BREAKING NEWS COMMENTARY RUSSIA-UKRAINE: UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT'S HOLOCAUST ANALOGIES TO RUSSIAN INVASION DRAW SHARP RESPONSES FROM ISRAELI OFFICIALS WHO SAY HE DOWNPLAYED URKAINE'S ROLE IN THE HOLOCAUST

 

"the Ukrainians slaughtered Jews, many Jews.   There were also Righteous Among The Nations, but the majority slaughtered Jews.   Don't he dare distort history"

 AN ANONYMOUS ISRAELI GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL RESPONDS TO UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY'S SPEECH TO ISRAEL'S PARLIAMENT SUNDAY 3/20/2022-FULL STORY YNET NEWS

"The war is terrible but the comparison to the horrors of the Holocaust and final solution is outrageous"

ISRAEL'S COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER YOAZ HENDEL TWEETS IN RESPONSE TO THE ZELENSKY SPEECH TO PARLIAMENT 3/20/2022-FULL STORY TIMES OF ISRAEL

"I attended Ukrainian President Zelensky's speech on Zoom, to express solidarity with Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.  His criticism of Israel is legitimate and so his  voicing of expectations from us.  Not so is his outrageous and unfounded comparison to the Holocaust, and his attempt to rewrite history and erase the involvement of the Ukrainian people in the extermination of the Jews in it"

ISRAELI PARLIAMENT MEMBER BEZALEL SMOTRICH OF THE OPPOSITION RELIGIOUS ZIONISM PARTY REACTS TO THE ZELENSKY SPEECH 3/20/2022-FULL STORY ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS

It was Russian President Vladimir Putin who has cited the Nazi aspect of Ukraine's society and history to justify his military actions there.

But today Israeli officials brought up the Nazi past of Ukraine in vivid reactions to the speech by Ukraine's Jewish President Volodymyr Zelensky.

They expressed sympathy for Ukraine but could not accept the language of Zelensky comparing Putin's actions to the Holocaust and his virtual denial of Ukrainian involvement in the mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust.

What drove Zelensky to frame his words that way?

On the one hand he wanted to drive home to Israeli lawmakers the need for more than humanitarian assistance from Israel like the field hospital in western Ukraine set to be operational on Tuesday.

And on the other hand to bring up the hard cold facts about Ukrainian involvement in the Holocaust would offend some Ukrainians in what is called the "Right Sector" who trace their political heritage to those who actively collaborated with the Nazi occupation of Ukraine during World War II and all its gruesome details.