NCSEJ WEEKLY NEWS BRIEF

Washington, D.C. September 30, 2016

NCSEJ in Ukraine: Remembering the Babi Yar Massacre, 75 Years Later NCSEJ, September 29, 2016 https://app.robly.com/archive?id=fe246eaa3055ed3bd7e383cf7a681dd3 KYIV, UKRAINE - Today, NCSEJ joined with government leaders from the U.S. and Europe, and members of the Jewish community from around the world at an official ceremony to remember the 1941 massacre of Jews by Nazi forces at the Babi Yar ravine in Kyiv, Ukraine. A delegation of over twenty NCSEJ officers and board members traveled to Ukraine this week to participate in the ceremony and attend commemorations relating to the Babi Yar anniversary. The delegation met with President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, Head of the Presidential Administration Ihor Rainin, former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, and Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine Eliav Belotsercovsky. The mission began on Tuesday with a special briefing by Mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko to the delegation about the city's plans to build a memorial museum at the Babi Yar site. NCSEJ also witnessed the signing ceremony to begin plans to build the museum. In two days in September 1941, over 33,000 people, mainly Jews, were killed by Nazi forces at Babi Yar.From 1941 to 1943, between 50,000 and 100,000 people were killed at the site, including others. NCSEJ Mourns Israeli Statesman Shimon Peres NCSEJ, September 28, 2016 https://app.robly.com/archive?id=2dd85b5fd44a478b44ef9baf1a99adc4 WASHINGTON, D.C. - The National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry (formerly NCSJ) mourns the passing of statesman and former President of Israel Shimon Peres. He died Tuesday at the age of 93, succumbing to the effects of a stroke suffered weeks earlier. Peres was born Szymon Perski in Wiszniew, Poland (now Vishnyeva, Belarus), and emigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1934. Throughout his life, he fought in government, in the halls of the Knesset, and in the international arena for the welfare of the State of Israel, and for the ideal of peace. Peres was a strong advocate for the cause of Soviet Jewry, and especially for Soviet Jewish emigration to Israel. In 2012, as President, he helped inaugurate the Russian Jewish museum and tolerance center in Moscow. On behalf of the NCSEJ Board of Governors, our condolences go to his children, his entire extended family, and the people of Israel. May his memory be for a blessing. IFCJ, JDC to distribute $52 million in humanitarian aid to Jews in former Soviet Union JTA, September 26, 2016

http://www.jta.org/2016/09/26/news-opinion/world/ifcj-jdc-to-distribute-52-million-in-humanitarian-aid-to-jews-in-former-soviet-union The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has pledged $52 million to provide food and medicine to elderly Jews living in the former Soviet Union through the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. The Food and Medicine Lifeline, a four-year, $13 million per year commitment, was announced Monday by the IFCJ. Many of the tens of thousands of recipients of the aid are elderly and impoverished Holocaust survivors, according to the IFCJ. The assistance will be delivered through the JDC’s local network of humanitarian services throughout the states of the former Soviet Union. “There are countless hungry and sick elderly Jews across the FSU, including over 100,000 needy elderly and Holocaust survivors, who depend on our help,” Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, IFCJ founder and president, said in a statement. “Too many Jews around the world, but especially in the former Soviet Union, struggle to meet their most basic needs, including securing the food and medicine they need simply to survive.” IFCJ raises more than $140 million per year, mostly from Christians, to assist Israel and the Jewish people. Since its founding more than 30 years, the organization said it has committed hundreds of millions of dollars to assisting poor and elderly Jews in the former Soviet Union. JDC works in more than 70 countries, including Israel, to assist Jews in areas ranging from alleviating hunger to providing disaster relief. OSCE announces action plan to combat anti-Semitism JTA, September 30, 2016 http://www.jta.org/2016/09/30/default/osce-announces-action-plan-to-combat-anti-semitism The 57 European and Eurasian countries that comprise the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe are embarking on a three-year initiative to promote education and awareness about anti-Semitism and to address Jewish community security. The initiative, titled “Words into Action to Address Anti-Semitism,” was announced Wednesday. It was launched by the parliament of Germany, which currently chairs the OSCE, and is being spearheaded by the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. Rabbi Andrew Baker, the American Jewish Committee’s director of international Jewish affairs, serves as OSCE’s personal representative on combating anti-Semitism. “OSCE participating states have recognized that anti-Semitism poses a threat to stability and security in the OSCE region,” Michael Georg Link, director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, said in a statement. “They agreed to undertake a number of steps to address the problem in cooperation with civil society.” Earlier this year the OSCE sought grant applications from universities, museums, schools, ministries of education and civil society organizations to develop programs for countering anti-Semitism through the arts, education, media and coalition building. The grants for the chosen projects will range from 5,000 to 40,000 euros — about $5,600 to $45,000. Earlier this week, the Anti-Defamation League presented recommendations to the OSCE’s annual human rights conference on advancing security for targets of anti-Semitism and hate crimes.

“The participating European and Eurasian states have recognized the serious threat posed by anti-Semitism and have made critical commitments to address this concerning issue,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement welcoming the OSCE initiative. “We commend the German government for challenging states to put their commitments into action and for funding and catalyzing this initiative.” Mournful Ukraine marks 75 years since Babi Yar massacre BY TAMAR PILEGGI AND AFP The Times of Israel, September 29, 2016 http://www.timesofisrael.com/mournful-ukraine-marks-75-years-since-babi-yar-massacre/ KIEV — Ukraine on Thursday marked the 75th anniversary of the single largest single mass shooting by Nazi forces during the Holocaust in a somber ceremony attended by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and other world leaders. The massacre of nearly 34,000 Jews on September 29-30, 1941 in Kiev’s Babi Yar ravine was unprecedented in its scope — even for Nazi Germany’s notoriously brutal genocide of European Jewry — and has been a source of controversy over the participation of local Ukrainian collaborators in the mass killing. At the ceremony, Poroshenko addressed the sensitive issue, saying “there have been those [in Ukraine] for which one felt shame. And this, too, cannot be erased from our collective memory. “No Ukrainian has the right to forget this tragedy,” he said. Earlier, Poroshenko tweeted that “we Ukrainians very well understand the grief of the Jews and take it as our own.” German President Joachim Gauck told the thousands gathered at the site on Thursday evening that the Nazis “even used nationalist Ukrainians as assistant police.” “But we also admit that not only special fences [of death camps], but ordinary Wehrmacht [soldiers] were involved in these crimes,” Gauck said. “Germans have to approach the Babi Yar massacres with unspeakable guilt.” In his address, World Jewish Congress chief Robert Singer also urged for “all the countries involved, not just Ukraine, (to) take responsibility for their actions during that dark time.” Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin was in Ukraine earlier in the week to attend a number of memorial events, but cut short his visit to attend the funeral of his predecessor Shimon Peres. Poroshenko himself will travel to Israel to attend Friday’s funeral of Peres. Rivlin’s ‘undiplomatic’ comments Rivlin, before leaving Ukraine, drew criticism for making “undiplomatic” comments about Ukrainians’ role in the massacre. Rivlin on Tuesday told lawmakers in Kiev that “many of the crimes were committed by Ukrainians” during the Holocaust. “They victimized the Jews, killed them, and in many cases reported them to the Nazis,” he said at the Ukrainian parliament. In September 1941, as Hitler’s forces advanced toward Moscow on the eastern front, 33,771 Jews were gunned down over the course of just two days. Along with locally recruited Ukrainian policemen, SS troops brought Jewish men, women and children to the Babi Yar ravine where they forced to strip naked and lined up at the edge of the ravine and shot in the back.

Just 29 people managed to escape the execution by either falling into the mass grave before being shot or by wearing crosses to hide their identities. “We heard the shooting behind us, but (my) granny — she kept holding me — did not look back and kept running until she fell exhausted among the graves in a nearby cemetery,” said Raisa Maistrenko, the last survivor of the tragedy still alive in Kiev. Rivlin’s statement caused an uproar among nationalist politicians and other key figures in Ukraine. “What Rivlin did can unambiguously be interpreted as spitting in the face of Ukrainians” at a time when the people he accused of perpetrating crimes are no longer alive to defend themselves, said Bogdan Chervak, the first deputy chairman on the State Committee for Television and Radio of Ukraine. Rivlin also noted the actions of Ukrainian non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. Israel’s Holocaust commemoration authority, Yad Vashem, has awarded 2,544 Ukrainians with the title of Righteous among the Nations for such actions. Ukraine has the fourth largest number of righteous gentiles, as they are called, after Poland, the Netherlands and France. Poroshenko on Friday called on the international community to financially support the creation of the Holocaust memorial museum in Babi Yar. “I urge the Ukrainian and world community to join this initiative,” he said during the presentation of the film about the massacre. Complicity debate looms over Ukraine’s largest Holocaust memorial event September 29, 2016 http://www.jta.org/2016/09/29/news-opinion/world/complicity-debate-looms-over-ukraines-largest-holocaust-memorial-event A senior state historian of Ukraine accused Israel’s president of repeating a Soviet “myth” about Ukrainians’ complicity in the Holocaust as the Eastern European country held the largest event in its history commemorating the genocide. Volodymyr Vyatorovych, director of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, leveled the accusation against Reuven Rivlin on Thursday as hundreds of guests from dozens of countries were preparing to convene at Babi Yar for a ceremony to commemorate the murder 75 years ago of at least 33,000 Jews at the Kiev ravine. The Ukrainian government organized the event in cooperation with the World Jewish Congress. Rivlin, who is scheduled to attend the ceremony, said during his speech Wednesday before the Ukrainian parliament that members of the nationalist OUN militia and others were complicit in the Nazi extermination of Jews in Ukraine. In response, Vyatorovych said that Rivlin “repeated the Soviet myth” of involvement by the OUN militia, Ria Novosti Ukraina reported. The exchange came amid a polarizing debate about the Holocaust in Ukraine, where nationalists led a successful revolution in 2014 against a president whom they said was a pawn of Russia. Many Ukrainians perceive Moscow as an enemy out to deny sovereignty to their nation. Critics have charged that rising nationalism in post-revolution Ukraine is leading to the veneration of war criminals who murdered Jews alongside the Nazis and their celebration as patriotic heroes because they also fought against Russian domination.

