstanding editorial policy.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity."
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
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http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour
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3 Comments in Response to Holocaust Remembrance Day Duplicity
Interesting observations and inquiries. I would be happy to discuss my perspectives on these things in a (more appropriate) one-to-one format. Powell and/or Ernie have my permission to give you my e-mail address. JEA
Who/what is modern-day Israel? Who/what are the modern-day Jews? Who/what is Lendman? What I mean is this.
Your average, everyday, modern Jews, both in America and in Russia, are some of the nicest, most helpful, industrious, gentle, wonderful people in the world. They stick together, yet harm nobody else except in defense. However, Jews can be a clever people. This is obvious from the question of whether or not Hitler and Stalin had Jewish ancestries.
Average non-Jewish people would answer the above question by considering genealogies and the DNA record. Average Jewish people would answer the question from a religious/brotherhood/national law standpoint... whether or not their mothers were considered Jews according to Jewish law. So, a person's "Jewishness" may be very different depending on whose explanation you listen to.
It would seem that from either standpoint, Jewish or non-Jewish, that Hitler did NOT have Jewish ancestry, but Stalin DID. Now, why is this important to this article? It shows the true Lendman and the true Israel.
Lendman is constantly in favor of Russia, and constantly against Israel. Yet Hitler, who was not Jewish, might have caused the execution of something like 6 million Jews during the WWII times. And Stalin, who at least WAS of Jewish ancestry, executed as many as 10 times the number of Jews as Hitler did.
Russia has not changed in their goals. They have only changed in their tactics. Yet Lendman is in favor of Russia. Is Lendman so against the Jews that he is trying to support a government that would exterminate the Jews all around? Who really is Lendman?
Yet, the current Jews are not exactly what they seem, but from a different direction than Lendman's. As would almost any people, the Jews are entirely against what happened in Hitler's Holocaust. And they are right in this. You see them actively expressing such on a regular basis, all the time. But the question is, why aren't the Jews vocally expressing as much or more anger against Stalin and the Russian Secret Police who executed as many as 10 times the number of Jews as did Hitler? and who had in their own government of the day, multitudes of Jews who exterminated many of their own brothers? Who really are the Jews? at least the Jewish leaders that the Jews seem to follow?
Individual Jewish people are wonderful people. Individual Russians are wonderful people, probably because a whole lot of them are of Jewish ancestry and general upbringing. But who are the Jewish leaders and the politicians of the world, the ones who keep our focus so skewed that we don't see the inequities between Russia and Germany in WWII times? And what is their reason for doing it the way they do?
The President of the State of Israel, Shimon Peres, spoke at the official commemoration ceremony for the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day at Yad Vashem. President Peres spoke about the horrors of the massacre of Hungarian Jewry which took place 70 years ago today and of the destruction of the community in his home town of Vishneva.
President Peres also took the opportunity to address the dangers of the rise of extremism and the need to be vigilant against anti-Semitism across the world.
The following is a translated version of his speech:
“My brothers and sisters, at this very moment I see before my eyes a heartbreaking image. Tens of thousands of people; young and old, male and female, all concentrated on the banks of the Danube River. They are all under orders to face the river, each one tied to the next. Behind them stand Nazi storm troopers, Germans and locals, who cut them down with bullets in the back. To save bullets they tied weights and stones to them so that the dead will drag the living down with them. Children were tied to their mothers, the young to the elderly.
"The bodies of the victims are pushed into the chilling, foaming waters of the Danube. Their cries rise to the heavens and are left without an echo. The perpetrators stand with smiles on their faces, as if they carried out an act of heroism and won a brave battle. The blue Danube is painted red, in a single moment it became a floating grave, innocent victims, innocent people. Itamar Yaoz-Kest, a Jewish poet born in Hungary and sent to Bergen-Belsen, screams in one of his poems, 'What is there to drink? They tell me people. Water with blood?'
It happened in Hungary.
“But then another image comes to my mind. A photo of the town where I was born and spent the first decade of my life. Vishneva. In Vishneva the Nazis used a different technique. They didn't shoot the Jews. They burnt them alive. The Nazis, Germans and locals, gathered up all the Jews left in Vishneva, (half had already emigrated to Israel) and forced them to march to the synagogue which was made of wood.
