Future of Israel-Russia relations after Trump abandons Ukraine

https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/future-of-israel-russia-relations-after-trump-abandons-ukraine/

Since Oct. 7, 2023, our relations with Russia have cooled significantly, but they have not led to a rupture as was the case after the 1967 war. Moscow continues its unwavering support for the Palestinian cause and remains a strategic ally of China, Iran and North Korea. This new strategic axis greatly worries the Americans. They therefore prefer to neutralize it and strengthen their naval forces in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific rather than in the Mediterranean.

In the current geopolitical context, faced with the weakness of European security, and in the face of Putin's hegemonic intentions, we cannot blindly follow Donald Trump's logic on the solution of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis. Moreover, let's be modest, we do not have the means to influence the political course of the superpowers. We should therefore maintain normal bilateral relations with Russia without offering it mediation to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Republican Heckled at Town Hall Over DOGE Cuts: ‘Dump Musk!’

https://www.thedailybeast.com/texas-republican-keith-self-heckled-at-town-hall-over-doge-cuts-dump-musk/

 A Texas Republican was interrupted with “boos” and chants calling for him to be voted out of office at a heated town hall about Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency cuts.

Rep. Keith Self was greeted by two dozen protesters carrying signs that said “Dump Musk!” and “Do Your Job!” when he arrived for the event at the Collin College Conference Center in Wylie on Saturday, Newsweek reported.

Solidarity Leader Lech Wałęsa: Trump’s Zelensky Meltdown was ‘Like Communist Secret Police’

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/cold-war-hero-lech-walesa-writes-angry-letter-to-trump-after-his-attack-on-zelensky/

Legendary Polish anti-Communist Lech Wałęsa has slammed Donald Trump’s Oval Office attack on Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, comparing it to Soviet secret police tactics.

Wałęsa, 81, signed a letter along with 38 other Poles who had been held captive by the Communist regime, telling Trump that the Friday spectacle filled them “with horror and distaste.”

The former Polish president previously revealed that he met Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2010, and attached a photo of the two of them to the letter, which he posted on Facebook on Monday.

Sen. Roger Marshall booed at northwest Kansas town hall

https://thehill.com/homenews/5173328-sen-roger-marshall-booed-at-northwest-kansas-town-hall/?tbref=hp

 A town hall meeting hosted by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) in rural northwest Kansas Saturday morning included questions and answers, shouting, applause, boos and Marshall leaving the event early. 

Trump’s Embrace of Russia Rocks NATO Alliance

 https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/trumps-embrace-of-russia-rocks-nato-alliance-9cc0d63a?mod=hp_lead_pos2

BRUSSELS—The argument between President Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart at the White House sent relations between the two countries into a tailspin. It also caused serious damage to an alliance at the heart of the post-World War II order: NATO.

Trump staked out a position that many European allies saw as siding with Russia’s autocratic leader, Vladimir Putin, by dismissing the security concerns of a friendly country in need of Western help. He said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was losing the war and had “no cards.”

Trump Takes the Dumbest Tariff Plunge

 https://www.wsj.com/opinion/trump-takes-the-dumbest-tariff-plunge-5da57946?mod=hp_opin_pos_2#cxrecs_s

President Trump likes to cite the stock market when it’s rising as a sign of his policy success, so what does he think about Monday’s plunge? The Dow Jones Industrial Average took a 650-point header after he announced that he’ll hit Mexico and Canada on Tuesday with 25% tariffs.

Mr. Trump said at the White House there was “no room left” to negotiate with the two American trade treaty partners. Some of his smarter advisers have been hoping he’d start renegotiating the USMCA and delay the tariffs. But Mr. Trump wants tariffs for their own sake, which he says will usher in a new golden age.

Stocks Plummet After Trump Confirms Mexico, Canada Tariffs to Go Forward

 https://www.newsweek.com/stocks-plummet-after-trump-confirms-mexico-canada-tariffs-go-forward-2038978

U.S. stocks plummeted Monday afternoon after President Donald Trump confirmed that blanket tariffs on Canada and Mexico would begin Tuesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower by 650 points, or about 1.5 percent, after being down as much as 800 points after the president's remarks. The S&P 500 lost 1.75 percent for its biggest loss since December. The tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 500 points, or more than 2.5 percent.