In a rare joint statement, more than 20 Ukrainian Jewish groups in July called such moves a form of “Holocaust denial.” Eduard Dolinsky, director of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, said they were undermining the sincerity of the government’s efforts to commemorate the Babi Yar anniversary and overshadowing the event. Acknowledging these concerns, Rivlin said during his speech: “About half a million Jews were murdered in what is now Ukraine during World War II. In Babi Yar and many other places, they were shot in forests or in ravines. Many collaborations in these crises were Ukrainians. Among them, combatants of the OUN stand out especially [for how] they humiliated Jews, killed them, and in many cases betrayed them to the Germans.” Rivlin’s statement caused an uproar among nationalist politicians and other key figures in Ukraine. “What Rivlin did can unambiguously be interpreted as spitting in the face of Ukrainians” at a time when the people he accused of perpetrating crimes are no longer alive to defend themselves, said Bogdan Chervak, the first deputy chairman on the State Committee for Television and Radio of Ukraine. Rivlin also noted the actions of Ukrainian non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. Israel’s Holocaust commemoration authority, Yad Vashem, has awarded 2,544 Ukrainians with the title of Righteous among the Nations for such actions. Ukraine has the fourth largest number of righteous gentiles, as they are called, after Poland, the Netherlands and France. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Friday called on the international community to financially support the creation of the Holocaust memorial museum in Babi Yar. “I urge the Ukrainian and world community to join this initiative,” he said during the presentation of the film about the massacre. Malaysian flight MH17 downed by Russian-made missile: prosecutors By Toby Sterling and Anthony Deutsch Reuters, September 28, 2016 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-mh-idUSKCN11Y0WN Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down by a missile fired from a launcher brought into Ukraine from Russia and located in a village held by pro-Russian rebels, international prosecutors said on Wednesday. The findings counter Moscow's suggestion that the passenger plane, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in July 2014, was brought down by Ukraine's military rather than the separatists. All 298 people on board, most of them Dutch, were killed. The conclusions were based on thousands of wiretaps, photographs, witness statements and forensic tests during more than two years of inquiries into an incident which led to a sharp rise in tensions between Russia and the West. Among the key findings were: the plane was hit by a Russian-made Buk-9M38 missile; the missile was fired from the rebel-held village of Pervomaysk in eastern Ukraine; and the launcher was transported into Ukraine from Russia. "This Buk trailer came from the territory of the Russian Federation, and after the launch it was returned again to the territory of the Russian Federation," said Wilbert Paulissen, chief investigator with the Dutch national police. The Ukrainian government said the findings pointed to Russia's "direct involvement". Russia - which has always denied Moscow or pro-Russian rebels were responsible - rejected the prosecutors' conclusions, saying they were not supported by technical evidence and the inquiry was biased.

Earlier on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said its radar data had "identified all flying objects which could have been launched or were in the air over the territory controlled by rebels at that moment". "The data is clear-cut ... there is no rocket. If there was a rocket, it could only have been fired from elsewhere," he said. The investigators, from the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine, said they had not had access to Moscow's radar images but would gladly include a Russian contribution to the inquiry. Ukrainian and Western officials, citing intelligence intercepts, have long blamed the pro-Russian rebels for the incident, which played a big part in a decision by the European Union and United States to impose sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine conflict and has damaged Dutch-Russian economic ties. SUSPECTS In reaction to the investigators' findings, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte called on Russia "to lend all possible cooperation" to the inquiry, which will now shift its focus to identifying individual suspects. Prosecutors said that while they had not brought charges against culprits or established a court, they had identified 100 individuals of interest in relation to the incident on July 17, 2014. "Of a number of them, we know pretty exactly what their role and position was, for instance those who organized the arrival of the Buk rocket and who were in charge of the transport that day," said Fred Westerbeke, chief prosecutor at the Netherlands National Prosecutor's office. "We know exactly what happened, but who exactly was in charge, and whether it was done intentionally, there the investigation is still continuing," Westerbeke said. He declined to specify the nationality of any potential suspects, and called on witnesses to come forward and help determine who gave the order to shoot the plane down. Victims' families, who were informed of the findings earlier in the day, were skeptical about the investigation's progress. Silene Fredriksz, whose son Bryce was on the airplane with his girlfriend, Daisy Oehlers, said Russia would never hand over any suspects voluntarily. Moscow was "going to have to be put under intense pressure, with sanctions - that's the only way to make it possible", she added. A civilian investigation by the Dutch Safety Board also concluded last year that MH17 was hit by a Buk missile fired from eastern Ukraine, but did not specify who fired it. The board criticized Ukraine's government for leaving its airspace open to civilian traffic. At the time of the incident, pro-Russian separatists were fighting Ukrainian government forces in the region. The Boeing 777 (BA.N) broke apart in mid-air, flinging wreckage over several kilometers (miles) of fields in rebel-held territory. Harun Calehr, uncle of two boys killed in the crash, said he was not holding out hope for a swift resolution. "I think there will never be a judicial conclusion to this nightmare," he said. "Even a political agreement with financial compensation for the victims' families by Russia and Ukraine seems tenuous, and perhaps two decades in the future." Ronald S. Lauder: Why Holocaust remembrance matters today

WJC/Die Welt, September 29, 2016 http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/news/ronald-s-lauder-why-holocaust-remembrance-matters-today-9-4-2016 https://www.welt.de/debatte/kommentare/article158423944/Wir-brauchen-mehr-Gedenken-an-den-Holocaust-nicht-weniger.html On 29 and 30 September 1941, in less than 36 hours, SS units shot dead more than 33,000 Jews at a ravine near Kiev. Since then, the name ‘Babi Yar’ is a synonym for one of the worst massacres ever committed in the history of mankind. In the two weeks following this atrocity, a further 18,000 men, women and children were murdered at that site. For the Nazi regime, the massacre was a test case for the implementation of the plan to exterminate European Jewry, a plan that was formally approved a few months later at the Wannsee Conference. Babi Yar had been prepared meticulously. It involved not only special SS killing units, but also regular German army units, as well as allied Ukrainian groups.All of them were an integral part in the planning and execution of this massacre. On 28 September 1941, notices were posted across Kiev calling on the city’s Jews to present themselves the following day with identification documents, money and valuables, and warm clothing, in order to be evacuated. Anyone refusing to follow the order was to be executed. The previous day, more than 100,000 rounds of ammunition from Wehrmacht stocks had arrived in Kiev. Nonetheless, the Germans expected that only a few thousand of the remaining 50,000 Jews (the remainder had fled before the German troops arrived) in the city would show up, but more than 30,000 did. They did so in the hope to be resettled and thus survive. However, the Germans had something else in mind. After being stripped of all their belongings and clothes, thousands were led into the ravine, which is located next to an old Jewish cemetery, and shot dead. The Babi Yar survivor Dina Pronicheva remembered the scene: “We were surrounded by fascists with submachine guns, Ukrainian policemen, and ferocious dogs who were ready to tear a human being to pieces. And then, I could not leave my mother alone. I embraced her, burst into tears but was unable to leave her. Mother pushed me away and yelled ‘Hurry!’” The corpses stacked up in layers; the scene must have been unspeakably gruesome. But the slaughter continued for 36 hours. At the same time, the killers kept exact records. In an “event report” to the SS leadership in Berlin dated 1 October 1941, 33,771 Jews were reported to have been liquidated. The mass murder went like clockwork. The Wehrmacht, the regular German army, also played along. Less than 30 people survived the slaughter. Dina Pronicheva was one of them. She had fallen into the pit before a bullet could hit her, and after night fall she was able to able to crawl out of the huge heap of corpses, which had already been covered with sand. Another survivor recalled: “The bodies of old men rested on the bodies of children, who lay on the bodies of their dead mothers." Even for the hardened killers of the SS, what had happened at Babi Yar was too horrible to reveal to the public, and the Germans later tried to conceal their atrocious crime by forcing laborers to exhume the bodies in order to burn them. But the massacre had been too big to conceal. Today, German President Joachim Gauck will be to Kiev to participate in the commemorations on the 75th anniversary of Babi Yar, which the World Jewish Congress is co-organizing. In my speech I will pledge to the

dead in this mass grave that we will never forget them, and I will try to make it clear to the living that Babi Yar shows where anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance can ultimately lead. Yet more and more people question the purpose of such memorials. Others ask: Shouldn’t we rather focus on what’s happening today, in Syria, in Iraq, and in many other places around the world? Has Holocaust remembrance become dispensible? Have the Germans, and the world, learned the lessons of the murder of six million Jews? Do we still need such official acts of remembrance? We do. To be clear: Remembering these crimes is not a ritual, or even a way to put an entire people in the dock. Remembering the Holocaust is about reminding ourselves how quickly verbal racism and anti-Semitism can turn into acts of murder. It took the Nazis only a few years to turn people into well-functioning serial killers. The fanatical hatred of Jews with which they had been imbued worked very quickly. Where the history of the Holocaust is not taught in schools, or where the Holocaust is even questioned by government officials, indoctrinating people with hatred against Jews and other minorities is much easier. Very few people are now left who can still tell us about what they went through during World War II. Therefore, we need official acts of remembrance because they send an important signal. The remembrance of the Shoah and other crimes must remain a key element in the education of young people. Of course, it’s not necessary to focus only on the negative aspects of one’s past, and the positive ones deserve to be highlighted. And yet, in a nation or a society that is conscious of its past crimes, it is much harder for fanatics to incite people to commit mass murder. Last year, the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau was marked. There was huge media interest, and it was probably the biggest act of Holocaust remembrance ever held. This was important. It may be inconvenient to state, but not everybody has learned the lessons of this horrible time. Some even try to glorify war criminals of that time as national heroes. That is the reason why we need more, and not less remembrance. It is important that we don’t consign the Holocaust to the history books and slowly forget about it. If we do, if may come back at some stage. That, by the way, does not only apply to Germany or to Ukraine, but to all countries. Azerbaijan vote lengthens Aliyev's time in office, boosts his powers By Nailia Bagirova Reuters, September 27, 2016 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-azerbaijan-presidency-term-idUSKCN11X11Q Azerbaijan has voted in favor of extending the presidential term from five to seven years, election authorities said on Tuesday, a step that critics say will hand unprecedented powers to President Ilham Aliyev who has led the country since 2003. The state election commission said a vast majority of the 91.2 percent of voters who turned out in a referendum in the Caspian Sea oil-producer had backed the move. "The referendum was conducted in a transparent manner," Mazakhir Panakhov, commission head, said before reading out the result of Monday's plebiscite.