"My grandfather, wrapped in a Jewish prayer shawl, stood at the head of the march, Rabbi Zvi Meltzer may peace be upon his soul. The same prayer shawl that I huddled under every Yom Kippur to listen to him recite the Kol Nidre prayer in his beautiful voice. They locked the doors of the synagogue and set it on fire with all the Jews still inside. No-one survived. Nothing was left of the synagogue. I can still hear the Kol Nidre prayer, which my grandfather would recite, in my heart.
'We carry the grief and the genius'
“I visited Vishneva when I was Foreign Minister of Israel and I was accompanied by the Foreign Minister of Belarus, a delegation of senior government officials, and a honorary motorcade. On the way to Vishneva we passed the train station at Bogdanov. The station still operates but during the war years the rails were heaving with carriages packed with Jews on the way to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
I imagined hearing the trains. The contradiction between the noise of the motorcade and the screams of help from the trains was ghastly. This station, from which we travelled to Israel, is the station that took my people to the death camps. What happened to them could have happened to me. It could have happened to many of us here tonight.
"'Saved,' wrote Wislawa Szymborska, 'because you were first, saved because you were last, because to the left, to the right, because it rained, because a shadow fell.' Everything was by chance. The murdered live in our hearts. Each of us carries in our hearts the grief of his brothers and sisters who perished, like we carry the genius of the creation of Israel. Israel is a monument of grief for their deaths, a monument of genius for their memory, in our homeland.
“The question still reverberates in our head, which has no answer and which I doubt will ever be answered, 'Where were these murderers born? Where were they educated? How did the landscape of cultured Europe transform into a harsh jungle in which wild beasts walked?' We know the geographical answer; the human answer does not exist.
The destruction of Hungarian Jewry
“This year is seventy years since the destruction of Hungarian Jewry. The Nazis invaded on March 19th 1944, a year before the end of the Second World War, and four years before the creation of the State of Israel. They almost immediately set about destroying the Jews. They did it with brutal efficiency. Within a month all the Jews were labelled with yellow stars and concentrated in the ghettos. No-one allowed in, no-one allowed out. The hunger and epidemics preceded the bullets and the gas. Within another month all the rest were sent to the death camps. To Auschwitz-Birkenau.
“Close to half a million Jews were murdered for no reason. We won't forget the Hungarian Righteous Among the Gentiles, who risked their lives to save Jewish lives. They are few in number but they carried with courage the image of humanity. The President of Hungary will take part tomorrow in the March of the Living in Poland, a gesture worth of admiration. However, we must not ignore any occurrence of anti-Semitism, any desecration of a synagogue, any tomb stone smashed in a cemetery in which our families are buried. We must not ignore the rise of extreme right wing parties with neo-Nazi tendencies who are a danger to each of us and a threat to every nation.
“The State of Israel of today is not only the only possible memorial standing for our perished brothers and sisters. Israel is a deterrence against any attempt at another Holocaust. A strong Israel is our response to the horrors of anti-Semitism but it does not excuse the rest of the world from its responsibility to prevent this disease from returning to their own homes. Allow me to say, based on 90 years of experience, that without a state of our own we would continue to live on our weakness, rather than, as we do today, live on our historic and contemporary abilities.
We lost the best of our parents and the best of our children
“The State of Israel is not a passing event; it is based upon 4,000 years of life. The history of the Jewish people contains no lack of anguish but it is filled with hope – the Eternity of Israel will not lie. Israel seeks peace. Between people and between nations. Peace with nations near and far. We pursue peace because we pursue justice for all regardless of origin, regardless of faith. The right to peace is the right to life. I say with confidence – we are strong enough to repel dangers, we should not be scared of threats and we must not give up on peace.
“As a member of the Jewish people I may not and I cannot forget the horrors of the Holocaust. As a citizen of Israel I will do everything in my power to ensure that the Nazis will not rise again. As a human being I will do everything in my power to bring peace between peoples. Between races. Between religions. Between nations.
“We lost the best of our parents and the best of our children. But our faith that victories are temporary and values are eternal never erred. We will forever be a people who believe in values of man and values of heaven. In the name of the six million, among them one and a half million children, we will carry the torch of Jewish independence. The torch of freedom. The light of man. The belief that we will know an enlightened world in which every person treats the other as a fellow human being. And in which we are all born in the image of G-d. May their memories be blessed.”
There! Fixed it.
JEA