”The way that I reacted to the scene in the Oval Office, and how I have pondered and considered it since, have to do with my research… Jews had to show deference. Germans mocked the ways Jews dressed. That was before they were sent to the ghetto and murdered. Jews were scapegoated, made responsible for what the Germans wished to do anyway.”
—Timothy Snyder, Antisemitism in the Oval Office
#zelenskyy #zelensky #trump #vance #antisemitism

”As Orwell noted, it can be hard to see what is right in front of your face.”
—Timothy Snyder, Antisemitism in the Oval Office

”Russia's major war aim was fascist regime change, the overturning of a democratically-elected president in favor of some sort of collaborator. The premise is absurd: that Ukrainians do not really exist as a nation, and in fact would prefer a Russian. But it was also antisemitic: that it is unnatural that a Jew could hold an important office. Volodymyr Zelens'kyi, the Ukrainian president, is of Jewish origin.”
—Timothy Snyder, Antisemitism in the Oval Office
#russia #ukraine #zelenskyy #zelensky

”Although his Jewishness is not very relevant in Ukrainian politics, it is highly salient to Russian (and other) antisemites.”
—Timothy Snyder, Antisemitism in the Oval Office
#zelensky #zelenskyy #antisemitism

”Ukraine, says Putin, does not really exist. But another theme of the propaganda is that Zelens'kyi is not actually the president of Ukraine. These two bizarre ideas work together…
—Timothy Snyder, Antisemitism in the Oval Office
#putin #zelensky #zelenskyy #ukraine

”This Russian regime perspective is implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) antisemitic. Russian propaganda treats Zelens'kyi as obsessed with money and as subhuman.”
—Timothy Snyder, Antisemitism in the Oval Office
#antisemitism #russia #ukraine #putin #zelensky #zelenskyy #zelenskyi #zelenskyj

”Zelens'kyi was elected on a peace platform in 2019, but Putin did not want to talk to him, in part because he did not think that Zelens'kyi showed him enough deference.”
—Timothy Snyder, Antisemitism in the Oval Office
#antisemitism #russia #ukraine #putin #zelensky #zelenskyy #zelenskyi #zelenskyj

”The Russian regime that ordered the invasion [of Ukraine] is itself obviously fascist, on any definition of fascism you care to choose.”
—Timothy Snyder, Antisemitism in the Oval Office
#ukraine #russia #putin #fascism #antisemitism

”…my first, reflexive reactions was: these are non-Jews trying to intimidate a Jew. Three against one. A roomful against one. An antisemitic scene. And the more I listened to the words, the more that reaction was confirmed. … These things are complex, and personal. But not for the antisemite.”
—Timothy Snyder, Antisemitism in the Oval Office
#trump #vance #jdvance #zelenskyy #zelensky #antisemitism

”It was all there, in the Oval Office, in the shouting and in the interruptions, in the noises and in the silences. A courageous man…had to be brought down. When he said things that were simply true he was shouted down and called a propagandist. There was no acknowledgement of Zelens'kyi's bravery in remaining in Kyiv.”
—Timothy Snyder, Antisemitism in the Oval Office
#trump #vance #zelensky #zelenskyy #ukraine #kyiv #antisemitism

“The Americans portrayed themselves as the real heroes because they provided some of the weapons. The suffering of Ukrainians went unmentioned. An attempt to refer to it was cruelly and falsely reduced to a "propaganda tours" led by Zelens'kyi. The Americans portrayed themselves as the real victims of the because they paid for some of the weapons. It was all, bizarrely, about money.”
—Timothy Snyder, Antisemitism in the Oval Office
#trump #vance #zelensky #zelenskyy #ukraine #antisemitism

“Zelens'kyi was portrayed as someone who was taking our cash, giving is nothing in return, ripping us off. He was also mocked for not knowing how to dress for the space, as not belonging. And his deference was demanded: "Have you said thank you once?" "Offer some words of appreciation." And then was thrown out of the White House. And told to resign his office as president of Ukraine.”
—Timothy Snyder, Antisemitism in the Oval Office
#trump #vance #zelensky #zelenskyy #ukraine #antisemitism