Aliyev, 54, who succeeded his father as president, can seek re-election indefinitely after a maximum number of terms in office was scrapped via a similar referendum seven years ago. The authorities say a longer presidential term will ensure continuity in decision-making, which they say is vital after a slump in world oil prices halted Azerbaijan's long run of economic growth. Apart from the high vote in favor of extending the presidential term there had also been strong support for another 28 amendments to the constitution, the election commission said. Turnout was 69.7 percent. Opposition and rights activists criticized the amendments, which also give the president the right to declare an early presidential election at his convenience, as well as dissolve parliament. Ahead of the vote, experts of the Council of Europe, a rights and monitoring body, said many of the proposed amendments being voted on would severely upset the balance of power by giving "unprecedented" powers to the president. "A majority of Azeri voters expressed their confidence in Azerbaijan's president," said Ali Akhmedov, secretary of the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan party. "The referendum results will have a positive effect on the implementation of economic reforms and will give an impetus to business development," he said. European observers from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) recognized the referendum results, but called on the Azeri authorities to improve the voting process. "We think the referendum results are a step towards secure, stable and sustainable development of Azerbaijan and reflect the will of the Azerbaijani people," said Aleksandar Nikoloski, who headed the PACE monitoring delegation. "PACE hopes the Azerbaijani authorities will respect the opinion of the Venice Commission in all its aspects," he added, referring to a Council of Europe advisory unit which had expressed reservations about the process. European democracy watchdogs have said previous votes in the ex-Soviet Caucasus country of 9.7 million were marred by vote-rigging and unequal access to the media. The Baku government denies the charges. Aliyev's rule has long benefited from an economic boom fueled by oil pumped to Europe from a region where the West and Russia are vying for influence over huge energy reserves. But a slump in global oil prices in the past two years has weakened the Azeri currency, the manat, and hurt the economy. Shimon Peres, last of Israel’s founders, dies By Ben Sales JTA, September 27, 2016 http://www.jta.org/2016/09/27/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/shimon-peres-last-of-israels-founders-dies-at-93 TEL AVIV — Shimon Peres, the former defense hawk turned Nobel Peace Prize winner and the last of Israel’s founders, has died. Peres died before dawn Wednesday at 93, Israel Radio reported. The former president suffered a massive stroke earlier this month and was reported initially to be in stable but critical condition. His condition was reported to have deteriorated dramatically on Tuesday afternoon. Israel Radio quoted his family, who were at his side, as saying he was “fighting until the end.”

The phoenix of Israeli politics, Peres continually reinvented himself as the country changed. He began his career in the Defense Ministry and was the architect of Israel’s nuclear program, but in his later years Peres was more closely identified with the quest for peace with the Palestinians. He was instrumental in negotiating the Oslo Accords, the landmark Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, and was present on the White House lawn for its signing in 1993. Though he served as prime minister three times without ever winning an election outright, and shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for a peace that has yet to materialize, Peres emerged late in life as Israel’s beloved elder statesmen and a rare figure capable of uniting a fractious society. Following the signing of the Oslo Accords, Peres emerged as Israel’s global ambassador for peace, predicting the emergence of a “new Middle East” in which conflict was supplanted by shared prosperity. Elected to the largely ceremonial role of president in 2007, talk of peace pervaded nearly every speech he gave. Well into his 90s, Peres still insisted he would live to see the day when peace would come. Peace, however, doomed his political career. After middling political success in the 1980s, the Oslo Accords debilitated Peres’ Labor Party, which fell from power in 2001 with the outbreak of the second intifada and has yet to win another election. When Peres won the presidency in 2007, he was a member of Kadima, a short-lived centrist party. As president, Peres rose again, this time as Israel’s wise old man. Free to rise above the political fray, Peres trumpeted Israel’s technological achievements and articulated its hopes for a brighter future. More than anything, he became a symbol of the country’s resilience — able to survive, thrive and remain optimistic — no matter the challenges. “Shimon devoted his life to our nation and to the pursuit of peace,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Wednesday. “He set his gaze on the future. He did so much to protect our people. He worked to his last days for peace and a better future for all. As Israel’s President, Shimon did so much to unite the nation. And the nation loved him for it.” Born Szymon Perski in Wiszniewo, Poland, in 1923, Peres moved with his family to Tel Aviv in 1934. At 20, he became the head of a Labor Zionist youth group, through which he met David Ben-Gurion, who would become Israel’s first prime minister. In 1945, Peres married Sonya Gelman, who had just returned from World War II service in the British Army. The couple was married for 67 years, though they separated after Peres became a presidential candidate. Sonya Peres had long refused to play the part of political wife, and after Peres moved to the president’s residence in Jerusalem, she changed the name on her Tel Aviv mailbox to Sonya Gal, a Hebraicized version of her maiden name. Sonya Peres died in 2011 at 87. In 1947, Peres joined the Haganah, managing arms purchases and personnel. After Israel gained independence the following year, he continued working in the Defense Ministry, becoming its youngest-ever director-general in 1952 at 29. In that capacity he expanded Israeli arms purchases from France and later helped manage the 1956 Sinai Campaign. He also founded Israel’s arms production industry and led efforts to develop a nuclear weapon. Peres was first elected to the Knesset in 1959 with Ben-Gurion’s ruling Mapai party, becoming deputy defense minister. He would serve in the Knesset for an as-yet unmatched total of 48 years. Peres remained a close Ben-Gurion ally, splitting from Mapai with him in 1965 to form a rival party and then rejoining Mapai when it became the Alignment in 1968. After serving in several minor ministerial positions, Peres became defense minister in 1974 under Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Peres was a territorial hawk, opposing early proposals for West Bank withdrawal and supporting settlement expansion. When Rabin resigned amid scandal in 1977, Peres briefly became acting prime minister, then lost the post when the Alignment was defeated in the 1977 election by Menachem Begin’s Likud party.

Peres headed the Alignment — the precursor to today’s Labor Party — for the next 15 years, contesting three more close elections with Likud. The two parties formed a unity government following the 1984 elections — Peres was prime minister from 1984 to 1986, then foreign minister under Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir from 1986 to 1988. As foreign minister in 1987, Peres conducted secret negotiations with King Hussein of Jordan for Israel to withdraw from the West Bank as part of an Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty. But Shamir rejected the proposed agreement, and the following year Jordan unilaterally relinquished its claim to the West Bank. After the Alignment lost the 1988 elections, Peres again joined a Likud-led government as finance minister, but tried to overthrow the government two years later. In what became known as the Dirty Trick, Peres assembled an Alignment-led coalition with leftist and haredi Orthodox parties, only to see it fall apart after he received a mandate to form a governing coalition. He lost his party’s chairmanship to Rabin in 1992, and again became foreign minister when the party, now renamed Labor, won elections that year. Under Rabin, Peres was the architect of the Oslo Accords, which gave the Palestinians autonomy in parts of the West Bank and Gaza. He shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. “Israel’s role in the Middle East should be to contribute to a great, sustained regional revival,” Peres said upon accepting the prize. “A Middle East without wars, without enemies, without ballistic missiles, without nuclear warheads.” After Rabin was assassinated in 1995, Peres became acting prime minister, but lost the post again in a close race with Likud’s Netanyahu. Following his defeat in ’96, he founded the Peres Center for Peace, which runs programs aimed at regional reconciliation. Peres remained in the Labor Party through 2005, twice regaining the chairmanship and serving another stint as foreign minister under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. In 2006, following the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, Peres joined Sharon’s new centrist Kadima party. The next year he won a race for Israel’s largely ceremonial presidency. As president, Peres stayed largely above the political fray, though he conducted secret negotiations with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in 2011, culminating in a peace deal that Netanyahu’s government rejected. After leaving the presidency, Peres remained largely silent on politics. Peres frequently traveled internationally as president, focusing his speeches and activism on encouraging Middle East peace and touting Israel’s technological achievements. In 2012, President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor. Peres’ annual Presidential Conference brought together leaders in politics, science and culture. He finished his presidential term in 2014. He is survived by three children, Tsvia Walden, Yoni Peres and Chemi Peres, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. “A light has gone out, but the hope he gave us will burn forever,” Obama said Tuesday night in a statement. “Shimon Peres was a soldier for Israel, for the Jewish people, for justice, for peace, and for the belief that we can be true to our best selves — to the very end of our time on Earth, and in the legacy that we leave to others.” Welcoming Ukraine's future Israelis By TAMARA ZIEVE The Jerusalem Post, September 26, 2016 http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Welcoming-the-seeds-of-future-Israelis-468713

