WEEKLY QUOTES
“We call attention to the fact that the use of air-base networks of these countries as bases for the Ukrainian air force, followed by their deployment against the Russian armed forces, could be seen as the involvement of these states in the armed conflict”—Russian Defense Minister Igor Konashenkov on state media outlets (earlier, he had claimed that Russian air strikes had eliminated “almost the entire military-capable air force” of Ukraine.) Russian President Putin a day earlier had stated—evidently with Poland in mind, which was considering providing Ukraine with Soviet-era jet fighter planes–that he would consider establishing or supporting a no-fly zone as “participation in the armed conflict” — Political columnist Erik Reguly. (The Globe and Mail, Mar. 6, 2022)
“The will-and-credibility dynamics of this would all be reversed with different leadership in Washington and Mons. But we have what we have. Military policy and strategy don’t execute themselves; the will, rules of engagement, and how well the political leaders are backing up the troops are the tiebreakers – not brilliance of plan or even weapons capability and training. It’s pretty much guaranteed the Biden White House would make an NFZ [No Fly Zone] unexecutable…. Absolutely nothing about the Biden leadership’s responses since January 2021 would lead us to realistically expect timely, decisive responses if an NFZ were declared, and US/NATO assets deployed to enforce it.” — military analyst and retired naval intelligence officer J.E. Dyer. (The Optimistic Conservative, Mar. 10, 2022)“…
“Folks like me predicted early on that this war is going to get a lot more ugly. … We’ve been seeing the Russians revert to artillery fire, multiple-launch rocket systems, and a lot of indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas, particularly where they get involved in urban warfare. … Russian military often relies on … overwhelming firepower. And we have seen throughout this conflict, … heavy shelling of civilian areas … with increasingly growing civilian casualties. … The Russian military … have definitely not made the progress they’d hoped they would make. And the Ukrainian military has shown immense resolve. … That being said, unfortunately if you look on the overall map, you will see Russian military slowly, but steadily … progressing, trying to complete an encirclement of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv … We are much closer to the beginning of it [the war] than we are to the end… I have deep skepticism that they can achieve their political objectives in this war… ” — Michael Kofman, Senior fellow for Russian studies at the CAN, Center for Naval Analysis. (PBS, Mar. 10, 2022)
“Putin has done a stupid thing. I was shocked when he did it. I thought I had caught the commentariat in a logical contradiction, because they said that Putin was going to conquer Ukraine, a colossal mistake … my previous conviction, before the war, was that there were five things wrong and twelve things stupid about attempting to conquer and digest a country the size of Ukraine, and experience thus far has done nothing to alter that view. The Russians can achieve their military objectives, but it seems impossible for them to achieve their political objectives …” – political scientist David C. Hendrickson. (The National Interest, Mar. 7, 2022)
“Defeat in Ukraine might bring Putin and his cronies down. Which doesn’t mean we should surrender our ideals or security, though it does mean we’d have been much better off deterring this invasion, and should remember it next time. … To which end we should try to offer Putin a safe retreat because if losing this war means the end of the world for him personally, he might as well use nukes.” – columnist (John Robson. (National Post, Mar. 9, 2022)
“[Beijing’s relationship with Russia is] rock solid [and] not subject to third-party interference. No matter how perilous the international situation, China and Russia will. . .continuously advance with a new era of comprehensive strategic partnership” –– Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, ignoring growing international censure of Russian President Putin over his invasion of Ukraine. (National Post, Mar. 7, 2022)
“…. demand for oil and gas will remain high for decades. Fossil fuels currently constitute 74 per cent of the Canadian and 79 per cent of the U.S. energy mix and the proportion is even higher in China, at 86 per cent. No wonder the International Energy Agency says fossil fuels ‘will continue to make a major contribution to the global energy mix through to 2060’. ..” — columnist William McNally. (Financial Post, Mar. 9, 2022)
“The [Liberals’] notion that fossil fuels can be happily choked off in deference to green energy ran aground on the realization that that most of Europe can’t operate, or even keep warm, without the fuel it gets from Russia. Inflation, which is supposed to be just a passing annoyance, has become a serious and burgeoning concern.” — columnist Kelly McParland. (National Post, Mar. 8, 2022)
“I am not sure [Odessa’s] Jews, once amounting to half its population, are feeling safe. . .I came across an article describing how a rabbi in Odessa has made contingency plans to smuggle the remaining 3,000 Jews through the Second World War bomb shelters. I swallowed hard at one sentence: ‘The director of Odessa’s Holocaust museum said he was taking first aid courses and learning how to shoot a gun.’ The director of a Holocaust museum is learning how to hold a gun, I repeated to myself, with a growing feeling of the beginning of the end. I am grateful that my grandparents are not alive to witness this unravelling, to see their native Odessa assaulted by the Russian army. …” — Alissa Kole, founder and director of the GOVERN Center. (The Globe and Mail, Mar. 4, 2022)
SHORT TAKE
