Jewish Leader Urges Netanyahu, Ya’Alon To Send Forces To Protect Ukrainian Jews

[Purveyor]

Posted on February 27, 2014 by JNS.org.

(JNS.org) General Director of the European Jewish Association Rabbi Menachem Margolin asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon to send Israeli security forces to protect the Ukrainian Jewish community.

In a letter, Margolin expressed the helplessness experienced by Ukrainian Jews in the wake of a Molotov cocktail attack against a synagogue in Zaporozhye, a phone threat against a rabbi, and anti-Semitic graffiti scrawled in various locations. These incidents, although not directly connected to ongoing protests in Ukraine, came amid the past week's violence in the country and the toppling of President Viktor Yanukovych.

"Community reports indicate an alarming, and increasingly violent, trend of hatred towards Jewish targets—and so far, there’s been no reaction… The challenge is clear and the State must help to take security measures for what has become a Jewish emergency," Margolin wrote, Haaretz reported.

more...

http://www.jns.org/news-briefs/2014/2/27/jewish-leader-urges-netanyahu-yaalon-to-send-forces-to-protect-ukrainian-jews#.UxEbRc42IWc

[Purveyor]

1. Related: Ukraine: Neo-Nazi Militia Leader Threatens 'Civil War'

First Publish: 2/5/2014, 10:19 AM

As Ukraine's nearly three-month long revolution drags on, some observers are becoming increasingly concerned that far-right militias are "hijacking" the protest movement.

Since the uprising against President Viktor Yanukovych began in November over the government's refusal to consider European Union membership due to Russian pressure, a gaggle of disparate fascist and ultra-nationalist factions have managed to take advantage of the chaos and popular anger against the government, stoked further over the deaths of several opposition activists. They may be relatively small in number but are well organized, determined and, it appears, well-armed.

On Tuesday, in an exclusive interview with TIME World, the leader of the largest coalition of far-right paramilitary factions threatened his forces were preparing for an all-out civil war.

Dmitro Yarosh, the leader of Pravy Sektor (Right Sector), revealed in his first interview with the foreign press that his men had amassed an arsenal of deadly weapons and were prepared to "to defend all of Ukraine" from the government, whom he refers to as "the internal occupiers”. He warned that should negotiations break down between the mainstream opposition and the government his group would take up arms to continue the revolution.

But there are concerns that his group and others on the political fringes could seek to reignite political violence regardless of the outcome of negotiations. Their small numbers make it unlikely they will be particularly successful as peaceful, democratic political parties after any settlement, and so they may have an interest in prolonging the street battles where, in contrast, they have asserted themselves as a real force to be reckoned with.

more...

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/177113#.UxEb3M42IWc

[AverageJoe90]

2. Unfortunately, it looks like the concerns about hijacking seem to be quite well-founded. nt

[FarCenter]

4. Dmitro Yarosh is now something like Deputy Secretary of Defense in US terms.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

3. oy vey