IRPIN, Ukraine – The outbreak of war in eastern Ukraine in 2014 was the final trigger for Alexandra Kravchenko and Ivan Omelchenko. Fearing for their lives in their Lugansk home, and particularly for their young daughter, the couple decided to pack their bags and flee to Kiev. Arriving in the capital, and having abandoned their property, the family was in need of a place to live. Kravchenko recalls that soon after they arrived in Kiev, she was talking to her husband about the need to help other refugees in their situation. They stopped at a synagogue while having this conversation, and the very next day Kravchenko found an advertisement online for a hostel for refugees that was looking for a manager. She saw this as a sign from God. The family is currently residing in and running that hostel, but are preparing to make aliya. Kravchenko – whose husband is halachicly Jewish – is in the process of converting to Judaism with the assistance of Maslul, a new project launched last April and founded by the Triguboff Institute, which assists FSU immigrants with personal status issues. The institute recently added a conversion course to its services, catering only to people who have already been approved as eligible for aliya, and offering those who are not halachicly Jewish the option of beginning the long conversion process before they move to Israel. They can complete two-thirds of the process before they even get to Israel, when they will be saddled with setting up their lives in a new country, Shalom Norman, director of the Triguboff Institute, explains. He adds that the process is also important in preparing them for life in Israel and familiarizing them with Jewish traditions, as well as Zionist values. “85% of FSU olim below the age of 40 are not halachicly Jewish,” Norman says, citing statistics provided by Prof. Ze’ev Khanin, chief scientist of the Immigration and Absorption Ministry. “They don’t have full status, but they identify as Jewish,” he adds, saying this can cause problems for them, and for their children, further down the line, when they aren’t eligible for marriage or burial under the rabbinate. The Maslul project is operated in cooperation with the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Nativ National Center for Identity and Conversion, as well the Triguboff’s local partners, the Midrasha Zionit in Kiev and the Choral Synagogue, headed by Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, in Moscow. This weekend, some 50 Maslul participants spent Shabbat together in Irpin, in the outskirts of Kiev. The Triguboff Institute hosted the event, in collaboration with the Jewish Agency and the Midrasha Zionit. Attendees comprised a mix of young families, a variety of couples and singles. With varying degrees of Jewish knowledge and upbringing, they all share a thirst to learn more. The weekend consisted of numerous lessons covering topics such as identity, history and Halacha, as well as prayer services led by the head of the Maslul project, Rabbi Chaim Iram, and Rabbi Michael Rosenfeld, who is teaching the course in Kiev. One participant, a young woman married to a Jewish man, said that Maslul provides all the knowledge needed to make an educated decision about conversion; her husband, who was not with her on the seminar, is indifferent as to whether or not she converts. It’s not uncommon to find this dynamic, whereby the halachicly Jewish half of the couple is far less invested in Judaism than the converting partner. Olga Hana Krikun will be the first of the group to leave for Israel. This Thursday, she will arrive in her new home in Ashdod, together with her 12-year-old son. She herself is halachicly Jewish and doesn’t need to convert, but she decided to spend her last Shabbat in Ukraine with the Maslul group, feeling connected to the community and taking the opportunity to expand her knowledge. Similar to several of the participants, when Krikun was growing up, her family tried to hide their Jewish identity, fearing that it could negatively impact their lives.

But when her son was faced with bullying at school, she decided to put him in a Jewish school, and that was the beginning of the gradual return to her Jewish identity – as her son learned more and more at his new school, so did she. The mother and son will now join her parents, who are already living in Israel. Krikun will soon be followed by Sergii Stetsenko and Elena Vinnytska, who are preparing for their October aliya to Tel Aviv. Stetsenko is halachicly Jewish, and his wife, Vinnytska, is in the process of converting. Vinnytska relates that when she was a young woman, she worked as a hairdresser in Vinizia, where she was surrounded by Jewish colleagues. “They were like family to me,” she remembers, explaining that from the age of 19 she learned a lot from them and became enamored by their culture; she dreamed that one day she would marry a Jew. Now, Vinnytska is excited to share her husband’s happiness in returning to his historic homeland. “Maslul and other organizations are taking the last seeds that can be taken from here, because another generation won’t be left to be taken,” Stetsenko says. This echoes a message drummed home by Maslul teacher Esther Reyzer, who has flown in from Israel to lead educational sessions during the seminar. Reyzer herself made aliya to Israel from Russia at the age of 17, with her family. “This generation must make decisions and can return to its identity,” she tells The Jerusalem Post. “Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, we are the generation of free speech, but it takes years to understand what to do with the freedom of speech. With time, this opportunity weakens, there is less connection with former generations and less connection to the traditions that were practiced by generations who are now gone,” she warns. Participating in Maslul allows one to cement their place in the tribe and discover their link in the chain. Liudmyla Sasina, for example, has been heavily invested in tracing her Jewish roots. She always knew about her Jewish grandfather, but had no Jewish upbringing, and, in keeping with the pattern, “they tried to keep it in the family,” she says. When armed conflict erupted in Donetzk, she realized her place may not be there forever. Together with her sister, who is married to a Jewish man, she began to learn Hebrew at an ulpan, and gradually she began to think about making aliya. A February visit to Israel sealed the deal. “I felt this was my home, my place,” she gushes. “Even when I came back, my soul remained in Israel, only my body in Ukraine.” After multiple trips to the archives in the village where her late grandfather used to live, she finally tracked down his adopted brother’s aunt, who help her retrieve the relevant documentation she needs to make aliya. Sasina says Maslul is the perfect fit for her, preparing her for Jewish life. Reflecting on the seminar, she says “Shabbat is a magical feeling and it’s yours. And you understand you are in the right place at the right time with the right people – it feels like a big family. It’s the realization that they are your people and there is a country that you belong to.” “There are too many idiotic calls by people asking why we must bring all these goyim (non-Jews) to Israel,” says Norman. “These goyim are the seeds of Israel. They have connected to the Jewish nation from a sociological perspective and we must do everything for them to be part of us. I think this a national task, and not just a task for Harry Triguboff in Australia.” In Ukraine, Rivlin warns against ‘sin’ of forgetting Nazi atrocities BY TAMAR PILEGGI The Times of Israel, September 28, 2016 http://www.timesofisrael.com/in-ukraine-rivlin-warns-against-sin-of-forgetting-nazi-atrocities/

KIEV, Ukraine — As Ukraine marks 75 years since the Nazi slaughter of tens of thousands of Jews in Kiev’s Babi Yar ravine, President Reuven Rivlin warned against succumbing to the “sin” of forgetting or denying the atrocities of the Holocaust. “We must not play a part in the sin of forgetting or denial,” Rivlin told Ukrainian lawmakers at a special parliament session dedicated to commemorating one of the most notorious massacres of WWII. “National leaders who support anti-Semitic, racist, or neo-Nazi ideas will not be welcomed as friends among the family of nations,” he said. Rivlin was in Ukraine to participate in memorial events commemorating the 75th anniversary of the murder of more than 33,000 Jews — mostly elderly, women and children — on September 29-30, 1941, as Hitler’s forces advanced toward Moscow on the eastern front. In his address, Rivlin also urged nations to look towards the future. “The valley saw two horrific sins. The first sin, was the sin of murder and destruction. The second sin was the sin of concealment and destruction of the memory,” he told lawmakers. “The second sin was no less systematic nor relentless than the first – it was as comprehensive as the massacre itself.” “The blood of our brothers and sisters, that was spilled at that dark time, places upon us the duty to remember, and teach the whole world, about the dangers of not just anti-Semitism, but of all hatred, and all racism,” Rivlin said in a separate address on Tuesday. “While we mourn the past, we must also speak about the present, and look to the future.” Rivlin, who also delivered remarks at the residence of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko earlier on Tuesday, hailed the 25 years of diplomatic relations between Jerusalem and Kiev and the recent surge in cooperation with the current government. Bilateral cooperation in the fields of science and technology amounts to a billion dollars in trade annually, the president said, added that Israel looked forward to building on that figure. Rivlin also expressed support for Ukraine’s deepening economic ties with the West and its ongoing territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula which Russia invaded and annexed in 2014. “That which we wish for ourselves, we wish for our friends the Ukrainians; freedom, real democracy, and true prosperity,” Rivlin said, adding that “Israel knows that the path upon which Ukraine walks is not easy…and [that] Ukraine faces difficulties and challenges. In this difficult time, we support the Ukrainain government’s courage to enact important reforms in social and economic fields.” “Israel is helping and will continue to help Ukraine to advance toward a better future,” Rivlin said. Former Georgian President, Party, Investigated For Possible Post-Elections Coup Plot RFE/RL, September 30, 2016 http://www.rferl.org/a/georgia-saakashvili-enm-coup-elections-caucasus-report/28024522.html With most voters still undecided on the eve of Georgia's parliamentary elections, a mysterious audio recording has surfaced that is apparently intended to smear former President Mikheil Saakashvili and his party. The country's State Security Service is investigating whether its contents constitute a coup attempt. The audio recording, uploaded on September 26 by an anonymous YouTube user, features the purported voices of Saakashvili and five parliamentarians from his United National Movement (ENM) discussing their options in the event of the party's defeat in the October 8 vote. The six can be heard considering the possibility

of forming an opposition coalition government -- an idea dismissed by the voice attributed to Saakashvili -- or launching a long-term public protest in an effort to have the results of the elections overturned. "Our task is to hold elections in a revolutionary atmosphere," says a voice alleged to be that of ENM parliamentarian Gigi Tsereteli. "This means stirring up the public." Saakashvili has reportedly dismissed the recording as a fabrication, implying on his Facebook page that former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, whose Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia (GD-DG) party came to power after defeating the ENM in the October 2012 parliamentary ballot, resorted to doctoring the audio in a last-ditch attempt to avoid "inevitable defeat" in the upcoming elections. Parliamentarian Petre Tsiskarishvili, another ENM member whose voice can purportedly be heard in the audio, said that the alleged discussion was pieced together using altered recordings obtained from illegal surveillance carried out by the State Security Service, according to Civil.ge. The ENM issued a statement denying any plans to destabilize the situation or plan a revolution. Parliamentarian Akaki Bobokhidze, also named as one of the five purported ENM members on the tape, denied ever having held a telephone conversation with Saakashvili this year, or that the five had met personally with Saakashvili. The nearly 2 1/2 minute recording was posted on a YouTube channel maintained by "GeorgiaReality," whose profile only says "stay informed :)" and offers a number of videos critical of the ENM. 'Conspiracy' Probe Even though the authenticity of the audio is questionable, Georgia's State Security Service has opened an investigation under Article 315/1 of the Criminal Code into a possible "conspiracy to overthrow the government," Civil.ge reported on September 27. The service added that in the course of its investigation the origin and authenticity of the recording would be examined, and people featured in it would be questioned. At the same time, it has formally asked "all relevant states" for help in the investigation. That request is presumably directed in the first instance at Ukraine. Saakashvili is currently governor of Odesa and holds Ukrainian citizenship. Since Georgia does not allow dual citizenship, he was stripped of his Georgian citizenship in December 2015. The State Security Service summoned two of the putative interlocutors, Akaki Minashvili and Nugzar Tsiklauri, for questioning on September 27 -- and Tsiskarishvili and Tsereteli on September 28 together with another ENM member alleged to be part of the alleged discussion, Irma Nadirashvili, who immediately issued a statement pointing out that her voice is not heard on the tape. The State Security Service said on September 29 that none of the five has complied with that summons, according to the Russian-language Interpressnews. Rustavi-2 television, owned by associates of Saakashvili, reported that Minashvili and Tsiklauri would agree to questioning only if investigators visited them. On September 26, just hours before the audio was uploaded, Saakashvili had assured ENM supporters via Facebook live streaming video that the party's victory in the October 8 elections was "inevitable." Opinion polls suggest that many voters are disenchanted with GD-DG, but at the same time do not want the ENM to return to power, and that neither GD-DG nor the ENM is capable of winning a majority in the new parliament. If true, that could explain why some ENM members, including party Executive Secretary Giga Bokeria, might favor a coalition -- as claimed in the released audio recording by the voice attributed to Saakashvili, which rejects the idea as "not what I am fighting for." 'A Very Good Cell'

