A Principle of Solidarity for States Navigating the Peripheries of Empires--Full Text: Ukraine President Zelensky’s speech to Israeli Knesset 20 March 2022

 

Pix Credit HERE

 

I am sure that every word of my address echoes with pain in your hearts. Because you feel what I'm talking about. But can you explain why we still turn to the whole world, to many countries for help? We ask you for help... Even for basic visas... What is it? Indifference? Premeditation? Or mediation without choosing a party? I will leave you a choice of answer to this question. And I will note only one thing - indifference kills. Premeditation is often erroneous. And mediation can be between states, not between good and evil. . . . One can keep asking why we can't get weapons from you. Or why Israel has not imposed strong sanctions against Russia. Why it doesn’t put pressure on Russian business. But it is up to you, dear brothers and sisters, to choose the answer. And you will have to live with this answer, people of Israel. (Speech by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Knesset)

I have been noting the way that President Zelenskyy has been exposing both the structures of emerging post-global empire, but also framing the character of its inter-relationships and responsibility  from the imperial heartland, through its farthest peripheries (¿Pearls Before Swine?--Text of Address by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the Bundestag; Text of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's address to Congress 16 March 2022 and to the Canadian Parliament 15 March 2022; ). 

In a few speeches he has managed to succinctly expose what many of us have been suggesting for years is being constructed behind the multiple veils of discourse that have both looked backwards with nostalgia to a converging world order now fast disappearing, and forward to chimeras of ideological fantasies that reflect external projections of internal ideological psychosis of markets fundamentalism applied to the state system itself (Text of "Remarks by President Biden on the Assistance the United States is Providing to Ukraine"; In the Marketplace for Sovereignty, it is Important to Price Well: Tracking Sanctions Against Russia; On the Emerging Shape of the Allied Response to the Russian Invasion--'Trading Ukraine for the Rest of Europe': The View Now Being Shaped Through the Semi-Official Press?;The Stories One Tells Incarnated in Rituals of Blood Sacrifice: Alexander Dugin as Storyteller to Russia and China in the New Era;Götzen-Dämmerung (The Twilight of the Idols): Secretary-General's remarks to the General Assembly on Ukraine (23 February 2022)). 

That change is visible within the apex organs of the contemporary state system ((Text of A/ES-11/L.1; UN General Assembly Resolution -- "Aggression against Ukraine"; UKRAINE v. RUSSIAN FEDERATION--Text of Interational Court of Justice Decision (16 March 2022) Including the Separate Declarations of Judges Gevorgian (Russia) and Hue (China)). In the process a more complex world order emerges beyond the post-global state system itself (The Russian Invasion of Ukraine and Business: Responsibility, Complicity and the Responsibility to Respect Human Rights Under the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights). That transformation not not mere affected the nature of the legal, political,and markets relationships between states and non-state actors.  It has also fundamentally reformed the interaction of institutionally organized political and economic sectors that is changing the meaning of the trans "national" beyond its traditional state-centered focus (Global War, Non-State Collectives, and the De-Centering of States--Interesting Hints of Lessons From the Russo-Ukraine War). 

Pix Credit: Guardian

President Zeleskyy continues to refine his exposition of the emerging system, and the nature of its moral-political-economic responsibilities. In his 20 March 2022 remarks to the Israeli Knesset he addressed the "in-between" states.  These are those states (Israel, India among others) whose own histories ought to make them sensitive to the current crisis and the dangers of impunity. And yet these are the very states whose own positions as powerful centers of second or third order sub-systems existing in the peripheries of post-global imperial centers permit them to operate among and between competing imperial heartlands. These are states with a primary alliance to one global center (the US, or China, are the primary centers; the EU and Russia lower order centers) but whose interests are held hostage to one or more of the others. For these states it is dangerous to cross the heartland state to which they owe primary allegiance; at the same time it is dangerous to cross others with whom they have relations or otherwise interact.  Israel (and India) are states that are classic examples.  In thew case of Israel, the primary allegiance is to the liberal democratic  camp under the leadership of the United States; but context and history require cooperation with Russia and China. Those conflicting relations are put to the test when a sibling state, in this case Ukraine, calls on them for assistance. "It has received thousands of refugees from Ukraine and sent humanitarian aid like medical equipment to the former Soviet republic, while Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett became the first foreign leader to meet with Vladimir Putin since the war began during a visit to Moscow on Saturday." (US official warns Israel not to be 'last haven for dirty money' funding Russian invasion of Ukraine). The balancing is what is at issue in terms of sibling state responsibility against the aggresison of a superior state power; that is a balancing that apex states might indulge but not similarñy situated sibling  for which a principle of solidarity might require a different calculus.  (Israel has condemned the Russian invasion and sent unprecedented levels of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, but has so far resisted Kyiv’s call to provide weapons (Zelenskyy asks to make speech in Israel)).  In this respect the responsibility differs from that of sibling states like Canada, but more India, and Iran, and perhaps Saudi Arabia, Brazil and South Africa. 