Trump Halts US Aid to Ukraine After Fiery Clash with Zelensky

 https://www.newsweek.com/trump-halts-us-aid-ukraine-after-fiery-clash-zelensky-report-2039057

President Donald Trump has ordered a pause on all military aid to Ukraine following a disastrous and remarkable meeting last week with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, Bloomberg and the Associated Press reported.

A senior Defense Department official, who spoke anonymously about internal discussions, told Bloomberg that the aid freeze will remain in place until Trump determines that Ukrainian leaders are making a genuine effort toward peace.

A White House official confirmed the pause in aid, telling PBS in a statement: "President Trump has been clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well. We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution."

Damning IDF probe: Social media leaks enabled Hamas raid on Nahal Oz

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-844513

IDF soldiers left so many markers on social media that Hamas invaders on October 7 had a complete breakdown of nearly every unit, sub-unit, and building within the Nahal Oz IDF base when they overwhelmed it, killed 53 soldiers, and took 10 hostage on October 7, 2023.

Harry Enten breaks down poll showing Republican attitudes toward Russia-Ukraine war

‘The basis of eugenics’: Elon Musk and the menacing return of the R-word

 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/03/r-word-right-wing-rise

“There’s this whole generation of people who did use it in a more neutral way in the beginning, especially when we were younger,” Wright said. Now, “it’s like, ‘Oh, this other person who I identify with is using it.’ It gives people permission.” Cut to inauguration weekend, when the tech right and Maga youth descended on DC, throwing around the slur as they celebrated their win over the left. Just this week, Musk responded to a critical post on X: “I’m tempted to call this guy a retard, but I won’t because I’ve used that word too many times.” (Ironically enough, X’s own AI chatbot outlined the slur’s offensive history in the replies.)

Ukraine and Russia are Not the Same Country.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/02/06/ukraine-russia-not-same-country-putin-ussr-00005461 

In trying to make the case that Ukraine and Russia are historically “one people,” Putin (or his scribes) did not go back to the Soviet version of history; instead, they reached for the most reactionary tsarist one. That’s because the Soviets did recognize Ukrainians as a separate ethnic nation with their own language and the (theoretical) right to self-determination, which in practice meant they were granted a Ukrainian republic within the Soviet Union. Unlike the Soviets, the Russian tsars saw Ukrainians as part of the Russian nation, representing no more than its “Little Russian tribe,” and their language a mere regional dialect. They also believed that over the centuries the West had attempted time and again to undermine Russo-Ukrainian unity. Putin borrowed this point, adding NATO and the EU to the list of Western offenders.

“There is no Ukraine”: Fact-Checking the Kremlin’s Version of Ukrainian History

 https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lseih/2020/07/01/there-is-no-ukraine-fact-checking-the-kremlins-version-of-ukrainian-history/

 Putin declared that Russians and Ukrainians “are one people. Kiev is the mother of Russian cities. Ancient Rus’ is our common source and we cannot live without each other.” Since then, Putin has repeated similar claims on many occasions. As recently as February 2020, he once again stated in an interview that Ukrainians and Russians “are one and the same people”, and he insinuated that Ukrainian national identity had emerged as a product of foreign interference. Similarly, Russia’s then-Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told a perplexed apparatchik in April 2016 that there has been “no state” in Ukraine, neither before nor after the 2014 crisis.

Such slogans and insinuations might be little more than a rhetorical smokescreen concealing a pursuit of sober, hard-nosed realpolitik. But there is much to suggest that these beliefs are in fact informing policymaking at the highest levels of power. What’s more, they appear to have rubbed off on other world leaders as well. In an autumn 2017 briefing, US President Donald Trump reportedly exclaimed that Ukraine “wasn’t a ‘real country,’ that it had always been a part of Russia”.

"Strange Side of History" website / R' A. Broide

https://amazingjewishfacts.blogspot.com/

I have posted a number of articles by R' Avraham Broide in the last two weeks. For those who are interested in more, he now has his own website http://www.amazingjewishfacts.com/ based on his long running column in Yated Neeman (USA), "The Strange Side of History." In conjunction with the site, a weekly e.mail will contain an abbreviated strange event from Jewish history. Additional features are being added to the webstie at present.