{"id":126565,"date":"2022-07-30T15:12:42","date_gmt":"2022-07-30T19:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=126565"},"modified":"2022-07-30T15:12:52","modified_gmt":"2022-07-30T19:12:52","slug":"holohoax-exposes-itself-why-is-israel-arming-neo-nazis-in-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=126565","title":{"rendered":"

HOLOHOAX EXPOSES ITSELF: Why is Israel arming neo-Nazis in Ukraine?<\/i><\/b><\/h2>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel is arming neo-Nazis in Ukraine<\/strong><\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Asa Winstanley<\/p>\n

The Azov Battalion uses the Nazi\u00a0Wolfsangel<\/a>\u00a0symbol as its logo (above). Its founder Andriy Biletsky (center) has moved to ban \u201crace mixing\u201d in the Ukranian parliament. (Azov\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Israeli arms are being sent to a heavily armed neo-Nazi militia in Ukraine, The Electronic Intifada has learned.<\/p>\n

Azov Battalion online propaganda shows Israeli-licensed Tavor rifles in the fascist group\u2019s hands, while Israeli human rights activists have protested arms sales to Ukraine on the basis that weapons might end up with anti-Semitic militias.<\/p>\n

In a letter \u201cabout licenses for Ukraine\u201d obtained by The Electronic Intifada, the Israeli defense ministry\u2019s arms export agency says they are \u201ccareful to grant licenses\u201d to arms exporters \u201cin full coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other government entities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 26 June letter was sent in reply to Israeli lawyer\u00a0Eitay Mack<\/a>\u00a0who had written a detailed request demanding Israel end all military aid to the country.<\/p>\n

Azov\u2019s official status in the Ukrainian armed forces means it cannot be verified that \u201cIsraeli weapons and training\u201d are not being used \u201cby anti-Semitic or neo-Nazi soldiers,\u201d Mack and 35 other human rights activists wrote.<\/p>\n

They had written that Ukrainian armed forces use rifles made in Israel \u201cand are trained by Israelis,\u201d according to reports in the country.<\/p>\n

The head of the Israeli arms export agency declined to deny the reports, or to even discuss cancellation of the weapons licenses, citing \u201csecurity\u201d concerns.<\/p>\n

But Racheli Chen, the head of the agency, confirmed to Mack she had \u201ccarefully read your letter,\u201d which detailed the fascist nature of Azov and the reports of Israeli arms and training.<\/p>\n

Both the defense ministry letter and Mack\u2019s original request can be read in the original Hebrew below.<\/p>\n

Israeli rifles in Ukraine<\/h3>\n

The fact that Israeli arms are going to Ukrainian neo-Nazis is supported by Azov\u2019s own online propaganda.<\/p>\n

On its YouTube channel, Azov posted a video \u201creview\u201d of locally produced copies of two Israeli\u00a0Tavor rifles<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 seen in this video:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0Israel is arming a neo-Nazi militia in Ukraine (to watch, click here<\/a>)<\/em><\/h4>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A\u00a0photo on Azov\u2019s website<\/a>\u00a0also shows a Tavor in the hands of one of the militia\u2019s officers.<\/p>\n

The rifles<\/a>\u00a0are produced\u00a0under<\/a>\u00a0licence<\/a>\u00a0from Israel Weapon Industries, and as such would have been authorized by the Israeli government.<\/p>\n

IWI\u00a0markets the Tavor<\/a>\u00a0as the \u201cprimary weapon\u201d of the Israeli special forces.<\/p>\n

It has been\u00a0used in recent massacres<\/a>\u00a0of unarmed Palestinians taking part in Great March of Return protests in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Fort, the Ukrainian state-owned arms company that produces the rifles under license, had\u00a0a page about the Tavor<\/a>\u00a0on its website at the time of writing this article. But the page was\u00a0removed after publication of this article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Israel Weapon Industries logo also appears on its website,\u00a0including on the \u201cOur Partners\u201d page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Starting as a\u00a0gang of fascist street thugs<\/a>, the Azov Battalion is one of several far-right militias that have now been integrated as units of Ukraine\u2019s National Guard.<\/p>\n

Staunchly anti-Russian, Azov fought riot police during the 2013\u00a0US<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0EU-supported<\/a>\u00a0\u201cEuromaidan\u201d protests in the capital Kiev.<\/p>\n

The protests and riots laid the ground for the\u00a02014 coup<\/a>\u00a0which\u00a0removed<\/a>\u00a0the pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This photo\u00a0from Azov\u2019s website<\/a>\u00a0shows an officer of the neo-Nazi militia armed with a version of Israel\u2019s Tavor rifle. The Tavor is made under license from Israel by Ukraine\u2019s national arms maker Fort.<\/em><\/p>\n

