Ukraine Becoming a 'Wild West' Unsafe For Jews –Israeli Analyst

Speaking with Radio Sputnik on Friday, Israeli political analyst Avigdor Eskin commented on political developments in Ukraine this week, noting that rising anti-Semitism and growing instability in the country as a whole have turned the country into an unstable and unsafe 'Wild West'.

Discussing Israeli media and social commentary to the recent desecration of Jewish graves and outright attacks on Jews in the country, Eskin noted that "these tragic circumstances remind us that Ukraine is not a safe place for anybody, especially for Jews today," adding that in his view "this is the time to go home," to Israel.

The analyst stated that in the fight between Ukraine's elites, "there are many innocent people who suffer…with [gunfire opening] in such an easy way sometimes in Ukraine that one can just wonder whether it is Ukraine or the Wild West."

Eskin also recalled the case of a Jewish children's "doctor beaten up severely in Kharkov 'just because'," noting that "he was kidnapped, beaten up and told that he had to go to Israel."

Commenting on this week's political drama between President Petro Poroshenko and Dnepropetrovsk Governor Igor Kolomoisky, who was dismissed from his post, Eskin noted that while Kolomoisky has only lost out in this war, he remains dead-set on preserving a special status for Dnepropetrovsk which will allow him to preserve his vast wealth.

"I know Kolomoisky quite well and have followed his political activities for a few years now. The man is really brave. [His origins are] from some mafia criminal business," Eskin noted. The analyst stated that the oligarch's actions in taking over the Ukrtransnafta and Ukrnafta offices were perfectly logical from a political and financial point of view, noting that Kolomoisky had probably realized "that if he will not defend his position now, he will lose everything."

Eskin noted that while several of Kolomoisky's protégés in the Ukrainian government have already been arrested, Kolomoisky himself has not, "and now the question is what is going to happen further because he shows signs that what he's going to do in Dnepropetrovsk is to lead a kind of movement that will take Dnepropetrovsk." Eskin believes that in the aims of preserving his wealth, Kolomoisky will attempt to gain a special status for Dnepropetrovsk inside Ukraine, "and in this way he plays into the hands of what the West calls pro-Russian forces, what we call Donetsk, Lugansk and other areas there."

When it comes to Israeli media and social attitudes toward Kolomoisky, Eskin notes that despite the oligarch's Jewish descent and his presidency of Ukraine's European Jewish Union, Kolomoisky is simply not present in the Israeli public space. "Kolomoisky is not of interest to Israelis because he is not there [in the media space]. He did not here many times, he did not invest in Israel and as such he is not known much in Israel."

All in all, Eskin sums up the political situation in Ukraine by noting that despite the controversy surrounding Kolomoisky in recent days, the oligarch is not far removed from others in the Ukrainian government, "including their own president, who bows and vows today to the ideology of Bandera and Shukhevych," even if Kolomoisky himself does not.