Western Hegemony Enjoyer

A Canadian who loudly comments on American (and global) politics.
—
Слава Україні,
עם ישראל חי,
and God Save the King

[Western Hegemony Enjoyer @CitedNeed]

OF GOLDERS GREEN AND STOLEN GRAIN

(Originally posted April 29, 2026)

Two stories have energized debate in the Jewish world this week, stories which have helped expose the very different conditions that diasporic and Israeli Jewry live, both physically and epistemically.

The first we could call the "Stolen Grain Fiasco:" for the second time in less than a month, a Russian ship filled with stolen Ukrainian grain is attempting to disembark its cargo at the Port of Haifa.

This has caused a diplomatic crisis between Ukraine and Israel, one in which Ukraine has accused Israel of ignoring its overtures while trading in its stolen property with its enemy, and in which Israel has, in turn, has accused Ukraine of going through impromper channels and engaging in "Twitter diplomacy."

Beyond what my personal position is on the matter, which is nuanced but decidedly falls on the Ukrainian side, what has fascinated me most has been the divergence of reaction between diasporic and Israeli Jewry.

While the Israeli government has maintained its stubborn truculance, its population's reaction has been one ranging from puzzlement to outright disgust with respect to the state's behavior. I have witnessed figures spanning from the left to the far right criticize the choice of the government to alienate Ukraine and the world on the issue.

To give a noteworthy example, Tsvi Sukkot - a radical settler activist who sits inside the governing coalition for the Religious Zionist party - has said:

"The wheat incident with Ukraine is a moral disgrace... [Israelis have] for years demanded that the entire world act with justice even against other interests, we simply cannot choose the side of the bad guys."

To be sure, staunch Bibists and general hyperdefensive-types in Israel have pushed the government's line, but members of the governing coalition calling the issue a "moral disgrace" is demonstrative of the widespread internal dissent against the official Israeli position.

On the other hand, much - but not all, or even a majority - of diaspora Jewry has responded to the crisis with contempt for the Ukrainian position.

I have seen liberal erstwhile-supporters of Ukraine accuse Zelensky of "backstabbing" Israel (to the accusers' credit, Ukraine has softly-handled far greater offenders on the issue of surreptitious dealings with Russia, such as Turkey or the Arab states).

These "backstab" stories have often been accompanied by more extreme claims, such as absurd denials of Zelensky's Jewish parentage, theories about malign Ukrainian-Turkish-Qatari subterfuge, and relitigation of Jews' (admittedly abysmal) experiences in Ukraine - as though the ghosts of Khmelnytsky or Bandera figure into this conversation in some way.

While cooler heads largely prevail within the diaspora, and many Israelis have responded with vitriol and disdain, the difference in reaction between the anglophonic and Hebraic discursive spaces has been apparent to me, and noted by many others. The question of why is one I will answer through what occured in London yesterday.

During midday on April 29, in the predominatly Jewish area of Golders Green, London, a 45-year-old man identified as Essa Suleiman engaged in a targeted stabbing attack against two identifiably Jewish men.

Reactions were as to be expected: politicians quickly denounced the attacks in typical, hollow fashion - "this has no place here," and the like; antizionists have responded with trademark cynical soft-justifications of Israel as the "ultimate cause of antisemitic violence," with added criticisms of the police use-of-force in apprehending the subject (apparently, kicking someone who is holding onto a knife while wrestling with police is inhumane); and Jews across the diaspora responding with a mix of despondence at the continued onslaught and dismissive disdain at Western states' willingness to address the issue.

(Continued in comments)

[avi scharf @avischarf]

🚨 BREAKING:
Israeli importer drops shipment of allegedly stolen Ukrainian grain, says PANORMITIS ship will have to find another destination to unload

@DanielSchmil
https://t.co/7aQiqYOVMN

[Nate Silver @NateSilver538]

Keep in mind that if you're defending Platner at this point you're signing up for 5 more months of defending an obvious pathological liar.

[Eli Kowaz - איליי קואז @elikowaz]

A new Zman Yisrael poll reveals that for the first time in months, the anti-Netanyahu Zionist bloc has a clear outright majority in the Knesset without needing the backing of Arab parties. 1/6

[actually @CentristMadness]

I’ve had enough

[Zac B 🇺🇦🇵🇸 @ZacB_MN]

An insane amount of leftist men blatantly have no respect for women.

You're not concerned about anything in the article? Not a single piece?

[Principles & Pragmatism🌹🏳️‍⚧️🟣🎗️🟦🇺🇦🐝🪷🇬🇧 @InherentValues]

Whether they realise it or not - it's Jews on the brain, it's adversarial influence and brainwashing in the information ecosystem, it's reflexive campism, it's pure and plain illness.

Everyone prioritises. But monomania is sickness.

[Western Hegemony Enjoyer @CitedNeed]

@EliLebowicz There's a name for it!

[Western Hegemony Enjoyer @CitedNeed]

No, you see PACs are when (((boats)))

[daniela @daniela__127]

This is so mendacious. Darializa was recruited by Justice Dems, a PAC that is now sending out mailers for her. A commercial with her just aired after the Knicks game, funded by PAC American Priorities. She may not “accept” PAC money, but PACs are spending millions on her behalf.

[daniela @daniela__127]

This is so mendacious. Darializa was recruited by Justice Dems, a PAC that is now sending out mailers for her. A commercial with her just aired after the Knicks game, funded by PAC American Priorities. She may not “accept” PAC money, but PACs are spending millions on her behalf.

