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| Source: Mediate |
On Monday, March 3, 2014, on Wolf Blitzer's program
"The Situation Room," CNN's Christiane Amanpour defied NYU Professor
Stephen F. Cohen's charge that Ukrainians are anti-Semites who don't deserve
international support in their struggle for democracy.
Cohen alleged that "right-wing nationalists" and
"quasi fascists" were "dictating terms" to a "not
legitimate" "rump parliament" in Ukraine. Evidence of their
"quasi fascist agenda" "They banned the use of Russian as an
official language." "Hatred has been supported by Washington,"
Cohen alleged.
Wolf Blitzer quoted Russian diplomat Vitaly Churkin, who
characterized Ukrainian pro-democracy demonstrators as "Fascists and
anti-Semites."
When Blitzer quoted Churkin, Stephen F. Cohen smiled
smugly and crossed his arms across his chest, as if his team had scored a goal against
a hated opponent. Cohen's smug pleasure at seeing Ukrainian pro-democracy
demonstrators demonized as "fascists and anti-Semites" – by a
spokesperson for Russia, as it invaded Ukraine militarily – was telling.
You can read a previous blog post addressing WABC radio's
demonization of Ukrainians as brutal anti-Semites here.
I thank Joy Zamoyski Koch for alerting me to this story.
Watch video here.
Surprise. The very same standard left-wing lingo that is used to cast aspersions on Polish patriots is also being used to cast aspersions on Ukrainian patriots.
ReplyDeleteI just posted a comment which disappeared. So apologies if I repeat myself.
ReplyDeletePlease check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_Sector
These guys are very vocal on the Maidan scene, they have well-trained, armed fighters, and many of them are quite eager to seize a part of Poland once the Revolution settles in (their ancestral lands, as they see them). So it's not all black and white.
Magdalena thanks for commenting. Please understand what I'm saying here. I'm NOT saying and have never said that there are no anti-Semites, no fascists, no right wing extremists in Eastern Europe. Rather my concern is the deployment of a stereotype. Let's understand the right wing extremists. Let's not stereotype all EEs as right wing extremists and anti-Semites. I think we agree on that.
DeleteYeah, I agree on that. The problem is that most people in the West have a knee-jerk reaction either one way or the other - it's either all angelic fighters for democracy or all bad Nazi guys, and both reactions are foolish as they distort the picture. I think it is important to remember that the extremist presence is out there, and I don't think they are anti-Semitic as much as they are very, very nationalistic - they would turn against any minority that stood in their way.
DeleteYes, it's worrying that too many people here assume that the protesters must be in the right. The overthrown Ukraine government was clearly corrupt, but that doesn't prove that the people who overthrew it are necessarily supporters of clean government and democracy (or, as you say, Danusha, that they are all Nazis and fascists). It's an incredibly complex situation and knee-jerk responses in either direction are not helpful.
ReplyDeleteCohen has been a shill for whatever government was in Moscow at the time for a very long time, back to Brezhnev's reign. I wouldn't take anything he says seriously.
ReplyDeleteHe is married to Katrina know-it-all Vandenheuvel. If you had any doubts about who finances the Nation, it should have been dispelled by now
ReplyDelete