Davin News Server

On Sat, 22 Feb 2025 18:27:32 -0000 (UTC)
Dhu on Gate <campbell@neotext.ca> wrote:

> On Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:23:15 -0700, tye syding wrote:
>=20
> > On Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:27:37 -0000 (UTC)
> > Dhu on Gate <campbell@neotext.ca> wrote:
> >  =20
> >> https://www.rt.com/news/613107-us-frustration-ukraine-zelensky/
> >>=20
> >> is a waste of time and resources.  This guy has spent years as=20
> >> a puppet or "punching bag" for all kinds of political interests=20
> >> amongst the great powers.  Besides setting a bad precedent for
> >> the rest of the Planets political classes' retirements it IS=20
> >> ludicrous to imagine him enjoying any retirement outside criminal=20
> >> custody.  =20
> >>=20
> >> So that is what should happen.  He needs a safe, comfortable
> >> prison with limited physical access except to immediate
> >> family/frenz. =20
> >>=20
> >> There's just tooo much he's fucked up on to let him go without=20
> >> developing a clear understanding of what's gone wrong in Ukraine.=20
> >> Killing him buys the rest of us *nothing* but Life in Prison with=20
> >> his "creature comforts" dependant on his prompt answering up on
> >> things we'll need to know to keep Keeping the Peace ongoing for
> >> Ukraine has considerable merit.
> >>=20
> >> Dhu
> >>  =20
> > Well, that and he did "cave" and agree to give us their rare earth
> > minerals, so...
> >=20
> > https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14423219/volodymyr-zelensky-su=
rrenders-donald-trump-sign-mineral-deal-hours.html
> >  =20
>=20
> He still ain't sittin' at the table in Riad.  Just as well. =20
> This looks to be an investment proposal the Ruskies are=20
> really thinking to partner on, and that could buy Ukrainian Rumpistan
> a viable peace.  I'd be good with that.  I'm also thinkin' that=20
> there's some rather picturesque islands on the Amur south of
> Birobidzhan that could be lovely even as a gaol and with Harbin only
> an hour away there's good access to modern services ;-) =20
>=20
> Dhu

https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/birobidzhan-russias-jewish-autonomous-=
region-is-not-so-jewish/


In the Far East of Russia, near the city of Khabarovsk, a 14,000 square-mil=
e area slightly larger than the state of Maryland borders on China with an =
estimated population of 170,000. The name of its capital, Birobidzhan, with=
 75,000 inhabitants, is often used to refer to the whole district, which is=
 officially called the Jewish Autonomous Region (JAR).

The Trans-Siberian railroad passes across the region, connecting Europe wit=
h Russia=E2=80=99s Pacific Asian coast by the shortest route. The Amur Rive=
r on the JAR=E2=80=99s southern border provides a waterway out to the Pacif=
ic Ocean.

Birobidzhan, seven time zones east of Moscow, is a curious anomaly of histo=
ry.

Jewish-Russian-American lesbian writer Masha Gessen=E2=80=99s new book Wher=
e the Jews Aren=E2=80=99t: The Sad and Absurd Story of Birobidzhan, Russia=
=E2=80=99s Jewish Autonomous Region is more of an interpretation than a his=
tory, and is almost uniformly depressing in what it recounts. About the onl=
y =E2=80=9Cfun fact=E2=80=9D one can cite is its post-Soviet era flag, a wh=
ite rectangle crossed horizontally by seven narrow stripes symbolizing a ra=
inbow. Anyone would be forgiven if they thought it was the flag of the LGBT=
Q Autonomous Republic.

Holding and governing the wide, sparsely populated Siberian expanse has bee=
n a challenge ever since the Czars claimed national sovereignty over all th=
at land clear out to the Pacific. In the 19th century they sent Cossacks ou=
t to establish villages there and start taming the wilderness as a protecti=
on from potential future incursion from the far more populous China. Russia=
 =E2=80=93 under any regime =E2=80=93 has always been sensitive about its b=
orders.

Gessen=E2=80=99s principal contribution is to situate the Birobidzhan story=
 in historical and theoretical context. Only after the rise of the national=
 movements in the 19th century was it even possible for Jews to imagine a =
=E2=80=9Cnational=E2=80=9D homeland. To do so was to re-imagine Jews as mor=
e than a religious subset of society, but in ethnic terms as a =E2=80=9Cpeo=
ple=E2=80=9D like any other. The secular Jewish historian Simon Dubnow form=
ulated the idea of Jewish autonomism, the theory of cultural, ethnic, relig=
ious, linguistic, and in some ways legal independence of a group living wit=
hin the outlines of a larger nation-state. A hundred years ago, achieving s=
uch a recognized status in Europe seemed far more achievable than the quixo=
tic, visionary Zionist project of re-establishing a Jewish homeland in Pale=
stine, which few Jews embraced.

After the Russian Revolution, the new Soviet Union had a plethora of =E2=80=
=9Cnational=E2=80=9D questions to settle. Certain constituent republics, su=
ch as Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, etc., were logical entities, a=
s they held a substantially homogeneous population with its own language an=
d territory =E2=80=93 and not coincidentally, all of them either on a forei=
gn border or a Soviet coast.

