President Zelensky – hero of our times?
He has been compared to Churchill standing alone against the Nazis, to David battling Goliath, and has been called a “revolutionary Jewish hero.” Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s young president, certainly has something of all these elements and he has demonstrated tremendous courage in the face of a vicious Russian onslaught. At the same time, as a former actor and as a consummate PR strategist, Zelensky has played to the hilt the image of Ukraine under threat of annihilation by Russia. He has often invoked a similarity between the plight of Ukraine today and the Holocaust, when the world stayed silent in the face of extermination. In a recent address to the Israeli parliament Zelensky accused Russia of genocide and of planning a “final solution” for the Ukrainian people. But while what is happening in Ukraine is horrendous, it is not genocide. In WWII, the Jews were defenseless, weak and scattered. In the current Ukraine/Russia conflict, Ukraine has an army, a huge country and a population of 40 million. Furthermore, if Russia were to win its war and occupy Ukraine, it would not proceed to exterminate all Ukrainians. It would undoubtedly stifle opposition but, as long as Ukraine fell into line, the
