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Kokhav   Ukrainian Weekly   27-Aug-1998   Israel launders Ukrainian money
Even while Jewish groups focus attention on Swiss banks for their misdeeds and crimes of over half a century ago, Swiss banks continue similar misdeeds and crimes today, perhaps on a grander scale than ever before.  That is, Swiss banks today are the accomplices of every major dictator, crooked politician, gun runner, mafia chieftain, bootlegger, pimp, and drug lord the world over.

The brief Eastern Economist article below, reprinted in The Ukrainian Weekly, occasions several reflections.

At present Jewish groups have succeeded in winning compensation from Swiss banks for their complicity in plundering Jewish wealth during World War II.  Simultaneously, however, Israel is plundering the wealth of Ukraine and other countries of the former Soviet Union.  One wonders if there will ever come a day when Ukrainians will be able to win compensation from Israel for the plundering of Ukrainian wealth.  If such an eventuality is realizable, then there does not seem to be much advantage to allowing a half century to slip by before such compensation is requested � the time to start pressing Ukrainian claims might be now, right on the heels of the Jewish claims against Swiss banks, underlining the similarities between the two types of plundering and between the two demands for compensation.

The Swiss banks do not seem to be accused of having violated any particular law in their misdeeds � either Swiss law or international law.  Rather, the Swiss are faulted for acts that seem intuitively to be wrong.  Thus, the Jewish action against them was conducted not in a court of law, but rather through a public relations campaign and direct negotiations.  In view of this, it seems incongruous that the statements of Israeli Internal Affairs Minister Avakham Kokhav imply that Israel is not guilty of any wrongdoing, and in fact is powerless to interfere with the plundering by Israeli citizens of Ukraine, simply because Israel has no laws against money laundering, and by implication has no laws at all that could be used to reduce such laundering or such plundering.  And yet, legally or not, Israelis are committing theft and possibly could be prevented from doing so by executive action of their government.  Furthermore, Israel could today pass laws against money laundering and against the plundering of other nations � could have done so a long time ago � but hasn't and shows no sign of being about to.  Similarly, we have already seen on the Ukrainian Archive that Israel has no laws against either slavery or prostitution, which goes a long way toward facilitating the use of Ukrainian women in the Israeli sex slave industry.  Where there's a will, there's a way; where there's no will, there's no way.

Even while Jewish groups focus attention on Swiss banks for their misdeeds and crimes of over half a century ago, Swiss banks continue similar misdeeds and crimes today, perhaps on a grander scale than ever before.  That is, Swiss banks today are the accomplices of every major dictator, crooked politician, gun runner, mafia chieftain, bootlegger, pimp, and drug lord the world over.  Without Swiss banks, or banks similar to them somewhere, it would be harder to profit from crime, and so the chief inducement to crime would be weakened.  It is to Switzerland that Ukrainian officials fly with the money that they have stolen from the Ukrainian people.  And it is perhaps into Swiss banks that the Ukrainian Jews who today are sheltered by Israel have deposited the bulk of their Ukrainian loot.  One wonders when a docile and somnolent world press will awaken to this realization and begin to hold the Swiss accountable for their contribution to world disorder.  One wonders when the Swiss people will recognize that honest labor will allow them to live in an affluence almost as great as they presently enjoy from their participation in plunder.  One wonders when the Swiss will realize that their crimes of today will not be forgotten, and will return to haunt them.  One wonders when Swiss bank officials who accept for deposit into a secret account the suitcase of cash brought to them by a Ukrainian parliamentarian will acknowledge that they are engaged in theft, in the destruction of nations, in the pauperization of millions.

Swiss crimes are so commonplace, so widely noticed, so often repeated, that we can scarcely bring ourselves to think of them as crimes.  Swiss success, and the Swiss image of probity, depend on the acceptance by us all of the exculpation granted in the English proverb: Good is the evil that is permitted.

If the chief role of Swiss banks today is to hide illicit wealth, then one wonders how different that role could have been some fifty years ago.  Is it possible that fifty years ago, like today, the business of Swiss banks was to hide the wealth of dictators, crooked politicians, gun runners, mafia chieftains, bootleggers, pimps, and drug lords?  If this is true, even if it is only partly true, then much, or some, of the wealth presently being given by Swiss banks into Jewish hands would more justly be returned to the people from whom that wealth had been stolen or illicitly extracted.  Perhaps some of the wealth being returned to Jewish hands should be returned to the Ukrainian people for the same reason that any Ferdinand Marcos wealth should be returned not to the Marcos family but to the people of the Philippines.

If it is true that history repeats itself, then there may come a day when the descendants of the former Ukrainian citizen Semen Yuta, mentioned in the article below, approach Swiss banks for the return of money deposited there by Semen Yuta.  And if the events of today provide a pattern for the future, this money will be returned to the descendants of Semen Yuta, with apologies, and not to the Ukrainians from whom Semen Yuta stole it.

A weak and lawless Ukraine is in Israel's interests, not only because this promotes the emigration of scientists and engineers and other people of talent and accomplishment from Ukraine to Israel, but also because it facilitates the plunder by Israel of Ukrainian wealth.  Therefore, one might expect that Israel's efforts would be directed primarily toward further undermining and destabilizing Ukraine.  The same can be expected of other countries.  Switzerland, in particular, may be one of the major beneficiaries of Ukraine's failure, and so may be expected to support that failure.

In many meetings between Jews and Ukrainians, one cannot help noticing the contrast of assumed strength against accepted weakness, of Jews speaking brazenly of the crimes they commit, and Ukrainians biting their tongues concerning the crimes committed against them.  The Israeli Internal Affairs Minister says, in effect, Yes, we are plundering you, and for this there exists no remedy; you must continue submitting yourself to being plundered.  Yurii Kravchenko, his Ukrainian counterpart, does not object; the role he has been assigned to play is not that of protecting Ukraine, it is that of acquiescing to the plunder of Ukraine.

The stability and success of the Ukrainian State do not require the giving of help from the West; they require, merely, that the West demonstrate a little restraint in its plundering of Ukraine.


External link to Ukrainian Weekly web site

August 9, 1998

Israeli minister notes money laundering

KYIV � Israeli Internal Affairs Minister Avakham Kokhav said that a high volume of shadow capital has been transferred from CIS countries, including Ukraine, to Israel.  Speaking at a joint press conference in Kyiv with his Ukrainian counterpart, Yurii Kravchenko, he added that he is unsure about the exact volume of Ukrainian funds being transferred to Israel.  Mr. Kokhav said that there are no relevant Israeli laws against money laundering and, as a result, former Ukrainian citizen Semen Yuta, who has received large amounts of money through fraud, now lives in Israel and has no legal problems because "he does not violate the law."  Mr. Kravchenko said that because of an absence of necessary documents, it is impossible to prove the accusations against Mr. Yuta.  (Eastern Economist)
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