And then there were dozens of peoples with their own languages and cultures=
 living on land they had historically inhabited, that for various reasons w=
ere not numerous or advanced enough, or suitably situated geographically to=
 merit =E2=80=9Crepublic=E2=80=9D status but could be considered in the lig=
ht of =E2=80=9Cautonomist=E2=80=9D theory. Marxist theoreticians spent whol=
e careers fine-tuning the definitions of nationality in order to organize t=
hem into the USSR. Their culture was encouraged and promoted as long as it =
was =E2=80=9Cnational in form, socialist in content.=E2=80=9Dwhere-the-jews=
-arent

In 1934 the JAR was formally established as the answer to the Jewish people=
=E2=80=99s centuries-long yearning for a homeland of their own, with Yiddis=
h, the Germanic language spoken not universally but very widely by European=
 Jews, as one of its official languages. Hebrew, the language of religion, =
and of the growing Zionist settlement in Palestine, was repressed.

A few Soviet Jews were excited by the JAR, and some from capitalist countri=
es as well, but most preferred the intellectual and social stimulation in t=
he big cities of European Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Early settlements i=
n the JAR were crude and pathetic.

But the fate of the Jews was inevitably tied to the fate of the USSR, and a=
lmost as soon as the =E2=80=9Cautonomous=E2=80=9D region came into view, th=
e political purges of the mid-1930s started. Loyal comrades who had sacrifi=
ced everything for their ideals were suddenly arrested, tried, and liquidat=
ed. The top leadership of the JAR similarly suffered such decapitation.

For a while, during Great Patriotic War (as World War II is known to the Ru=
ssians), the Central Asian republics of the USSR and also the JAR provided =
refuge from the Nazi Holocaust. But almost as soon as the war was over, Sta=
lin once again went on a rampage, against perceived spies, rootless cosmopo=
litans, foreign accomplices, traitors to the country and the party, and nat=
ionalists. Gessen lays out this sorry history as it affected the Jews, but =
in fairness she might also have brought out that the crackdown against =E2=
=80=9Cnationalism=E2=80=9D affected all of the ethnicities in the Soviet Un=
ion. A policy of Russification came to be applied with a broad brush across=
 the Soviet lands.

Gessen is understandably concerned for the fate of her fellow writers, and =
uses the case of David Bergelson over many chapters of her short book (170 =
pages) to trace the Birobidzhan story. It=E2=80=99s valuable to hear about =
this deeply conflicted man who constantly juggled all of his loyalties- fam=
ily, linguistic, literary, religious, political, and national. He was among=
 those Jewish poets, writers and community leaders prominent in the wartime=
 Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, whom Stalin had executed on August 12, 1952=
. (They were posthumously acquitted in 1955, after Stalin=E2=80=99s death.)=
 Much of her book is really more about the general Soviet Jewish experience=
 =E2=80=93 which she lived personally =E2=80=93 than Birobidzhan itself.

She also gives us shorter pen portraits of other writers and denizens of Bi=
robidzhan whose devotion to Yiddish compels admiration, but all too little =
and too late. Her sources, however, do not seem to include books in Yiddish.

Today almost no one speaks Yiddish in Birobidzhan, although since the fall =
of the Soviet Union there is something of a religious and cultural revival.=
 No more than ten percent of the population there even has any Jewish roots=
, much less considers itself Jewish. Some tourists visit this still named =
=E2=80=9CJewish Autonomous Region=E2=80=9D out of a sense of curiosity abou=
t what might have been =E2=80=93 a modern, secular, socialist, self-governi=
ng, mostly agrarian Jewish Arcadia =E2=80=93 but it remains, as it always w=
as, a dreary backwater of Jewish life.

In one way, at least, the dream of a thriving community way out in Eastern =
Siberia did produce a positive result, although not particularly Jewish. It=
 did help to establish and settle Russia=E2=80=99s borderland area and insu=
re the country=E2=80=99s territorial integrity at least for the foreseeable=
 future, and that was in large part the point of it all from the beginning.


>=20
> >=20
> > Donald Trump appears to have won his trade standoff with Volodymyr
> > Zelensky, as the Ukrainian president is set to give in and sign a
> > deal giving the U.S. access to deposits of critical minerals.
> >=20
> > The deal was seen as crucial for satisfying Washington's demands
> > for a peace settlement between Ukraine and Russia to end their
> > three-year long war.=20
> >=20
> > Zelensky told a nightly video address on Friday that teams of
> > American and Ukrainian negotiators are working on a draft
> > agreement, signaling an imminent deal.
> >=20
> > 'This is an agreement that can strengthen our relations, and the
> > key is to work out the details to ensure its effectiveness,' he
> > said. 'I look forward to the outcome - a just result.'=20
> >=20
> > It's a staggering surrender by Zelensky, who just days earlier
> > angrily lashed out at Trump saying: 'I can't sell our country.'=20
> >=20
> > Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday evening: 'We're
> > signing an agreement, hopefully in the next fairly short period of
> > time.' =20
>=20
>=20
>   --=20
> Je suis Canadien. Ce n'est pas Francais ou Anglais. =20
>  C'est une esp`ece de sauvage: ne obliviscaris, vix ea nostra voco;-)=20
>  Duncan Patton a Campbell