When the civil war began in eastern Ukraine against Russian-backed separatists, the new western-backed government began to arm Azov. The militia soon fell under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian interior ministry, and saw some of the most intense frontline combat against the separatists.<\/p>\n

The group stands\u00a0accused in United Nations<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Human Rights Watch<\/a>\u00a0reports of committing war crimes against pro-Russian separatists during the ongoing civil war in the eastern Donbass region, including torture,\u00a0sexual violence<\/a>\u00a0and targeting of civilian homes.<\/p>\n

Today, Azov is run by Arsen Avakov, Ukraine\u2019s interior minister. According to the BBC, he pays its fighters, and has appointed one of its military commanders, Vadym Troyan, as his deputy \u2013 with control over the police.<\/p>\n

Avakov\u00a0last year met<\/a>\u00a0with<\/a>\u00a0the Israeli interior minister Aryeh Deri to discuss \u201cfruitful cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Azov\u2019s young founder and first military commander Andriy Biletsky is today a lawmaker in the Ukrainian parliament.<\/p>\n

As journalist\u00a0Max Blumenthal<\/a>\u00a0explained\u00a0on\u00a0The Real News<\/em>\u00a0in February<\/a>, Biletsky has \u201cpledged to restore the honor of the white race\u201d and has advanced laws forbidding \u201crace mixing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

Max Blumenthal: US is arming Neo-Nazis in Ukraine (to watch, click here<\/a>)<\/em><\/h4>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

According to\u00a0The Telegraph<\/em><\/a>, Biletsky in 2014 wrote that \u201cthe historic mission of our nation in this critical moment is to lead the white races of the world in a final crusade for their survival. A crusade against the Semite-led untermenschen.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a military training camp for children last year,\u00a0The Guardian<\/em>\u00a0noticed that several Azov instructors<\/a>\u00a0had Nazi and other racist tattoos, including a swastika, the SS skull symbol and one that read \u201cWhite Pride.\u201d<\/p>\n

One Azov soldier\u00a0explained to<\/a>\u00a0The Guardian<\/em>\u00a0that he fights Russia because \u201cPutin\u2019s a Jew.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking to\u00a0The Telegraph<\/em>, another praised Adolf Hitler, said homosexuality is a \u201cmental illness\u201d and that the scale of the Holocaust \u201cis a big question.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Azov drill sergeant once\u00a0told\u00a0USA Today<\/em><\/a>\u00a0\u201cwith a laugh\u201d that \u201cno more than half his comrades are fellow Nazis.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Azov spokesperson played that down, claiming that \u201conly 10-20 percent\u201d of the group\u2019s members were Nazis.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the sergeant \u201cvowed that when the war ends, his comrades will march on the capital, Kiev, to oust a government they consider corrupt.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Azov\u2019s founder Andriy Biletsky entered parliament, he\u00a0threatened to dissolve it<\/a>. \u201cTake my word for it,\u201d he said, \u201cwe have gathered here to begin the fight for power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those promises were made in 2014, but there are early signs of them being fulfilled today.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Ukraine: On patrol with the far-right National Militia \u2013 BBC Newsnight (click here<\/a>)<\/strong><\/em><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This year the battalion has founded a new \u201cNational Militia\u201d to bring the war home.<\/p>\n

This well-organized gang is at the forefront of a growing\u00a0wave of racist<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0anti-Semitic violence in Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Led by its military veterans, it specializes in pogroms and thuggish enforcement of its political agenda.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, clad in balaclavas and wielding axes and baseball bats, members of the group\u00a0destroyed a Romany camp<\/a>\u00a0in Kiev. In a YouTube video, apparently shot by the Azov thugs themselves, police turn up towards the end of the camp\u2019s destruction.<\/p>\n

They look on doing nothing, while the thugs cry, \u201cGlory to the nation! Death to enemies!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Israeli defense minister Avigdor Lieberman (left)\u00a0met with the Ukranian prime minister<\/a>\u00a0last year to discuss deeper military ties. (Ukranian Government Portal<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s military aid to Ukraine and its neo-Nazis emulates similar programs by the United States and other NATO countries\u00a0including the UK<\/a>\u00a0and Canada.<\/p>\n

So obsessed are they with defeating a perceived threat from Russia that they seem happy to aid even openly Nazi militias \u2013 as long as they fight on their side.<\/p>\n

This is also a throwback to the early Cold War, when the CIA\u00a0supported fascists and Hitlerites<\/a>\u00a0to infiltrate from Austria into Hungary in 1956, where they began slaughtering Hungarian communist Jews and Hungarian Jews as \u201ccommunists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recent postings<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Azov websites<\/a>\u00a0document a June meeting with the\u00a0Canadian military attach\u00e9<\/a>, Colonel Brian Irwin<\/p>\n

