If we look objectively at the facts, a curious commonality between Ukraine and Israel emerges that helps explain why the pro-Hamas crowd at Columbia has no particular interest in protesting against Russia’s criminal war against Ukraine.
Russia does not acknowledge Ukraine’s right to be sovereign in any part of its historical homeland - the Palestinians take the same view of Israel.
Russia rejects, ignores or rewrites Ukraine’s documented history - the Palestinians do the same with Jewish history.
Russia seeks Ukraine’s destruction and absorption - the Palestinians have the same goal for Israel.
Russia attacked Ukraine unprovoked and conducted massacres of Ukrainian civilians - the Palestinians did the same to Israel and Israelis on October 7, 2023.
The international law doctrine of uti possidetis juris is what makes Crimea and the Donbas legally part of Ukraine - it is the same doctrine that makes the disputed territories a/k/a “Occupied Palestinian Territory” legally part of Israel.
Russia’s war of aggression has caused untold suffering, death and destruction as has the Palestinian decision to break a permanent ceasefire and invade attack Israel.
There is another truism at work: if Russia and the Palestinians laid down their arms, there would be peace. If Ukraine or Israel laid down their arms, there would be neither Ukraine nor Israel.
Given all this, if you support Hamas then it makes it that much more likely that you also support Russia.
That Ukraine had a history of antisemitism so severe that the few Jewish survivors of the Holocaust saw the Ukrainians as worse than Nazis only places a far greater moral obligation on Ukraine toward Israel than the other way around. It is dealing with this past at a glacial rate - with President Zelinskyy’s statement to the Knesset that Ukraine protected its Jews against the Nazis showing either a willful ignorance of history though more likely the effects of a Soviet revisionist history of consistent “antifascism”. Either way, his comment was a gross affront to historical trust and so a (to be charitable) unintended insult to Jews worldwide.
And, of course, the pro-Hamas crowd is not only suffused with antisemitism but seems to gory in dreading it.
Thank you for your comment Charles! I think it’s likely that Ukraine will shift towards trying to have better relations with Israel but of course that is also so dependent on Ukraine winning this war.
I also really like that you talked about the Soviet revisionist history where they had considered themselves “consistently anti-fascist.” A massive part of the Soviet narrative that a lot of people still believe in, decades after the Soviet Union has fallen.
If we look objectively at the facts, a curious commonality between Ukraine and Israel emerges that helps explain why the pro-Hamas crowd at Columbia has no particular interest in protesting against Russia’s criminal war against Ukraine.
Russia does not acknowledge Ukraine’s right to be sovereign in any part of its historical homeland - the Palestinians take the same view of Israel.
Russia rejects, ignores or rewrites Ukraine’s documented history - the Palestinians do the same with Jewish history.
Russia seeks Ukraine’s destruction and absorption - the Palestinians have the same goal for Israel.
Russia attacked Ukraine unprovoked and conducted massacres of Ukrainian civilians - the Palestinians did the same to Israel and Israelis on October 7, 2023.
The international law doctrine of uti possidetis juris is what makes Crimea and the Donbas legally part of Ukraine - it is the same doctrine that makes the disputed territories a/k/a “Occupied Palestinian Territory” legally part of Israel.
Russia’s war of aggression has caused untold suffering, death and destruction as has the Palestinian decision to break a permanent ceasefire and invade attack Israel.
There is another truism at work: if Russia and the Palestinians laid down their arms, there would be peace. If Ukraine or Israel laid down their arms, there would be neither Ukraine nor Israel.
Given all this, if you support Hamas then it makes it that much more likely that you also support Russia.
That Ukraine had a history of antisemitism so severe that the few Jewish survivors of the Holocaust saw the Ukrainians as worse than Nazis only places a far greater moral obligation on Ukraine toward Israel than the other way around. It is dealing with this past at a glacial rate - with President Zelinskyy’s statement to the Knesset that Ukraine protected its Jews against the Nazis showing either a willful ignorance of history though more likely the effects of a Soviet revisionist history of consistent “antifascism”. Either way, his comment was a gross affront to historical trust and so a (to be charitable) unintended insult to Jews worldwide.
And, of course, the pro-Hamas crowd is not only suffused with antisemitism but seems to gory in dreading it.
Thank you for your comment Charles! I think it’s likely that Ukraine will shift towards trying to have better relations with Israel but of course that is also so dependent on Ukraine winning this war.
I also really like that you talked about the Soviet revisionist history where they had considered themselves “consistently anti-fascist.” A massive part of the Soviet narrative that a lot of people still believe in, decades after the Soviet Union has fallen.