Saakashvili's successor as Georgian president, Giorgi Margvelashvili, responded on September 27 to the audio footage with an address in which he called on Saakashvili to stop interfering in the election campaign. Russian media quoted Saakashvili's wife, Sandra Roelofs, as saying during a campaign rally in Zugdidi district that he would travel to Georgia to celebrate victory following the elections. The reports prompted Georgian Interior Minister Giorgi Mghebrishvili to warn publicly that Saakashvili would be arrested if he sets foot on Georgian territory, while former Prime Minister Ivanishvili suggested that "a very good cell" awaited the former president, according to Interfax. U.S. Ambassador to Tbilisi Ian Kelly was quoted by Interpressnews.ge as commenting that "the only way to come to power is through the ballot box, any other method is illegitimate." It is not clear whether he was referring specifically to the released audio recording, or to the ongoing acrimonious exchange between the ENM and GD-DG of accusations of intent to destabilize the situation and/or falsify the outcome of the vote. This is not the first time that audio footage has surfaced of a conversation between speakers whose voices resemble those of Saakashvili and senior ENM members. Eleven months ago, in late October 2015, footage was made public in which speakers purported to be those of Saakashvili, Bokeria, and Nika Gvaramia, head of the pro-Saakashvili Rustavi-2, discuss the need to "smash faces" in a "physical confrontation" with representatives of the authorities in the ongoing court battle over ownership of the embattled broadcaster. The results of the State Security Service's probe into whether the recording was evidence of a coup plot have not been reported. Thousands of Hasidim flock to Ukraine for pilgrimage Ukraine Today, September 27, 2016 http://uatoday.tv/society/more-than-2-5-thousand-pilgrims-hasidim-arrived-to-kyiv-airport-photos-754618.html 160 pilgrims from Israel - are the first to arrive in Kyiv. The charter plane landed in Zhuliany Airport. Hasidim go on an annual pilgrimage to Uman town, where zaddik Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, the founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement, is buried. This is just one of the first groups of Hasidim, arriving in Ukraine. Hasidim will arrive at the airports of Kyiv and Odesa. Boryspil International Airport is expecting 81 charter flights. Lots of people will take regular flights, so it is hard yet to predict how many would come. All in all, Uman expects at least 30,000 of pilgrims from 20 countries this year. Most of them are from Israel and the USA. Hasidim believe that every Hasid has to visit Rebbe Nachman's grave at least once in a lifetime. Moreover, they believe that if you meet the New Year near a zaddik tomb, the next year will be very happy. This is why Hasidim come to Uman in entire communities. Read more Celebrating Jewish New Year: Israelis mark annual holiday Rosh Hashanah (2014) 450 Ukrainian policemen together with Israeli colleagues will maintain order in Uman during the pilgrimage. For residents of Uman, it is also a good chance to earn additional money during the gathering. Uman authorities expect to fill town's budget with at least UAH 7 million. Babi Yar at 75: Filling in the Blanks in Ukrainian History By Izabella Tabarovsky Kennan Institute, September 27, 2016 https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/babi-yar-75-filling-the-blanks-ukrainian-history Long before Auschwitz, long before Treblinka and Sobibor, there was Babi Yar—the sprawling ravine on the outskirts of Kyiv where the Nazis, with support from the locals, murdered 33,771 Jews in a two-day killing spree on September 29 and 30, 1941. The Holocaust as the “final solution” began here, in Ukraine and other

Soviet territories. Over the fall of 1941 the number of victims at Babi Yar grew to 100,000, to include, beside the Jews, the mentally ill, Roma, Ukrainian nationalists, Communists, and other undesirables. This week, as Kyiv commemorates the 75th anniversary of the tragedy, the city is home to much commemorative activity. Penny Pritzker, the U.S. secretary of commerce, who is said to have a personal connection to Babi Yar, is expected to arrive for the official ceremony. Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin addressed a special parliamentary hearing on Babi Yar earlier in the week. Numerous American Jewish organizations are descending on Kyiv. A Canadian organization, Ukrainian Jewish Encounter (UJE), has put together a symposium, with participation from the celebrated historian Timothy Snyder. And the German Federal Agency for Civic Education will be holding its own symposium, “Mapping Memories.” The buzz is understandable and appropriate. Seventy-five years after the event, Babi Yar, more than a site of the murder of innocents, stands as a symbol. First and foremost, it is a symbol of the other Holocaust—the “Holocaust by bullets” that unfolded behind the Iron Curtain and that remains poorly understood, even though 2.7 million, or half of all the Holocaust’s victims, perished here. “Every big city in Ukraine has its own Babi Yar,” said Dr. Egor Vradiy at the UJE’s symposium here in Kyiv. Boris Maftsir, a former researcher from Yad Vashem who made a documentary about the Holocaust in Belarus and is now making one about Babi Yar, estimates that there are as many as 400 sites of Jewish mass murders in Ukraine from the Word War II era. Babi Yar is also a symbol of denial, desecration, and forgetting. Soviet historiography denied the specifically Jewish nature of the Nazi murders, referring to the murdered as “peaceful Soviet citizens.” The horrific ways in which the site and the bodies were treated in the following decades rival in horror the original murders. Eventually, what was once a series of ravines, some nearly 14.5 meters (45 feet) deep, became a virtually flat surface where locals walk their dogs and get together for a beer. The very landscape of Babi Yar seems to have been erased, along with the lives that were destroyed here. Whereas in most of Europe and the United States, the Holocaust and its specific events are a horrific yet hardly controversial subject, in Ukraine a discussion of Babi Yar and of the Holocaust in general can become maddeningly complicated. Reactions can run the gamut from indifference, to repeating Soviet-era views that discount the specifically Jewish nature of the Holocaust, to resurrecting Nazi propaganda canards equating all Soviet Jews with communists and coming dangerously close to justifying the murders, to confessing to a general ignorance about the history of ethnic and religious minorities in Ukraine. Myths and stereotypes abound on all sides. A discussion of the Holocaust also almost inevitably turns to other disasters that have befallen Ukraine in the twentieth century, including Holodomor—the policy of starvation that Stalin perpetrated against the Ukrainian countryside in the 1930s, resulting in the deaths of millions—and the 1944 deportation of Crimean Tatars. And there is the unresolved issue of the Volyn massacre, which the Polish Sejm just recently concluded was an act of genocide by ethnic Ukrainians against the Poles, a decision that many Ukrainians consider to have been politically motivated. In this, Ukraine is not unique. According to the prominent Ukrainian historian Georgiy Kasianov, in conflating these various tragedies, Ukraine has followed the Central European model. “When [other Central European countries] were entering the EU,” he told me, “they really didn’t want to talk about Holocaust. They insisted that they themselves were victims of a double genocide: first at the hands of the Soviets, then at the hands of the Germans.” The Vanished Civilizations In this maze of competing genocide narratives, finger-pointing, and defensive posturing, politics overtakes history, perpetuating fear and obscuring what really matters. The most concerning part of this is that in multiethnic and multiconfessional Ukraine, it suggests that the tragedies of some of the other ethnic groups that continue to share the country with ethnic Ukrainians, such as Jews and Poles, are not considered to be part of the national Ukrainian tragedy.

To be sure, there is a desire to do the right thing. Ukraine has conducted Babi Yar commemorations on a regular basis since independence, and this year’s spurt of activity is by all estimates the largest in its history. Speaking at the Israeli Knesset last December, Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko said: “We must remember the negative events in history, when collaborators helped the Nazis seek the Final Solution. Following its establishment, Ukraine asked for forgiveness, and I am doing it now at the Israeli Knesset in front of the children and grandchildren of victims of the Holocaust, who experienced that horror first hand. I am doing this in front of all the citizens of Israel.” These observations and commemorations are significant. Yet the problem is deeper than these symbolic gestures and deeper even than Holocaust awareness and education alone. Post-independence Ukraine’s history books have largely ignored the history of the country’s ethnic minorities. “Already in the early 1990s,” wrote Kasianov, “a new standard for writing national history was set … which presented the history of Ukraine as a history of ethnic Ukrainians. Other peoples who lived in the territory of contemporary Ukraine served at best as background for this ethnic-national history, and in the worst case were presented as enemies of Ukrainian statehood…. The names that were chosen to represent the national pantheon [of new national heroes] corresponded to the policy of ethno-symbolism. In the same way that the rewritten school history ignored other ethnic groups that had been part of Ukraine’s history, they were absent from the pantheon.” In Ukraine that, in contrast to some other East European countries, remains ethnically and religiously diverse, what’s needed is an educational program that reincorporates the history of ethnic minorities that have lived side by side with Ukrainians for centuries. At stake is whether or not Ukraine succeeds at realizing the vision of itself as a modern, tolerant nation. The examples of other countries show that to be effective, tolerance needs to become a deeply felt value and a deeply held belief that expresses itself in action. Tolerance needs to be continually nurtured and reinforced. Fifty years after Martin Luther King, racism remains part of the fabric of American society. In Poland, after the publication of Jan Gross’s book Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland, which led to a national conversation about the Poles’ role in the Holocaust, the tides have once again started turning. In Europe, xenophobic violence, including anti-Semitism, is on the rise. Eradicating ghosts of the past takes more than declarations. It takes, first of all, encountering the other face to face, through dialogues about history and today’s problems, through programs that enhance the understanding of one another. In a recent conversation, Vadim Altskan, a historian and senior project director at the International Archival Programs of the Mandel Center at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, observed that the new generation of Ukrainians, even those living in cities that used to be 70 to 80 percent Jewish, know nothing about that history. “An entire civilization vanished. Yet if these young people come across Jewish graves at an overgrown cemetery or ruins of synagogues, they have no idea what this is. It’s six or seven centuries of history! You can’t get rid of it. It exists. And without discussing these difficult questions, nobody will move forward.” For Altskan, what’s at stake is the very heart and soul of the Ukrainian nation. “People need to know what happened on their earth: who lived on it, how this civilization disappeared,” he told me. “It’s like a lagoon, an empty space. And sooner or later it will need to be filled with something. If not this generation then the next one, as in Germany, will be asking itself: how could it happen, what happened?” Reinserting the Lost Pages Some of the events taking place in Kyiv this week take aim precisely at that. UJE’s symposium includes special programming for youth, presentations by well-known historians such as Timothy Snyder, film showings, and theatrical productions, many of them geared toward addressing some of the most painful subjects, including local collaboration with the Nazi regime. Some 190 young people have been selected to participate in the programming. Of special note is the work being done by Tkuma, the Dnipro-based Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies, headed by Dr. Ihor Shchupak, which has published a number of books and teachers’ manuals to teach tolerance through Holocaust studies.