According to Azov, the Canadians concluded the briefing by expressing \u201ctheir hopes for further fruitful cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irwin acknowledged receipt of an email from The Electronic Intifada, but did not answer questions about his meeting with the fascist militia.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Canadian defense department later sent a statement claiming that their \u201ctraining of Ukrainian Armed Forces through Operation Unifier incorporates strong human rights elements.\u201d<\/p>\n

They said Canada is \u201cstrongly opposed to the glorification of Nazism and all forms of racism\u201d but that \u201cevery country must come to grips with difficult periods in its past.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spokesperson, who did not provide a name, wrote that Canadian training \u201cincludes ongoing dialogue on the development of a diverse, and inclusive Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement said nothing about how alleged Canadian diversity training goes down with the Azov Battalion.<\/p>\n

Also part of Colonel Irwin\u2019s meeting was the head of Azov\u2019s\u00a0officer training academy<\/a>, an institution named after right-wing Ukrainian nationalist Yevhen Konovalets.<\/p>\n

Konovalets is one of the\u00a0group\u2019s idols, whose portrait<\/a>\u00a0frequently adorns its military iconography.<\/p>\n

Konovalets was the founder of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which later allied itself to Nazi Germany during its invasion of the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n

The OUN took part in the\u00a0notorious 1941 Lviv massacre<\/a>, when the Nazis invaded Soviet territory.<\/p>\n

During the pogrom, thousands of Jews were massacred in the now-Ukrainian city.<\/p>\n

US aid to Nazis<\/h3>\n

Canada is of course not the only NATO \u201cally\u201d to be sending arms to Ukraine.<\/p>\n

As\u00a0Max Blumenthal has extensively reported<\/a>, US weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades, and training have been provided to Azov.<\/p>\n

Under pressure from the Pentagon, a clause in the annually renewed defense bill banning US aid to Ukraine from going to the Azov Battalion was repeatedly stripped out.<\/p>\n

This went on for\u00a0three straight years<\/a>\u00a0before Democratic lawmaker Ro Khanna and others pushed it through earlier this year.<\/p>\n

For his trouble Khanna was\u00a0smeared in Washington<\/a>\u00a0as a \u201cK Street sellout\u201d who was \u201cholding Putin\u2019s dirty laundry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the ban finally passing, Azov\u2019s status as an official unit of the Ukrainian armed forces leaves it unclear how US aid can be separated out.<\/p>\n

In 2014, the Israel lobby groups\u00a0ADL<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Simon Wiesenthal Center<\/a>\u00a0refused\u00a0to help a previous attempt<\/a>\u00a0to bar US aid to neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

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A now-deleted photo from an Azov website showed US-licensed RPGs were going to the neo-Nazi militia.<\/em><\/p>\n

The ADL argued that \u201cthe focus should be on Russia,\u201d while the Wiesenthal Center pointed to the fact that other far-right leaders had met at the Israeli embassy in Ukraine \u2013 as if that somehow absolved their anti-Semitic views.<\/p>\n

Attempts by some in Congress to bar US military aid to Nazis in Ukraine may explain military aid from Israel.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s \u201cdeepening military-technical cooperation\u201d\u00a0with Ukraine<\/a>\u00a0and its fascist militias is likely a way to help its partner in the White House, and is another facet of the growing\u00a0Zionist-White Supremacist alliance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Israel has historically acted as a useful route through which US presidents and the CIA can circumvent congressional restrictions on aid to various unsavory groups and governments around the world.<\/p>\n

In 1980s Latin America, these included the Contras, who were fighting a war against the left-wing revolutionary government of Nicaragua, as well as a\u00a0host of other Latin American<\/a>\u00a0fascist death squads and military dictatorships.<\/p>\n

It also included the\u00a0South African<\/a>\u00a0apartheid regime, which Israeli governments of both the \u201cZionist left\u201d and Likudnik right armed for decades.<\/p>\n

As quoted in Andrew and Leslie Cockburn\u2019s book\u00a0Dangerous Liaison<\/em>, one former member of the Israeli parliament, General Mattityahu Peled,\u00a0put it succinctly<\/a>: \u201cIn Central America, Israel is the \u2018dirty work\u2019 contractor for the US administration. Israel is acting as an accomplice and an arm of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amid an alarming rise in anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism, Israel now appears to be reprising this role in eastern Europe.<\/p>\n

With translation from Hebrew by Dena Shunra.<\/em><\/p>\n

Asa Winstanley<\/strong> is an associate editor with The Electronic Intifada.<\/em><\/p>\n

___
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Israel is arming neo-Nazis in Ukraine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=126565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=126565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=126565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=126565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}