VULNERABLE JEWS TRAPPED IN UKRAINIAN CITIES BY RUSSIAN INVASION FACE DIRE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS, SAY EMISSARIES(Ukraine) – Chabad’s Rabbi Mendel Moskovitz said that the humanitarian emergency in Kharkiv — home to a Jewish community of 45,000 on the eve of the Russian invasion — was becoming direr by the day. Moskovitz noted that 600,000 Jews have already left. In Moldova, the Russians are playing psychological games. “I get calls all the time from people asking, ‘where’s my mother, my father, my grandmother?’ And unfortunately, I don’t have that information,” says Chabad emissary Rabbi Mendel Kohen. (Algemeiner, Mar. 8, 2022)
RESCUE FLIGHT BRINGS 100 UKRAINIAN JEWISH CHILDREN TO SAFETY IN ISRAEL (Jerusalem) — 100 Jewish children flew from the Ukrainian city of Zhitomir across the Carpathian Mountains into Romania, and from there to Israel and safety. The rescue, which began on Feb. 24—the day the Russian invasion began—came to a joyful conclusion when a special El Al flight touched down at Ben-Gurion International Airport. The rescue succeeded due to tight coordination between Chabad of Zhitomir; the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ); Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of Aliyah and Integration; Nativ, an Israeli governmental group that works with Jews in Eastern European countries; and the Jewish Agency for Israel. (WIN,Mar. 9, 2022)
10 UKRAINIAN CHILDREN WITH CANCER BROUGHT TO ISRAEL(Jerusalem) — Israel’s Ambassador to Romania, David Saranga, and embassy staff participated in a rescue operation of ten Ukrainian children sick with cancer. The Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petah Tikva sent a medical team and a special plane for bringing the children to Israel. The children arrived with their parents from the hospital in Kyiv, and they are on their way to Israel on a special flight for lifesaving treatment. (Israel National News, Mar. 8, 2022)
UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT’S REQUEST TO ADDRESS KNESSET TURNED DOWN (Jerusalem) — Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy turned down a Ukrainian request for President Volodymyr Zelensky to address Israel’s parliament. Responding to Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuk, Levy said the Knesset’s spring recess begins Thursday. Rather than convening a special session, he invited MKs to join a Zoom session with Zelensky. The Ukrainians refused Israel’s offer. (WIN, Mar. 10, 2022)
SAUDIS, EMIRATIS, REFUSED BIDEN’S PHONE CALL ON UKRAINE CRISIS, OIL SUPPLIES (Riyadh) — The White House tried unsuccessfully to arrange calls between President Biden and the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as the US was attempting to forge international support for Ukraine and tame the surge in oil prices. Their refusal to take Biden’s call happened in recent weeks when officials in these countries have increasingly criticized US policy in the Persian Gulf. (Jewish Press, Mar. 9, 2022)
AMERICANS BROADLY SUPPORT UKRAINE NO-FLY ZONE, RUSSIA OIL BAN – POLL (Washington) — A broad bipartisan majority of Americans think the U.S. should stop buying Russian oil and gas and work with NATO to set up “no-fly zones” to protect Ukraine from Russian airstrikes. A Reuters/Ipsos poll suggests that U.S. outrage is growing over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which in recent days has increasingly involved Russian bombing of urban areas. (Reuters, Mar. 4, 2022)
RUSSIA RELEASES LIST OF 51 ‘UNFRIENDLY’ COUNTRIES(Moscow) — Russia published a list of 51 ‘unfriendly’ countries and territories for financial restrictions due to their support of economic sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, now in its 13th day. The government website named major countries as well as tiny states. The entire EU, the U.S., Canada, the UK, Japan, Australia, Switzerland, and South Korea, among others. Israel was also left off, even though Jerusalem has condemned the invasion. (WIN, Mar. 9, 2022)
UKRAINE WARNS POWER OUTAGE AT CHERNOBYL COULD SEND ‘RADIOACTIVE CLOUD’ OVER EUROPE (Chernobyl) — Ukrainian officials sounded alarms after Russian forces cut off the power supply to the Chernobyl nuclear plant. They warned that the blackout could cause uncooled spent fuel assemblies to release radioactive substances into the environment. (National Review, Mar. 9, 2022)
OIL HAS WILDEST WEEK ON RECORD WITH MARKETS JOLTED BY WAR (NY) — Oil posted its biggest weekly gain on record with prices swinging in a $20 range since Russia invaded Ukraine and sparked fears of a major supply crunch. Futures in New York rose by more than $24 this week, the highest weekly dollar increase on record. (Yahoo Finance, Mar. 4, 2022)
RUSSIA THREATENS TO CLOSE MAIN GAS PIPELINE TO EUROPE AS THE WEST RAMPS UP SANCTIONS (Moscow) — Russia warned that oil prices could surge to $300 a barrel. It might close the main gas pipeline to Germany if the West halts oil imports over the invasion of Ukraine as peace talks on Monday made little progress. (National Post, Mar. 8, 2022)
I Was 17 When Soviet Tanks Rolled into Prague — and Watch in Horror Now: Daniel Kumermann, CNN, Mar. 9, 2022 — In the early hours of an August day in 1968, I was awakened by the continuous thunder of heavy planes flying low overhead — we lived relatively close to Prague’s largest airport.
The Delegitimization Campaigns Targeting Israel and Ukraine: Ben Cohen, Algemeiner, Mar. 6, 2022 — Attempting to refute the spreading claim that Russian soldiers wounded in Ukraine were receiving only $100 in compensation (the official line is that they receive $28,000), Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t miss the opportunity to return to his latest favorite theme.
This week’s Communiqué Isranet is Communiqué: Israël au centre de l’échiquier russo-ukrainien?