The 75th anniversary of Babi Yar has created a resurgence of interest in this part of history. A number of teachers I spoke with said that the history of the Jewish people in Ukraine is of great interest to their students. But fears persist. There is a sense that Ukraine is still too fragile to deal with hard issues and that presenting the nation with controversial historical topics will divide it. Addressing this concern at a public lecture organized in Kyiv by the Kennan Institute, Altskan told the packed audience of historians, students, and museum workers that today’s Ukraine does not need to be afraid of its past. “If we try to cover something up, our enemies will always find it and publish it in the front pages of their newspapers. In order to deprive them of it, we must tell this story ourselves. This is what will allow us to take that ideological weapon away from our enemies.” Notably, this history is far from exclusively tragic. The Soviet policy of de-facto Holocaust denial not only led to ignorance about events and the names of those who died. It also obscured the names of those ethnic Ukrainians and others who could by rights be considered the Righteous among the Nations: ethnic Ukrainians and members of other ethnic groups who saved the Jews. Numerous other examples of peaceful and supportive coexistence between Jews and Ukrainians as well as other national groups exist and need to be brought out and highlighted. The Day After The fundamental value of Holocaust studies is in the moral questions they force us to ask ourselves, and the conclusions we draw, about what kind of citizens we want to be. What would I have done had I been there? Would I have had the strength to choose the right path? Could I have seen the humanity of the victims when everybody else turned a blind eye to them? The study of mass tragedies depends on our ability to make individual stories come alive. The history of the 6 million is in the shaking voice of an elderly woman who as a girl witnessed her Jewish classmate being taken away to be murdered. It’s in the story of a survivor who lost 20 relatives in the Holocaust and pleads with Boris Maftsir, her interviewer, to show her interview abroad in case someone survived and she could finally escape the loneliness that still crushed her decades after the war. It’s in the stories of those who rescued others, and those who today work in their own personal way to discover their town’s forgotten history or to atone for the horrors perpetrated by a larger group. The challenge for Ukrainian educators will be to help create this kind of emotional connection to the tragedy of the Holocaust, which for now remains distant for most Ukrainian schoolchildren, to evoke empathy and identification. The measure of success of this week’s commemoration will then be what happens the day after. It is notable that much of the discussion this week is being driven by foreigners. After the distinguished foreign guests depart and the exhibitions close, Ukraine will once again be left one-on-one with its history. What will matter then is what it is that Ukrainian children are learning about their past. Will they know that Jews, Poles, and other ethnic groups were once their neighbors, living side by side with them for hundreds of years? Will they be open to learning about their culture? Will the political will exist to turn tolerance into a value that is built on education, dialogue, and joint action throughout the country? How Ukraine as a nation chooses to answer them, what lessons it chooses to incorporate into its school curricular, its political discourse, and its historical narrative, will determine whether or not the deaths of 100,000 mean something for future generations. U.S. Believes Hackers Are Shielded by Russia to Hide Its Role in Cyberintrusions By DAMIAN PALETTA The Wall Street Journal, September 28, 2016 http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-believes-russia-steered-hacked-documents-to-websites-1475058781 WASHINGTON—U.S. officials are increasingly confident that the hacker Guccifer 2.0 is part of a network of individuals and groups kept at arm’s length by Russia to mask its involvement in cyberintrusions such as the theft of thousands of Democratic Party documents, according to people familiar with the matter.

While the hacker denies working on behalf of the Russian government, U.S. officials and independent security experts say the syndicate is one of the most striking elements of what looks like an intensifying Russian campaign to target prominent American athletes, party officials and military leaders. A fuller picture of the operation has come into focus in the past several weeks. U.S. officials believe that at least two hacking groups with ties to the Russian government, known as Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear, are involved in the escalating data-theft efforts, according to people briefed on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s probe of the cyberattacks. Following successful breaches, the stolen data are apparently transferred to three different websites for publication, these people say. The websites—WikiLeaks, DCLeaks.com and a blog run by Guccifer 2.0—have posted batches of stolen data at least 42 times from April to last week. WikiLeaks has published U.S. secrets for years but has recently taken an overtly adversarial tone toward Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Cybersecurity experts believe that DCLeaks.com and Guccifer 2.0 often work together and have direct ties to Russian hackers. Guccifer 2.0 said in a Twitter direct message sent to The Wall Street Journal that he wants to expose corruption in politics and shine light on how companies influence policy. The hacker said he also hopes to expose “global electronization.” “I think I won’t have a better opportunity to promote my ideas than this year,” Guccifer 2.0 added in a long exchange with a Journal reporter. The Journal cannot verify the identity of the person sending messages on behalf of Guccifer 2.0, but the account is the same one that was used to publish personal information about Democrats. A posting on a blog run by Guccifer 2.0 says he is a man who was born in Eastern Europe, has been a hacker for years and fears for his safety. “I think u’ve never felt that feeling when u r crazy eager to shout: look everyone, this is me, this is me who’d done it,” the hacker wrote to the Journal. “but u can’t.” WikiLeaks officials didn’t respond to requests for comment on whether Russia fed them the stolen files published by WikiLeaks in July. A representative for DCLeaks.com asked the Journal to submit questions via email but hasn’t responded to them. Last week, U.S. intelligence chief James Clapper said it “shouldn’t come as a big shock to people” that Russia is behind the hacking operation. While Russia has tried to interfere in U.S. elections since at least the 1960s by spying and funneling money to particular political groups, “I think it’s more dramatic maybe because now they have the cyber tools,” he said. Earlier this month, leaked emails from former Secretary of State Colin Powell on DCLeaks.com revealed him calling Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump a “national disgrace” and accusing Mrs. Clinton of “unbridled ambition” and being “greedy, not transformational.” German officials said last week that hackers have sought to infiltrate computer systems of several German political parties. Two officials familiar with the investigation say there is evidence Fancy Bear was involved in the attempted German hack. Longtime Russia analysts say its goal in the U.S. might be to attack the basic credibility and reputation of institutions such as the military, election system, political parties and the federal government more broadly. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said disclosure of U.S. records is a public service. He has denied involvement in the hacks, and Russian officials have said they don’t interfere in the democratic process in other countries.

In August, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said critics were falsely trying to pin offenses on Moscow. “We can hear and see Russophobia, which is off the charts in the U.S. media,” Mr. Lavrov said. “We are portrayed as a global villain and the enemy of the United States and the entire progressive world.” Signs of an escalating strategy emerged in April when DCLeaks.com published batches of emails stolen from U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, then the top military commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Gen. Breedlove was one of the U.S. government’s biggest Russia critics, warning openly about the country’s aggression toward Ukraine and the West while other U.S. leaders were taking a lower-key approach. He realized his Facebook, LinkedIn and Gmail accounts had been hacked when friends started receiving strange messages purporting to be from him. Then he found out that DCLeaks.com posted dozens of his emails. From the start, Gen. Breedlove had little doubt that Russia was behind the intrusion. “A major world power has turned its cyber force onto private individuals and is now pouring out private accounts and emails to affect U.S. policy,” he said in an interview with the Journal. He retired this summer. In June, cybersecurity company CrowdStrike Inc. said Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear had penetrated the Democratic National Committee. The next day, Guccifer 2.0 published stolen records from the DNC. Three days later, the hacker disclosed DNC financial reports and donor data. WikiLeaks published more than 19,000 DNC emails in July. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida congresswoman, resigned as chairwoman of the DNC after some of the emails showed DNC officials had worked to undermine the underdog presidential campaign of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Democratic Party officials say they expect more leaks before Election Day. “This is the continuity of spy games and trolling and phishing for what the Russians call kompromat—compromising information—that has gone on for decades,” says Matthew Rojansky, director of the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. U.S. and European officials say they believe Russia is mastering a form of “hybrid warfare” that includes military tactics, disinformation, secret operatives and cyberattacks. Last week’s comments by Mr. Clapper could represent an initial step by the Obama administration to confront Russia more directly about the government’s suspected involvement in cyberintrusions. While Russia has a long history of meddling in elections and other operations of neighboring countries, some longtime Russia analysts have been surprised by Moscow’s apparent brazenness to target America. But other analysts and experts said hacking is just a new way for countries around the world to try to gain an advantage. “If it is Putin who is responsible, this is the way governments operate,” said Harlan Ullman, a member of the advisory board to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, NATO’s military leader in the region. Some of his emails to Gen. Breedlove were leaked by DCLeaks.com in April. Combating Antisemitism in the European Union By Katharina von Schnurbein Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, Volume 10, 2016 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23739770.2016.1223276 Rethinking the European Project

These are challenging times for Europe. We have taken for granted what we have achieved, and we have forgotten where we have come from—maybe not rationally, but certainly emotionally. The European Union has never been a love affair, but never has its foundation been questioned as it is now. The coherence of our societies is today being challenged in a way that it was not in the past. Multiculturalism has failed just as much as the concept of laïcité—the idea of shunning religion from the public space. And now we are looking for new ways of living together and disagreeing well. The people of Europe are anxious about their future and the future of their children, a reduction in their standard of living, and a diverse society challenging their traditions. They are experiencing insecurity about values they did not have to define up until now. These fears are combined with a new fear of terror, and as a consequence, significantly increased security measures. Some five years ago, I heard an Israeli official in Brussels describing an incident in Israel in which a ten-year-old boy on a bus informed the driver that a man had just stepped off the bus and left his bag behind. The driver stopped the bus immediately; everybody got off and the bus exploded, but nobody was seriously injured. The official used this as an example of the ignorance and naïveté of Europeans with regard to security threats. I remember thinking, “Well thank God we don’t need this kind of thinking.” Now—only five years later—we are there. For years, if not decades, Jews in Europe have been living with security fears. They send their children to school behind barbed wire and go to synagogues guarded by police. Many have long stopped wearing a kippah [skullcap] in public even if they are religiously observant. Somehow we have gotten used to it. Now we have military presence in front of government buildings, in front of some schools, in populated areas, and in shopping centers—and that is difficult to get used to. As we know from history, it always starts with the Jews but it never stops there.