[Peter Wolf @peterawolf]

Worth pointing out that “liberal homo-fascism” is a favorite bugbear of Russian propaganda.

That “globohomo” stuff from Carlson Jr., recently. Or calling Euromaidan “Gayromaidan”

[Joseph Guarino 🐲🐝🏳️‍🌈🚊🦉🍥 @joeyjguarino]

With Piker going plop in California, here are a few of the names of some of the children who have died because of USAID’s defunding, which was in the platform of both Project 2025 and the DSA. Marco Rubio denies them. Bonus: @hasanthehun agreeing with its destruction.

Accelerationism has consequences:

Evan Anzoo, 5, pictures, died one week after his mother Jennifer in South Sudan. Both died of HIV from losing life saving medicine that cost 12 cents a day.

Mohamed Andrew, 14, Uganda, also of HIV complications

Omran, 3, died of an easily curable chest infection. He leaves behind a twin brother. The medicine would have come in February 2025 months before his illness if Harris had won.

Mohammed Hashim, hunger and diarrhea,

Excerpt: part of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya minority, attacked by the military in 2017 in what the U.S. declared a genocide. Violence and stealing have surged, and young people are huffing glue to numb their hunger pains.

The cuts have come during Myanmar’s darkest hour. In the aftermath of a massive earthquake that killed more than 3,800 in March, the U.S. sent three aid workers to Myanmar — all of whom received notices of their impending termination from the Trump administration while in the disaster zone.

Fatma Swak Fadul, also Sudan, lost first her 18 month old daughter Nada and then 3 year old son Omer to starvation within weeks of each other. Fatma and Omer pictured.

Excerpt:

First, his mother said, he began to lose his vision, which can be a side effect of malnutrition. Then he began asking fretfully for an absent brother. In his last days in March, he curled up on a mat, she said, begging her for porridge.

“I told him we don’t have any wheat to make that,” Fadul said. “He was suffering a lot and then he died around midnight.” His mother wept, she recalled, then asked the neighbors to help bury him.

[Rachel Moiselle @RachelMoiselle]

This is where we are at in Ireland apparently.

[Lee Kuan Yimby @LeeKuanYimby]

One PAC gave these people $2M. American Priorities PAC.

[Intelschizo @Schizointel]

Oh it gets worse not only does Ireland 90% of its Alumina to Russia aboard vessels linked to the Russian Shadow, fleet Ireland actively prohibited the United States from using Irish Airspace to send ATACMS and DPICM to Ukraine during and after the failed 2023 Counter Offensive citing "neutrality" while literally fueling the Russian war machine.

[daniela @daniela__127]

The Zohran Mamdani sycophants are desperately trying to downplay and justify Mamdani’s undermining of Nydia Velazquez and backstabbing of Adriano Espaillat. Won’t work.

[Rachel Moiselle @RachelMoiselle]

Aaannnd there we have it, folks.

Ireland being exposed as providing alumina to Russia is the work of ‘cynical Zionist agitators’.

[Branislav Slantchev @slantchev]

Scandal brewing in “neutral” Ireland after revelations that one Russian-affiliated plant there has been supplying over 83% Irish exports of alumina to Russia where it’s smelted into aluminum, a critical component for war production.

Aughinish Alumina in County Limerick, Europe’s largest alumina refinery, owned by United Company Rusal (Russia’s largest aluminium producer), whose parent EN+ Group was founded by sanctioned oligarch Oleg Deripaska. An investigation by the Irish Times, OCCRP and other outlets, drawing on confidential documents, customs data and satellite imagery, established the supply chain.

The Irish government tried to deflect but when a reporter filmed the plant with signs in Russian, they could no longer deny it. Now internal documents were leaked showing that the company is threatening the Irish government with loss of jobs and all sorts of things if it tried to curb its exports to Russia.

The newest defense is that alumina isn’t under EU sanctions so technically no rules were broken. Except Ireland had no problem defying the EU and forging ahead with its own restrictions on imports from Israel with its Occupied Territories Bill. Because… reasons (or maybe Russian occupation of Ukraine is OK while Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands is not).

Australia stopped its alumina exports to Russia because the material is so necessary for the war (its main exporter was also 20%-owned by Deripaska). The neutral Irish government is operating under different standards, where morality is spelled in Russian.

I wonder what the Irish people, who overwhelmingly support Ukraine (in fact, they are among the strongest supporters in Europe when it comes to economic and financial aid), think about all of this.

[Josh Wine @joshwine1]

@RachelMoiselle Opposing a real genocide would cost money. Opposing a fake genocide is free. The choice is easy.

[Rachel Moiselle @RachelMoiselle]

Caolan has done some truly incredible reporting here, which, by the way, our own media should have done.

It is also worth commending Irish NAFO for their incredible work that has largely gone unnoticed until now. See below and follow Dan! 🇮🇪🇺🇦

[Rachel Moiselle @RachelMoiselle]

For those who may say that the reporter was engaging in ‘whataboutery’, the councillor himself brought up Palestine!

Caolan asks ‘and what if this is fuelling Russia’s war machine and murdering Ukrainians every day’ and Councillor Jerome Scanlan immediately pivots and brings up Palestine. Caolan used Scanlan’s whataboutery to expose the double standard here.

And there is indeed a double standard. Here it is, undeniable, plain as day.

[Caolan @CaolanReports]

I asked a local councillor if the russian refinery here in Ireland should be sanctioned.

He said yes, if it was supplying Israel.
But Russia? No.

This is Ireland’s sanctions hypocrisy in 90 seconds.