That was very much the insight in the cross hairs of President Zelenskyy's address to the Israeli Knesset. Here he argued for the development of a greater solidarity among states with similar histories of ethno-religious violence; states whose legitimacy was subject to challenge by larger political-religious collectives, have a strong responsibility to solidarity. And solidarity requires  aid of a higher order than that expected between sibling states. President Zelenskyy  focused on the "right to exist"--Mr. Putin suggesting that Ukraine is a figment of the imagination of those who would pretend its independence apart from Russia, and various transnational elements and authorities making the same claim for the people who it is now claimed have sought to create a fake state on the territory they would assign exclusively to others. In the process, Mr. Zelenskyy suggests the irrelevance of ethnos as the principal basis for national identity, something that global elites insist for the imperial heartlands and its near peripheries, but which they resist for  those lower order dependencies for which ethnos, religious unity and other ancient unifying characteristics are viewed as essential to national formation. 

This is the sort of speech that is meant to make middle tier states at the crossroads of empire rethink both their loyalties and the strength of the duty to solidarity for similarly situated states against the depredations of post global empire. The tentative response: "Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, whose late father was a Holocaust survivor, thanked Zelenskyy for the speech. “We will continue to assist the Ukrainian people as much as we can and we will never turn our backs to the plight of people who know the horrors of war,” Lapid said." (Zelenskyy calls on Israel for stronger opposition to Russia, compares invasion to Holocaust). And it is important to recall that the de jure positions of states (like other non-state actors) may be quite different from de facto actions.  Secret aid, including military aid, while taking a formally neutral position or a position of silence in official circles is an ancient tactic.  But it is ultimately unsatisfying because it does little to advance the formal legitimacy of the claims of the state or other entity to which aid is secreted.

This appears to be very much on the mind of Mr. Zelenskyy and the advisors responsible for these series of speeches. They have managed these speeches as a multi-effort semiotic project--that is to a process to recognize and give a rationalized and collective meaning to the current situation and in the process of this collective meaning making to (re)construct the authenticating normative principles (extracted from the meaning of peoples, territories, and relationships) whose signification then produces a very specific set of expectations and consequences. Mr. Zelenskyy is no longer seeking de facto aid--he is seeking to remake the orthodoxy of meaning, the formal conception of the global order that he sees all around him but that has yet to be "spoken." The Russians, in effect, has sought to remake the world by changing facts on the ground.  Mr. Zelenskyy has accepted the challenge by seeking to remake the meaning-verse within which Russian action can be interpreted and the set of authoritative and legitimating responses managed. We move here from the world of de facto action (of discrete aid to Ukraine while remaining formally neutral) to one of de jure expectation--to mandatory action grounded in the recognition of Ukraine's rightful entitlement or claim, that is to claims by right. And for Israeli audiences, certainly, like those perhaps in India, South Africa, Brazil, and Iran, this may have some resonance. Every bomb the Russians explode is another brick in the building of this new normative cage of meaning within which the Russian leadership will eventually be caged.

The text of the Speech follows and may be accessed HERE and HERE.

 

Speech by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Knesset

20 March 2022 - 20:17

Dear Mr. Speaker, members of the Knesset.

Dear Prime Minister Bennett, thank you very much for your support.

Dear members of the Government of the State of Israel, all attendees, guests, people of Israel!

The Ukrainian and Jewish communities have always been and, I am sure, will be very intertwined, very close. They will always live side by side. And they will feel both joy and pain together.