∗ ∗ ∗ The foundation stone of the European project is peace. Recently, I saw an interesting picture online. It showed a timeline of European history. Centuries of war, war, war, war, until, on the far right end, a small section appeared labeled with the word “peace.” This tiny period in European history, approximately seventy years, is the story of the European community. As we all know, Europe’s striving for peace evolved not out of a vacuum, but out of the ashes of World War II and the Shoah. On this, my latest trip to Israel, I again visited Yad Vashem, and it brought home once more the horrific crimes of the Holocaust and the responsibility for remembrance that we all carry. And we Germans carry it specifically. Only recently, the voice of the six million, the most vocal defender of perpetuating the memory of the Shoah, Elie Wiesel, passed away. With his passing, not only did we lose a wonderful writer, professor, and political activist, but also, and most importantly, a teacher. Nobody tried as hard as he did to find words for the cruelties. He turned his memory into action; he turned the eternal slogan “Never Again!” into education and eventually received the Nobel Peace Prize for it. This is an honor he shares, by the way, with the European Union—the project for peace on the European continent. He recognized the resurgent threat and spoke up early against antisemitism raising its ugly head again in Europe in new forms. Preventing and Fighting Antisemitism I know that many in Israel and in some Jewish communities in Europe shake their heads at the high number of refugees who have reached Europe from Muslim countries. They fear a further increase in antisemitism, although this has not materialized until now.

A German Jew told me recently that he visited his father in an old folks' home. They went for a walk past a refugee center where people were queuing. The father—a Holocaust survivor—paused and watched the scene for some time. Then he said: “They are just like we were—but they have better shoes.” The leaders of the European Commission, just like political leaders in the member states, are well aware of integration challenges and, at the same time, of the need to proactively transmit our values. These include respect for the rule of law, democracy, equality between men and women, and also no tolerance for antisemitism. I recently invited members of a Muslim organization (the Kreuzberg Initiative against Antisemitism) to a meeting with representatives of the twenty-eight Ministries of Justice and Interior to present their project of Muslims teaching Muslims about the Holocaust and antisemitism. For years they operated only among the Muslim community in Berlin; now they have received a grant from the German government to extend their activities across Germany, addressing Muslim refugees in particular. We are stepping up our response to the current security threats in Europe. In the recent wave of terrorism, Jews have been targeted again and again. We witnessed it last year at the Hypercasher in Paris, the Jewish Museum in Brussels, and the synagogue in Copenhagen. The perpetrators are the same type as the terrorists who attacked Brussels again in March, only 300 meters from my office. We have long said that the fight against antisemitism must not be left to the Jews. It is the responsibility of society at large; it is a human responsibility. When 8,000 Jews leave France per year and two antisemitic attacks are committed per day in that country, grief and sorrow are not enough. The ultimate goal of our actions must be that Jews in Europe can live without fear and live the lives they want to live—just like any other member of our society. So what are we doing to combat antisemitism? Enforcing Legislation In 2008, the Council of the European Union adopted legislation against racism and xenophobia, which, if implemented correctly, could serve as a level playing field on which to prevent and fight hate crimes and hate speech inciting to violence. This legislation includes the criminalization of publicly condoning, denying, or grossly trivializing the Holocaust in a manner likely to incite to violence or hatred, but only thirteen member states have currently adopted this part sufficiently. We are pushing for the correct application and have been taking concrete steps with the member states concerned. Fighting Incitement to Violence Online Antisemitic hate speech, and hate speech inciting to violence generally, have spread like a virus on social media in recent years. The proliferation of age-old antisemitic stereotypes and conspiracy theories creates a vicious cycle, indoctrinating one generation after another. Freedom of speech is a lofty value in Western democracies, one for which we fought for centuries, but in Europe we decided to set limits when it comes to public incitement to violence and hatred. Despicable ideas do not remain locked in the head. Incitement to violence costs lives. To counter the explosion of illegal hate speech online, on May 31, the European Commission concluded a code of conduct with the biggest IT companies (Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Microsoft), in which they agreed to deal with all relevant illegal hate speech flagged within twenty-four hours and remove it where necessary. They agreed to review hate speech that violates European and national legislation and to support and train flaggers and NGOs that help them keep platforms clean. We will work closely with civil society in the fall, including with leading European organizations monitoring antisemitism online, to measure progress. France and Germany have started to crack down on people who incite online and take them to court. I hope many EU member states will follow. Education

Our third focus is education. This is a very delicate field, not only because it is long term, but also because the European Commission does not have direct competence in these matters. We will work closely with member states to ensure that there is a more holistic educational approach to Judaism and to the contribution of the Jewish community to European culture and history throughout the centuries. Students should not only hear about Judaism in the context of the Shoah or the Middle East conflict. How can they understand the impact of the Shoah if they do not know about the richness and diversity of Jewish life that existed before it in Europe, or about the shtetl culture in Eastern Europe, or Vienna at the fin de siècle with Sigmund Freud, Theodor Herzl, and Arthur Schnitzler? Europe's flourishing Jewish life was also the pool from which the idea of Zionism arose and coexisted with Jewish Socialism and Orthodox Judaism. That Jewish life was, is, and will always be diverse is a lesson no child in Europe should miss. Under the Europe for Citizens Program, the European Commission also supports Shoah remembrance initiatives, as well as those that promote the common history and values of the European Union. Some €4 million are invested in these projects annually. The issue of education will also be central at this year's annual EU–Israel Seminar on Antisemitism this November in Jerusalem. This is the tenth year the seminar is being held. Finally, we also support “teach the teacher” programs to help educators remove their own biases and equip them with the tools needed to face difficult situations in multicultural classrooms. Building Coalitions Broad coalitions are key, and this is the aim of my mission here. We encourage and enable the establishment of strong alliances consisting of civil society, international organizations, and state institutions to fight antisemitism in an effective and multifaceted way. One of my priorities after my appointment last December has been to visit Jewish communities, and other actors fighting antisemitism in the member states. There are many good initiatives in member states, on the local level and among NGOs, but we do not work together. We need to look for commonalities, not dividing lines. We need to join forces on all levels. This is also the aim of my two-and-a-half-week mission here in Israel: to talk to politicians, government officials, NGOs, and researchers and see where we can create coalitions in the fight against antisemitism. We must combat this in all its forms, whether coming from right-wing, left-wing, or religious extremism. We must tackle manifestations of the new antisemitism, and of antisemitism hiding behind anti-Zionism. High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini stressed recently the EU's firm rejection of any attempts to boycott and isolate Israel. In the context of fighting antisemitism here in Europe, we are particularly worried about the discriminatory repercussions these activities might have on Jews, and in particular Jewish students across Europe. During my visit to Israel, I had the honor of meeting Avi Primor in Tel Aviv. He once wrote a book about German–Jewish misunderstandings called An allem sind die Juden und die Radfahrer schuld [Jews and Cyclists are to Blame for Everything]. Indeed, the other day I saw a poster—part of a campaign against antisemitism in Germany—that said it all: “Jews and cyclists rule the world. Why cyclists?!” Vladimir Putin’s Outlaw State By THE EDITORIAL BOARD The New York Post, September 29, 2016 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/29/opinion/vladimir-putins-outlaw-state.html

President Vladimir Putin is fast turning Russia into an outlaw nation. As one of five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, his country shares a special responsibility to uphold international law. Yet, his behavior in Ukraine and Syria violates not only the rules intended to promote peace instead of conflict, but also common human decency. This bitter truth was driven home twice on Wednesday. An investigative team led by the Netherlands concluded that the surface-to-air missile system that shot down a Malaysia Airlines plane over Ukraine in July 2014, killing 298 on board, was sent from Russia to Russian-backed separatists and returned to Russia the same night. Meanwhile, in Syria, Russian and Syrian warplanes knocked out two hospitals in the rebel-held sector of Aleppo as part of an assault that threatens the lives of 250,000 more people in a war that has already claimed some 500,000 Syrian lives. Russia has tried hard to pin the blame for the airline crash on Ukraine. But the new report, produced by prosecutors from the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine, confirms earlier findings. It uses strict standards of evidence and meticulously documents not only the deployment of the Russian missile system that caused the disaster but also Moscow’s continuing cover-up. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Pavlo Klimkin, told The Times last week that his government is determined to bring both Russia and the individuals who fired the missile to justice. Some Western officials have accused Russia of war crimes, charges that could be pursued through international channels, even if Moscow blocks a formal referral to the International Criminal Court. New sanctions against Russia also should be considered. Mr. Putin will undoubtedly fight any such action, using his veto on the Security Council, but whatever his response, the United States should lend its support to Ukraine’s quest for accountability. There seems no holding Mr. Putin to account in Syria. For months he has pretended to negotiate on a political solution to a five-year-old civil war between his client, President Bashar al-Assad, and rebels backed by the United States and some Arab nations. But despite pleas from Secretary of State John Kerry, who has spent an enormous amount of time and effort negotiating two separate (and short-lived) cease-fires, Russian and Syrian forces, backed by Iranian ground troops, have continued the slaughter. Over recent days, Mr. Putin has again shown his true colors with air attacks that have included powerful bunker-busting bombs that can destroy underground hospitals and safety zones where civilians seek shelter. On Sept. 19, Russia bombed an aid convoy, which like hospitals and civilians are not supposed to be targeted under international law. On Wednesday, Mr. Kerry threatened to withdraw an American team from Geneva where the two sides had established a center to collaborate on a cease-fire. But that is likely to have little effect, and Mr. Kerry has few, if any, diplomatic cards to play. President Obama has long refused to approve direct military intervention in Syria. And Mr. Putin may be assuming that Mr. Obama is unlikely to confront Russia in his final months and with an American election season in full swing. But with the rebel stronghold in Aleppo under threat of falling to the government, administration officials said that such a response is again under consideration. Mr. Putin fancies himself a man on a mission to restore Russia to greatness. Russia could indeed be a great force for good. Yet his unconscionable behavior — butchering civilians in Syria and Ukraine, annexing Crimea, computer-hacking American government agencies, crushing dissent at home — suggests that the furthest thing from his mind is becoming a constructive partner in the search for peace. Eastern Europe Arming Itself because ‘No One Wants to Be the Next Ukraine’ By Paul Goble Window on Eurasia, September 28, 2016 http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2016/09/eastern-europe-arming-itself-because-no.html

