Althouse: Putin apologizes.

May 5, 2022

Putin apologizes.

"In a phone call Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to [Israeli] Prime Minister Naftali Bennett for incendiary comments made by... Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claiming that Adolf Hitler had 'Jewish blood'.... [Lavrov was attempting] to explain Moscow’s attempts to 'de-Nazify' Ukraine, whose president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is Jewish."

The Times of Israel reports.

16 comments:

Dave Begley said...: How about an apology for the invasion and all the people he's killed?; 5/5/22, 3:42 PM
Mike Sylwester said...: The major problem with Nazis is that they invade other countries, where they cause much destruction and death.

Vladimir Putin has to prevent the Nazis in Ukraine from doing that.

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The Nazis in Canada were protesting against mandatory vaccines. Justin Trudeau had to prevent the Nazis in Canada from doing that.

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In both regions, Nazis have been causing many problems and so must be suppressed.; 5/5/22, 4:21 PM
Jupiter said...: Wow. Putin didn't apologize when he stole the superbowl ring from Robert Kraft. I guess there are some countries you just don't want to antagonize.; 5/5/22, 4:46 PM
Josephbleau said...: F*ing Great. Very informative. Putin Bla Bla Bla mouths something. Israel Bla Bla Bla mouths something. Both are itransigent, the sub-current of the great game swells below.; 5/5/22, 5:08 PM
stunned said...: Both sides have used and abused the Holocaust - with Ukraine's leaders equating this war with the Holocaust. Lavrov's statement that Jews are some of the worst anti-Semites is not wrong. Soros, Bernie Sanders, Chomsky are enemies of Israel. Ukrainians aided the Germans in murdering 1.5 million Jews, while the Red Army (with 500,000 Jewish soldiers) liberated Europe from the Germans. Putin is not an anti-Semite. Zelensky never waved his Jewish religion before now, and Ukraine routinely voted against Israel at the UN. I'd say both sides are at fault with their words, but Russia is at fault with its invasion. At least Putin apologized for his FM's gaffe, Zelensky's gaffe at Athens ended up irking a good lot of parliamentarians who stormed out of the parliament. Zelensky has soaked up the ideology of Azov, if he was quiet or not sure about it before, today he is Azov.; 5/5/22, 5:35 PM
Wince said...: "You can't use up a Jew card. That's the whole point of a Jew card."; 5/5/22, 6:00 PM
Maynard said...: I recall that some historians believe that Hitler may have had distant Jewish relatives.

How is that an insult to Jews? It doesn't make him a Jew according to Jewish law.; 5/5/22, 6:05 PM
holdfast said...: Thus far Israel has walked a pretty careful line in this war. There are still lots of Jews in both Russia and Ukraine. And Russia has lots of ways to make life difficult for Israel in the Middle East, particularly in and around Syria. At the same time, Israeli public sentiment is generally pretty much in favor of Ukraine. So Russia really doesn’t need Israel suddenly providing arms and expertise to Ukraine.; 5/5/22, 6:19 PM
Narayanan said...: when did Hitlerism became identical to Nazism?

let me coin a term if not already available >>> ethnophobia [fill in your ethnos]; 5/5/22, 6:38 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: Don't read too much into this.
The Israelis and the Russians have a complex relationship. The Russians have troops in Syria. The Israelis occasionally attack Syrian targets. The Israelis don't want to hit Russian troops, the Russians don't want to shoot down Israeli planes. So they have a delicate diplomatic relationship.; 5/5/22, 6:57 PM
Michael K said...: <i.The Israelis don't want to hit Russian troops, the Russians don't want to shoot down Israeli planes. So they have a delicate diplomatic relationship.</i.

Yes, and Putin may be starting to reach out to those countries that have not bought into the EU and American hysteria.; 5/5/22, 8:15 PM
Bender said...: Both sides have used and abused the Holocaust - with Ukraine's leaders equating this war with the Holocaust

Between 7–10 million Ukrainians died in the Holodomor, knowingly and intentionally killed by Stalin. How many more had to have died for comparisons not to be an "abuse" of the Holocaust?; 5/5/22, 8:55 PM
Candide said...: To recap,

In 2014 Ukrainian government is overthrown by radical nationalist groups

Newly formed Kiev Government unleashes radical nationalist groups to suppress resistance against the coup around Ukraine

5 years of Civil war in Ukraine follow

In 2019 Zelensky is elected in landslide promising to end Civil war and corruption

Radical nationalist groups continue to wage Civil war in Ukraine for another 2 years. Zelensky has no power to change anything.

In 2022 Russia invades Ukraine declaring to get rid of radical nationalist groups.

Suddenly, the well documented radical nationalist groups in Ukraine disappear, because Zelensky is Jewish.; 5/5/22, 9:03 PM
Narayanan said...: So Russia really doesn’t need Israel suddenly providing arms and expertise to Ukraine.
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also Ukraine is shelling "own population' dissident in DonBas = a skewed parallel with Israel and Gaza / West Bank; 5/5/22, 9:47 PM
Lurker21 said...: It's very unlikely that any of Hitler's relatives going back a century or two were Jewish. It's hard to prove a negative though. It's like with the "Trudeau the son of Castro" story, though much less likely. People who want to believe it won't be dissuaded and will cling to the barest possibility that it could be true.

Nazism is a focal point of people's thinking, in Russia as in the West. It's the dark shadow people see in everything they find threatening. Sooner or later every armed conflict will look like another war against Hitler to at least some of its supporters. That mindset gets in the way of seeing current realities for what they are. There are "bad actors" on both sides.

It's true that there are Jews who don't like or appreciate their Jewishness, but I wouldn't make blanket support for Israel in all matters the litmus test. That doesn't reflect the complexities or ambiguities of the situation. Often Jews are more aware of the complexities than non-Jews who just pick a side to root for and stick with it unquestioningly.; 5/6/22, 7:48 AM
Rosalyn C. said...: "I recall that some historians believe that Hitler may have had distant Jewish relatives.
How is that an insult to Jews? It doesn't make him a Jew according to Jewish law."

For Nazis, and other anti-semites, by making this kind of claim they are suggesting that ultimately "the Jews" are responsible for the Holocaust.

This is extraordinarily offensive when you consider the scale and magnitude of the slaughter of about two thirds of Europe's Jewish population, more than a third of all Jews worldwide. No, the Jews were not responsible for that happening.; 5/6/22, 3:06 PM