How Trump can show he’s tough on anti-Semitism

Three years later the fascism that it is being nurtured in Ukraine is acknowledged as a political reality. Why? Because of the violence being visited on the people of East Ukraine? No. Because of the terrorist attacks carried out against the people of Crimea? No. But because it is a handy political angle to attack a president who must be undermined at every turn in the news cycle.

Interestingly, Obama was never called on to “denounce” Ukraine’s fascists, despite his strong support for the government of Poroshenko, whose cabinet was full of fringe politicians from far right parties that got less than 2% of the vote. John McCain, who has had many pleasant photo-ops with far-right figures in Ukraine, has never been publicly called out in the media. John Kerry and Victoria “fuck the EU” Nuland, who had actual, hands-on control of the formation of Ukraine’s new government, have never been questioned on their non-denunciation of anti-Semitism.
It seems the Nazis of Ukraine pop into and out of existence depending on political convenience.

By Josh Cohen
Donald Trump just got another chance to fight charges that he’s soft on anti-Semitism. Let’s hope he took it.

The president held talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Washington on Tuesday. The Ukraine leader emerged from the meeting saying Kiev had “received strong support from the U.S. side” over sovereignty, territorial integrity and the “independence of our state.” For Ukraine, the meeting was a win because Poroshenko got to visit the White House ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin. For Trump, it seems to have been a missed opportunity to win political capital at home.

Trump should have spoken out against what many see as Ukraine’s troubling glorification of Nazi collaborators. Poroshenko presumably focused on Russia's occupation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region. Trump should have broadened the agenda to call out Kiev for its official state policy of honoring controversial figures from World War Two.

The latest example: local authorities in the capital recentlyvoted to rename a major street after a former Nazi collaborator and anti-Semite named Roman Shukhevych.

Shukhevych led the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), an organization responsible for the mass slaughter of Poles and Jews during the war. Even inside Ukraine the renaming is a disputed move, with hundreds of people taking to the streets last Friday to protest the decision – only to be attacked by an ultra-nationalist neo-Nazi group called C14.