In a recent article, Jonathan Tobin reviewed the events surrounding the introduction by Anthony Roka, Speaker of the Canadian House in Ottawa, of Yaroslav Hunka as a 99-year-old Ukrainian hero in World War II who was in attendance in the Canadian House gallery. It turned out that this “hero” of Canada and Ukraine was a dedicated member of the Nazi SS and was instrumental in the persecution and death of many Jews during World War II. To celebrate this individual and to ignore the travesties of his past was a monumental faux pas, and Roka resigned as head of the Canadian House. This honoring of Hunka seemed to support Russian accusations against Ukraine that there is a strong thread of Nazification in Ukraine which is poisonous to the body politic of Eastern Europe. 

Tobin finds reason after reason to see active anti-Semitism in the Ukraine despite the fact that Zelenskyy is Jewish. Yet throughout the article he keeps inserting that Putin’s motives are very bad, implying that we can’t just abandon Ukraine for that would be throwing out the baby with the bath water. Ultimately, the badness of both the Ukraine and Zelensky on the one side and Putin on the other side is so problematic that we are faced with a type of political gordian knot with so much evil that it seems impossible that any policy could have a good end. He even points out that the 17th-century national hero of the Ukraine, Bohdan Khmelnitsky, was a horrible murderer of Jews. But then he rushes to say that Putin is a very bad dude, so the reader should not think that he is taking the side of Putin against Ukraine. Still, he feels comfortable asking about all the money we are spending in the Ukraine.

It has already been revealed ad nauseum that Ukrainian government and business ventures are deeply beset with a subculture of bribery. The country and its institutions move forward with too many individuals who are seeking personal aggrandizement at the expense of the institutions they control or represent. That is why both ethical and legal restraints should be in play and are in play albeit in some countries and companies more than others. Ukraine is a place where ethical restraints are less in play.

However, despite the recent incident in Canada, do not think that there is only anti-Semitism in Ukraine and not in Russia. The Jews were hated in both those countries long before the Nazi presence. Do not pose the issue as Ukrainian anti-Semitism vs. Putin on a power trip, which is what Tobin does, and not only Tobin but other commentators. Catherine the Great of Russia created the Pale of Settlement with its restrictions on where Jews could live, and czars after her and Cossacks under their command set up many restrictions on Jews. My mother’s cousin, who eventually got out of Russia and had her own lovely family and a peaceful life in Tennessee actually was raped repeatedly by Cossacks who had gone through her town or shtetl in Russia before she emigrated. These societies are generally cruel and corrupt whatever achievements they may lay claim to.

Anti-Semitism was not created by the Nazis, but the Nazi policies were the most harsh. The East European Slavic people did not themselves establish concentration camps and gas chambers, but the Jew hatred of the Nazis was not the main reason the Slavs were opposed to the Nazis. The main reason they opposed the Nazis is that they did not want Germans ruling over them.

Too many columnists like Tobin see the leaders and events within a framework of civil rational discourse. He and others strain to make sense of that which cannot be understood from a western civilization or American civilization mindset. Too many political figures -- especially in the former communist countries -- are power-mad pigs beholden to criminals masquerading as officials and top businessmen (oligarchs).

Who knows who is pulling Zelenskyy’s strings? Are there oligarchs telling him “Do diss,Volodymyr, or you vill vake up dead.” Stop thinking of oligarchs as though they are simply overaggressive lobbyists. No. They are mobsters. And we know that Hunter, and most likely our President, had dealings with these people.

Consider Hunter Biden as he sat on the board of Burisma. He was obviously corrupt. He was paid for his connection to his father, and Tony Bobulinski already told Tucker Carlson that Biden’s brother told him that they could do this because of plausible deniability. All that means is that with the network of over 15 companies set up in Biden family members’ names, a specific payoff to Joe for a particular policy decision or moneys to Ukraine could not be proven or tracked. That’s the way of oligarchs, and Joe essentially became part of the Ukrainian oligarchal setup. He was bought and paid for, body and soul. The corruption of Ukraine and of Russia and the Bidens is the main story here.

Hopefully the above commentary and reflection on history is beginning to open our eyes to the reality that we are sending a fortune to Ukraine not because of its higher moral standing. There is no higher moral standing there, any more than in Russia, regarding ethical conduct or attitudes and practices of government and “business.” And both countries have a reprehensible history related to Jews. Rather, the multiple LLCs in the names of Biden family members as well as conversations with Bobulinski and Devon Archer suggest that our President was the “big guy” in a brilliant but illegal scheme of influence peddling.

It seems likely that Joe Biden was on the receiving end of so many bribes from Ukraine, he must now pay off his “owners.” They are calling in the years of payoffs. Give us support or we will out you. Give us support because we supported you.  We bought your services and you willingly promised to supply the needed services at a time of need. This is that time, and we are calling in what we bought! That demand coming from the oligarch class in Ukraine is probably why we are throwing so much support to Ukraine, and this writer is also assuming that there are also corrupt dealings between the Bidens and Russia, which is why the President has not taken an even tougher line against Russia.

True statesmanlike leadership from the U.S. would have put our political currency into establishing a truce, not in defending Ukraine to the extent that we have. Our policy seems to be an expression of U.S. corruption at the highest level.

Tobin sidesteps the entire issue of Biden corruption and Russian and Ukrainian oligarch corruption in favor of addressing neo-Nazism in Ukraine.

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