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‘Final Solution now directed at us’: Zelensky appeals to MKs for more assistance

“Why are we still urging countries to help? I’m looking at you,” the Ukrainian leader said in his address to the Knesset.

By Adina Katz, World Israel News

In a Zoom address to the Knesset Sunday night urging Israel to provide more assistance to his beleaguered country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky repeatedly compared the situation of his country to that of Jews during the Holocaust.

“The Final Solution is now directed at us,” Zelensky said in an appeal for more aid from the Jewish state.

Noting that February 24, 1920, was the date of the founding of the Nazi party, Zelensky said that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is now planning to “terminate” Ukraine.

On February 24, 2022, he said, “102 years after the Nazis, the order was given to begin the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has already killed thousands of people and left millions without homes. They’ve become refugees… in dozens of countries.

“Our people are now wandering the world, searching for a place, just as you once wandered… seeking security, trying to stay alive, and in peace. Exactly what you have sought,” he said.

He also quoted the late Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, who was born in Kyiv. One of her most famous lines was,, “We would like to live but our neighbors want to see us dead.”

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Indeed, many atrocities were carried out in Ukraine against the Jews during the Holocaust, the most famous being the murder of 33,771 in the ravine of Babi Yar, or Babyn Yar, in Kyiv, on Sept. 29-30, 1941.

The Jew-killing didn’t begin then. For example, between 1918 and 1921 an estimated 100,000 Jews were killed, maimed or tortured in Ukrainian pogroms.

In his appeal for more assistance from the Jewish state, the Ukrainian leader – who himself is Jewish and lost relatives during the Holocaust — reminded his audience that there were Righteous Gentiles in Ukraine who saved Jewish lives.

“Ukrainians made the choice 80 years ago to save Jews. Now, Israeli people need to choose to make a similar decision,” Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian leader appealed to Israel to provide military aid – specifically mentioning Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system – as well as to absorb more refugees and impose sanctions on Russia.

“Why are we still urging countries to help? I’m looking at you. What is it? Indifference? Sitting on the fence? I’m leaving an open question for you to answer.

“Indifference kills. Calculations and interests kill. You can navigate interests but not between good and bad,” he stated.

“I’m sure you feel our pain, but can you explain why we’re still waiting… for your help… when other countries are giving help? Why isn’t Israeli help, or even entry permits, forthcoming?”

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“What is it? Indifference? Political calculation? Mediation without choosing sides?” Zelensky added.

“You can mediate between countries, but not between good and evil,” he said, apparently referring to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s attempt at mediation between Ukraine and Russia.

“People of Israel, you too now have a choice,” he concluded.

Zelenksy’s speech was broadcast on a big screen at Habima Square in Tel Aviv, where a demonstration in support of Ukraine was taking place simultaneously.