Ok, I normally don't do this and I will probably regret doing this, but here's a thread on how the very real threat of antisemitism in Ukraine is getting misrepresented in the West.

The main exhibit: this appalling letter to an Orthodox Jewish community leader.

What you think if you don't read Ukrainian: Ukrainian police top brass are antisemitic and randomly profile Jews in small towns.

What is actually true: Head of a regional police department in a Western region is antisemitic and profiling a local Orthodox Jewish organization.

(Full disclosure: I am a slav-passing atheist Jew not from the region, so I may have some bias both ways).

Of course that cop is also under multiple investigations for corruption, but that's par for the course in Ukraine. https://censor.net.ua/ua/news/3192052/deputaty_vymagayut_vid_premyerministra_zvilnyty_politseyiskogo_chynovnyka_myhayila_banka?fbclid=IwAR3rfYwpK30juic29ND22iU9S_5H6WtOvAhzNBvQgxHh90408QY6xh0W0GA

Something the purveyors of "Ukraine as an antisemitic hellhole" narrative won't tell you is that a ruling party MP elected in a first past the post district in the area, who is a Jew, is now lobbying for that cop to get fired.

Not quite the same as WW2, is it?

The cop might well keep his job, but this is somewhat a different problem: cops are a corporation in Ukraine, willing to entrench their power, led by powerful minister Avakov (who is an Armenian from Kharkiv with troubling ties to white nationalists).

I am not saying Ukraine is free of antisemitism: electing Zelensky did not end it any more than electing Obama ended anti-black racism in the US.

But the government is fighting it, like when they arrested two neo-nazis for plotting to attack a synagogue. https://lb.ua/society/2020/05/09/457170_sbu_zayavila_zaderzhanii_dvuh.html

Of course this kind of nuance will be lost on those who get their news about Ukraine from the likes of Eduard Dolinsky, who also claimed Zelensky isn't really a Jew. https://twitter.com/Mortis_Banned/status/1120275770818080768

Of course, this narrative trickles to the usual "anti-imperialist" suspects who believe (or want their readers to believe) the US supports a neo-nazi junta in Ukraine, shedding more and more context along the way.

Thing is, them trying to erode Western support for Ukraine actually empowers those neo-nazis and antisemites, who, together with the pro-Russian crowd, claim Ukraine is under attack by George Soros and his "kids" - meaning Western-funded NGO workers and human rights watchdogs.

I don't know why I needed to write this, it definitely won't have a 1/100th of the impact of the Dolinskys and Greenwalds.

Maybe just wanted to get this off my chest.