Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s speech to Knesset members on Sunday, in the course of which he made liberal use of Holocaust analogies, has the opposite effect of what he intended – deeply angering many Israeli officials

Following the speech, many senior ministers expressed great anger at Zelensky for not only comparing the current war, as terrible as it is, to genocide, but for also distorting Ukraine’s role in the murder of countless Jews by claiming that the Ukrainians helped Jews during the Holocaust, Ynet reported.

The report quoted a government official as saying that “the Ukrainians slaughtered Jews, many Jews. There were also Righteous Among the Nations, but the majority slaughtered Jews. How dare he try to distort history.”

Likud MK Yuval Steinitz said that “although we don’t judge someone in his hour of grief,” Zelensky’s speech in normal times would even border on Holocaust denial. “Every comparison between a regular war, as terrible as it may be, to the extermination of millions of Jews in gas chambers as part of the Final Solution constitutes a complete distortion of history,” he said.

Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rotman said: “I don’t understand Ukrainian but if the translation I heard is accurate, Zalensky asked us to treat the Ukrainians as they behaved toward us 80 years ago. Sorry, I think we’ll have to reject his request. After all, we’re a moral nation – a light to the nations.”

Communications Minister Yoaz Handel said: “I respect the Ukrainian President and support the Ukrainian nation in heart and deed but the terrible history of the Holocaust cannot be rewritten – genocide that was also carried out on Ukrainian soil. The war is terrible but the comparison to the horrors of the Holocaust and the Final Solution is outrageous.”

On the other hand, some left-wing MKs had nothing but praise for Zelensky, with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid commending him for his speech and Diaspora Minister Nachman Shai expressing his support for Ukraine and reiterating his message that Israel should accept an unlimited number of non-Jewish Ukrainian refugees.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)