In what many are calling “the Putin effect,” countries across Eastern Europe, including even Belarus, nominally Russia’s closest ally, are now arming themselves even when they have to cut social welfare spending because, in the words of one commentator, “no one wants to be the next Ukraine.” This sacrifice makes them producers of security and not just consumers who rely on others, including NATO and the United States, whatever some Western politicians may say; and it is an indication of just how frightened they are that the Kremlin leader, however bogged down he may be in Ukraine, appears to them as a continuing existential threat. Some of the increases these countries are making in their defense structures are usefully surveyed today by the Belsat news agency (belsat.eu/ru/news/effekt-putina-strany-vostochnoy-evropy-rashiryayut-armii-i-pokupayut-oruzhiye/). Poland has done perhaps more than anyone else, beefing up its territorial defense and increasing the size of its military, including the development of a system of reserves modeled on the US National Guard and plans to purchase new weapons systems in the coming years (poland.pl/politics/home/new-territorial-defence-force-poland/). The Czech Republic, Belsat says, has moved in “the very same direction,” approving a security and foreign policy strategy based on the proposition that Russia is now a major threat. It has increased defense spending, as has Slovakia for the same reasons (defensenews.com/articles/e-europe-boosts-defense-spending-armament-programs-amid-russia-concern). The three Baltic countries have increased the size of their forces and their spending on defense. Estonia plans to spend over the next four years more than Belarus does. Latvia is raising its defense spending to two percent of GDP. And Lithuania is forming special forces and a trilateral force with Poland and Ukraine. The Scandinavian countries are also increasing their defense capacity and links with NATO. Estonia, Belarus and Ukraine have retained the draft, and Latvia is thinking about restoring it in order to guarantee a sufficiently large defense force. Finland has a draft, and Sweden is now debating restoring obligatory military service. Ukraine's Next 25 Years Moving Forward Under a Permanent Russian Threat By Alexander J. Motyl Foreign Affairs, September 25, 2016 https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/ukraine/2016-09-25/ukraines-next-25-years As Ukrainians celebrate the 25th anniversary of their independence this year, they would do well to remember that the next 25 years will be far more important—and difficult—than the last. Ukraine declared independence on August 24, 1991, in exceptionally favorable geopolitical circumstances: the Soviet empire was disintegrating; its Russian successor state was democratically inclined and militarily weak; the United States, the world’s sole superpower, was determined to promote democracy around the world; NATO had proved its mettle and was soon to expand; and Europe was brimming with the self-confidence that would culminate in the formation of the European Union. Under such benign conditions, Ukraine could neglect fundamental systemic reform and simply get by, as it did for many of its 25 years. This period of fair weather has ended, and the approaching storm clouds will require Ukraine to cope with far more challenging, as well as existentially threatening, conditions. In order to survive, Ukraine will need to do more than muddle along. It must pursue, with unwavering resolve, a clearly defined set of priorities.

Consider the changes that have taken place in Ukraine’s geopolitical environment. President Vladimir Putin is actively pursuing hegemony in Russia’s “near abroad.” Hoping to reestablish a militarily dominant Russia in central Eurasia, Putin has expended an enormous amount of resources in upgrading Russia’s armed forces and weapons arsenal; engaged in relentless saber rattling and occasional land grabbing; routinely violated international norms and the postwar European security order; vastly strengthened Russia’s internal security apparatus; dismantled the country’s democratic institutions; and constructed a despotic, hypernationalist regime centered on his cult of personality. In the process, Putin has managed, by means of bluster and propaganda, to persuade most Russians, and many Westerners, that he is acting in their interests. At the same time, Putin’s Russia is a brittle regime that is in the throes of advanced decay. It is hyper-centralized, corrupt, inimical to introducing systemic reform, and incapable of changing itself. Although Putin himself is wildly popular, the ossified regime he leads is not, as his decision to form a powerful National Guard and the dismal turnout in the recent Duma elections suggest. A regime that is so dependent on the erratic judgment of an increasingly aging leader is inherently prone to strategic errors that, sooner or later, could embroil it in destabilizing misadventures at home and abroad. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014, for instance, not only alienated Kiev but also the near abroad and the West. Meanwhile, it brought Russia nothing that it did not already have, such as de facto control of Ukraine’s pro-Russian Crimea and the Donbas. The failing Russian state is increasingly fragmented between its center in Moscow and the periphery, elites and non-elites, and Russians and non-Russians. Its unreformed economy is in secular decline, while its pell-mell effort to modernize its armed forces and take strategic initiative has revived NATO, terrified Russia’s formerly pro-Russian neighbors, and put off much of the world. The longer Putin stays in power, the greater the likelihood that Russia will collapse, with untold consequences—from civil war to mass refugees—for its neighbors. The United States’ superpower status remains unquestioned, but its willingness to engage with the world declined significantly in the aftermath of the Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria debacles. Making things worse, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s inflammatory and knee-jerk rhetoric will likely infect U.S. discourse with greater isolationist tendencies regardless of who wins the presidency this November. NATO, which had lost its sense of mission after the end of the Cold War, has been revitalized by Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, but the alliance’s military capabilities are woefully inadequate to meet the growing Russian threat. As Western policymakers know, were Putin to test NATO by invading Estonia, the alliance would be hard-pressed to defend it. It would take years for NATO to meet such a challenge. Finally, the European Union is beset with troubles, from Brexit to the continued flow of refugees to the rise of an antidemocratic and pro-Putin right in France, the Netherlands, and, most alarming, Germany. As Europeans turn inward and as the possibility of pro-Russian political forces coming to power grows, the EU’s capacity to sustain a united front against Putin will decline. Regardless of how these trends play out, chances are that some combination of them will characterize Ukraine’s geopolitical neighborhood for the next five to ten years. The worst-case scenario for Ukraine would be a United States distracted by its internal troubles and external failures, a weak Europe, and either a strong, aggressive Russia or a disintegrating one. The best case would be a strong, engaged West, which would make whatever transpires in Russia less threatening. Unfortunately, that seems less likely than the worst case. Given these uncertainties, Ukraine’s policymakers need a strong set of principles to guide them. First, Kiev must make its own survival as an independent, democratic state its overriding strategic priority. All other concerns should be subordinate. That means, above all, shifting policy attention from Crimea and the occupied Donbas to state and nation building in free Ukraine. This need not mean recognizing Russia’s annexation, but Kiev should live with the temporary loss of these regions, or their quasi-reintegration on confederal terms, in order to focus on the difficult but long overdue restructuring that is needed to make Ukraine’s Westernization irreversible and its vulnerabilities to Russian aggression minimal.

Second, Ukraine must understand that it alone is responsible for its survival. Although Europe and the United States should recognize that Putin’s Russia has become an existential threat, no Western country is currently ready to abandon its hopes of rapprochement and fight Russia on Ukraine’s behalf. That may change, especially if Putin strikes again, but probably not in the foreseeable future. Third, Ukraine’s survival rests on four interconnected pillars: a strong military, a strong economy, a strong democracy, and a patriotic population. One cannot stand without the others. Only a strong military can deter further Russian predations and thereby offer the conditions for economic and democratic institutions to develop and thrive. A growing economy is a precondition for a strong military, a vital democracy, and a patriotic population; an open, democratic society ensures a dynamic economy and a supportive population; and popular support is necessary for a strong military and a strong democracy. Among these, however, Ukraine must make economic growth its immediate priority. Its army and democracy are strong enough for the time being, and popular patriotism is at a high as well. But these three pillars will weaken if Ukraine’s economy fails to grow at near-double-digit rates. Ukraine currently spends five percent of its GDP on its armed forces, an enormous strain on a poor country. Democracy requires a growing middle class—as a counterweight to powerful political and economic elites, as a guarantor of private property, and as a repository of liberal values. But, at present, the middle class is declining in Ukraine. And patriotism is hard to sustain under punishing economic conditions. A strong economy will also enable Ukraine to pursue a more confident foreign policy and imbue its current government with greater legitimacy. Fourth, although Ukraine should do everything possible to eradicate corruption, the key to generating rapid and sustainable economic growth is small and medium-sized entrepreneurship. Ukraine has vast reserves of impressive human capital that could, if permitted by the right combination of economic incentives, produce as much growth as its highly developed information technology sector. Unless that human capital is put to productive use, Ukraine’s economy will always languish. As nineteenth-century Europe and the United States, and today’s Brazil, China, and India, demonstrate, if human capital is mobilized, corrupt economies can and do grow at very high rates. Even corrupt Ukraine enjoyed seven to eight percent growth rates and significant inflows of foreign capital in the recent past. Foreign direct investment in Ukraine dried up over the last two years not because of some sudden spike of corruption but because of the war with Russia. Ukraine has adopted an impressive raft of economic reforms since the Euromaidan Revolution of 2014, and the result is that two years of significant negative growth have translated into one to two percent growth in 2016. But it needs to do more. Among other things, Kiev must sell its state-owned enterprises, privatize its land, cut the government apparatus while raising salaries, radically simplify procedures for establishing businesses, and find some form of modus vivendi with the oligarchs and their overseas accounts. If these and other measures—such as preventing outright seizures of property by oligarchs, state officials, and organized crime—are adopted, and the war in the east remains in a stalemate, foreign investors will return and, together with Ukrainian entrepreneurs, significantly expand the economy. For its first 25 years as an independent nation, Ukraine survived mostly because no one threatened its existence. That has changed for good, and Ukraine must learn to live with a permanent Russian threat and the likelihood of growing Western indifference. Above all, Ukraine must become an Eastern European economic tiger. If it does not, it may not live to see its 50th anniversary as a sovereign state.