That is why I want to remind you of the words of a great woman from Kyiv, whom you know very well. The words of Golda Meir. They are very famous, everyone has heard of them. Apparently, every Jew. Many, many Ukrainians as well. And certainly no less Russians. "We intend to remain alive. Our neighbors want to see us dead. This is not a question that leaves much room for compromise."

I don't need to convince you how intertwined our stories are. Stories of Ukrainians and Jews. In the past, and now, in this terrible time. We are in different countries and in completely different conditions. But the threat is the same: for both us and you - the total destruction of the people, state, culture. And even of the names: Ukraine, Israel.

I want you to feel it all. I want you to think about this date. About February 24. About the beginning of this invasion. Russia's invasion of Ukraine. February 24 - this day has twice gone down in history. And both times - as a tragedy. A tragedy for Ukrainians, for Jews, for Europe, for the world.

On February 24, 1920, the National Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (NSDAP) was founded. A party that took millions of lives. Destroyed entire countries. Tried to kill nations.

102 years later, on February 24, a criminal order was issued to launch a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. The invasion, which has claimed thousands of lives, has left millions homeless. Made them exiles. On their land and in neighboring countries. In Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Germany, the Czech Republic, the Baltic States and dozens of different countries.

Our people are now scattered around the world. They are looking for security. They are looking for a way to stay in peace. As you once searched.

This Russian invasion of Ukraine is not just a military operation, as Moscow claims. This is a large-scale and treacherous war aimed at destroying our people. Destroying our children, our families. Our state. Our cities. Our communities. Our culture. And everything that makes Ukrainians Ukrainians. Everything that Russian troops are now destroying. Deliberately. In front of the whole world.

That is why I have the right to this parallel and to this comparison. Our history and your history. Our war for our survival and World War II.

Listen to what the Kremlin says. Just listen! There are even terms that sounded then. And this is a tragedy. When the Nazi party raided Europe and wanted to destroy everything. Destroy everyone. Wanted to conquer the nations. And leave nothing from us, nothing from you. Even the name and the trace. They called it "the final solution to the Jewish issue". You remember that. And I'm sure you will never forget!

But listen to what is sounding now in Moscow. Hear how these words are said again: "Final solution". But already in relation, so to speak, to us, to the "Ukrainian issue".

It sounded openly. This is a tragedy. Once again, it was said at a meeting in Moscow. It is available on official websites. This was quoted in the state media of Russia. Moscow says so: without the war against us, they would not be able to ensure a "final solution" allegedly for their own security. Just like it was said 80 years ago.

People of Israel!

You saw Russian missiles hit Kyiv, Babyn Yar. You know what kind of land it is. More than 100,000 Holocaust victims are buried there. There are ancient Kyiv cemeteries. There is a Jewish cemetery. Russian missiles hit there.

People of Israel!

On the first day of this war, Russian projectiles hit our city of Uman. A city visited by tens of thousands of Israelis every year. For a pilgrimage to the tomb of Nachman of Breslov. What will be left of all such places in Ukraine after this terrible war?

I am sure that every word of my address echoes with pain in your hearts. Because you feel what I'm talking about. But can you explain why we still turn to the whole world, to many countries for help? We ask you for help... Even for basic visas...

What is it? Indifference? Premeditation? Or mediation without choosing a party? I will leave you a choice of answer to this question. And I will note only one thing - indifference kills. Premeditation is often erroneous. And mediation can be between states, not between good and evil.

Everyone in Israel knows that your missile defense is the best. It is powerful. Everyone knows that your weapon is strong. Everyone knows you're doing great. You know how to defend your state interests, the interests of your people. And you can definitely help us protect our lives, the lives of Ukrainians, the lives of Ukrainian Jews.

One can keep asking why we can't get weapons from you. Or why Israel has not imposed strong sanctions against Russia. Why it doesn’t put pressure on Russian business. But it is up to you, dear brothers and sisters, to choose the answer. And you will have to live with this answer, people of Israel.

Ukrainians have made their choice. 80 years ago. They rescued Jews. That is why the Righteous Among the Nations are among us.

People of Israel, now you have such a choice.

Thank you!

Thank you for everything.