“As always with antisemitism, facts are no defense. Zelens'kyi consistently thanks Americans, as can be easily verified. He is the elected president of a country that is a democratic republic under a constitution. Zelens'kyi won the last election with 73% and his approval rating is now 68%… Zelens'kyi has been personally courageous. He stayed in Kyiv when everyone expected him to flee.”
—Timothy Snyder, Antisemitism in the Oval Office
#trump #vance #zelensky #zelenskyy #ukraine #antisemitism

“…it was the astonishing fact of successful Ukrainian resistance that led to the delivery of further weapons. The arms allocations to Ukraine were aid, and aid is not a lone. They are an essentially invisible portion of the U.S. budget, a penny on the dollar. Most of that penny on the dollar remains in the U.S., restarting assembly lines that had gone cold.”
—Timothy Snyder, Antisemitism in the Oval Office
#ukraine #usa

“Much of what the U.S. has given Ukraine were obsolescent weapons that would have been otherwise been thrown away. As everyone in the room in fact knew, what Zelens'kyi was wearing was meant as an expression of solidarity with a people at war. It was not so unlike what Churchill wore in the White House in 1942.”
—Timothy Snyder, Antisemitism in the Oval Office
#usa #ukraine #zelensky #zelenskyy #zelenskyi #zelenskyj #churchill #whitehouse

“It's all right there: the demand for deference, the obsession with money, the claims of corruption and dishonesty, the encirclement, the loud voices, the bizarre grievances, the underlying sense that a Jewish person does not fit and must be expelled.”
—Timothy Snyder, Antisemitism in the Oval Office
#trump #vance #zelensky #zelenskyy #whitehouse #ovaloffice #antisemitism

“If we consider for a moment the men who tried to humiliate him, …the picture only sharpens and clarifies. The man who asked him about his clothes, Brian Glenn, is a conspiracy-theorizing far-right journalist. … The man who demanded deference and spoke of "propaganda tours," JD Vance, had just returned from Germany, where he made a point of publicly supporting the German far right.”
—Timothy Snyder, Antisemitism in the Oval Office
#trump #vance #jdvance #glenn #zelensky #zelenskyy #antisemitism

“Vance presents Zelens'kyi as a corrupt liar… The man who insisted that the Americans (and indeed he himself personally) were the real heroes, Donald Trump, told Jews last fall they would be held responsible if he lost the election -- among many other things.”
—Timothy Snyder, Antisemitism in the Oval Office
#trump #vance #jdvance #zelensky #zelenskyy #antisemitism

”And the man behind them all, Elon Musk, supports the extreme right in several countries, adapts his social media platform to support fascists, and is notorious around the world for his Hitlergrüß. Musk's idea that Zelens'kyi is a grifter could hardly be more antisemitic.”
—Timothy Snyder, Antisemitism in the Oval Office
#elonmusk #musk #zelensky #zelenskyy #antisemitism #fascism

”The American antisemitism now merges with the Russian antisemitism and reinforces it. … And the Russian approval for the American behavior…could hardly have been more explicit. A spokesman for Putin expressed his pleasure that policies were aligning. … And so the United States is now aiding the fascist invasion, and legitimating the attempt at fascist regime change.”
—Timothy Snyder, Antisemitism in the Oval Office
#putin #trump #russia #usa #fascism

”Actual fascists now call other people "fascists" to make the word meaningless, and so they themselves cannot be seen for what they are. This is the normal Russian practice, now picked up by American fascists.”
—Timothy Snyder, Antisemitism in the Oval Office
#rusdia #usa #fascism #fascists

”Encirclement, bullying, belittling.”
—Timothy Snyder, Antisemitism in the Oval Office
#trump #donaldtrump #vance #jdvance

”I am asking us, Americans, to think seriously about what we are doing, about Russia's criminal war against Ukraine, in which we are now becoming complicit.”
—Timothy Snyder, Antisemitism in the Oval Office
#usa #russia #ukraine

”America does have the power, of course, to hurt Ukraine. Just as Russia does. The combination of American and Russian policy is killing Ukrainians right now. The costs of the emerging Russian-American axis will be terrible for Ukraine. But Ukraine will not immediately collapse, nor will the Ukrainian population turn against Zelens'kyi.”
—Timothy Snyder, Antisemitism in the Oval Office
#usa #russia #ukraine #zelensky #zelenskyy #zelenskyi

”Never again means attending to the smaller aggressions that imply the greater ones to come.”
—Timothy Snyder, Antisemitism in the Oval Office

Our eyes have to be open to what we do not wish to see. —Timothy Snyder
#quote