A 2006 survey showed that a third of the world supports some degree of
torture to combat terrorism. Yet we deceive ourselves pretending it does not
also destroy our own decency and humanity. Support for torture was highest in
the Jewish state, at 43 percent. Now there's present-day finding that ought also
to preoccupy Rabbi Bleich.
In criticizing President Yushchenko, Yaakov Bleich demonstrates a lack of
sympathy for Ukraine's independence and the many people who fought and died
trying to achieve it.
The real question is: Why were not Petlura,
Konovalets, Melnyk, Bandera, Shukhevych and all the OUN-UPA freedom fighters for
Ukraine's independence recognized as "Heros of Ukraine" immediately after 91% of
Ukrainians voted for independence on 01Dec1991? This should have been done on
22Jan1992 or, at the latest, on 30Jun1992 -- 51 years after Stepan Bandera
declared Ukraine's independence in the face of Hitler's opposition. Eleven days
later, he and the OUN leadership were arrested by the Germans and spent the rest
of the war in concentration camps. Some Nazi collaborators! Rather than the
contempt shown by Mr. Bleich, Viktor Yushchenko should be congratulated for
having the courage to do what his predecessors failed to do.
As for the
comments of Mr. Kryvonis, he appears to be following in the footsteps of the
NKVD/KGB, who went to extraordinary lengths to crush the UPA and create
dissension within the Ukrainian independence movement. If Mr. Kryvonis has
access to the still-secret NKVD/KGB/FSB files on the subject from that era,
perhaps he could enlighten us.
The religious Jews in Ukraine live up to their calling: a Lamp unto Nations.
They spend more time and effort safeguarding their children and taking care of
their elderly than do their gentile counterparts.
Bleich understands
something Lazar, who has insinuated himself into Putin's power verticals,
cannot.
Ukraine is the cradle of Judaism in Eastern Europe; it is the
birthplace of the teachers who rediscovered and re-sanctified Jewish life and
Jewish Law — and Ukraine is, for the first time — imperfectly, impossibly,
irrevocably free.
The nation will not resemble the wet dreams of
nationalists — neither Russian nor Ukrainian — who are forced to exhume
centuries-old arguments and dredge through the muck and mire of history because
they cannot face that fact.
The extreme and absurd arguments posited by
nationalists on both sides cannot be reconciled with the essential question:
what do Ukrainians wish to happen today?
They wish a path free from
flag-waving, emblem-wearing idiots whose affiliation with a party or movement
gives them leave to poke their noses and thrust their hands into a family's
business.
The primary goal of the OUN/UPA was the establishment of an independent
Ukraine. Other posters and the Rabbi are incorrect in their assessments. It is
okay to do something counter to the opinions of 50% of the people if it helps
establish the truth. That is what Yushenko was trying to do...not just pi**
people off.
Read this link and you'll better
understand:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Insurgent_Army
A movement that begins its existence by fracturing and later liquidating
Ukrainian competitors (as OUN(B) did to Bul'ba-Borovets' UPA) is after more than
an independent Ukraine. It is after a Ukraine entirely dependent on
it.
An independent Ukraine is one where families, towns and villages
function well in the absence of any sort of party affiliation or patronage. That
is explicitly NOT the sort of Ukraine OUN(B) envisioned. OUN(B)'s own Act of
Proclamation of Ukrainian Statehood demonstrates an admiration for and
affiliation with the principles of a contemporary movement that had already
captured Spain, Italy, Germany, and arguably Poland, Romania, Hungary as
well.
There is scant evidence in the run-up and aftermath of the war that
OUN(B) changed its tune. There is only one indication that the ideological bent
might even be tempered — and that is at the insistence of Eastern Ukrainians —
and in the wake of the German defeat at Stalingrad, when the leadership
structure of the party and the party-member ownership of property principles
were softened to broaden OUN(B)'s appeal.
These are the same reforms
Bandera overturns upon his release in 1944.
A victorious OUN(B) leads to
a backward, xenophobic, impoverished, brutalizing state akin to
Ceauşescu's Romania — not to a prosperous, modern, forward-looking
Ukraine.
Bury the desire to see it.
The means does not justify the end.
Yushchenko was neither a democrat
or a champion of European integration and European values. He was not a leader
of any sought. His unilateral decision to pursue "hero worshiping was a total
disgrace and served only to further divide Ukraine and destabilse the nation.
Thank god he has been voted out of office. Having just got rid of one useless
president Now we have to ask ourselves how can Ukraine remove the newly elected
president. Ukraine's problems are not from outside byt from within.
a fair man
Yes, quite admirable considering the difficult history in question
you seem to forget his role as chief hate monger in "The Ugly Face of Freedom" 60 Minutes fiasco...go to GOOGLE and inform yourself