YUSHCHENKO SMOOTHS OVER AWARD GAFF IN ISRAEL

Kommersant, Russia
Nov 15 2007

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko completes his visit to Israel
today. The culmination of his three-day visit was his address to the
Knesset. Speaker of the Knesset Dahlia Itzik gave Yushchenko a warm
welcome, calling him the leader of a "young democracy" and recalling
that Ukraine was the home of a vibrant Jewish culture and birthplace of
second Israeli president Itzhak Ben-Zvi and prime minister Golda Meir.

Itzik went on to say that she was concerned with the growing number
of displays of anti-Semitism, nationalism and neo-Nazism in Ukraine
and Yushchenko’s awarding of the title Hero of Ukraine to nationalist
leader Roman Shukhevich, who collaborated with the Nazis during World
War Two. Itzik called "the most shocking fact" the anti-Semitism of the
well-known state Interregional Academy of Personnel Management, where
the management’s support for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s
call to "wipe Israel from the face of the earth" attracted wide
attention a few years ago.

Yushchenko responded by comparing the Ukrainian and Jewish peoples,
both of whom came out of slavery. He mentioned that the first holocaust
museum in Eastern Europe was being built in Ukraine and reminded
his audience of the Torah scrolls he brought with him to Israel,
which had been confiscated in Soviet times and kept in the Ukrainian
national archive.

Yushchenko wanted to visit Israel in the spring of this year for
the holocaust memorial day. Ukraine has long sought international
recognition of the artificially-induced famine in Ukraine in 1932-1933
as genocide. Israel refused Yushchenko’s request at that time,
citing the busy schedule of Israeli leaders. No acknowledgement of
the Ukrainian genocide was made during this trip. Israel has also
ignored Armenia’s request to recognize the Armenian genocide of 1915.