Representatives of Ukraines neo-NaziAzov Battalionhave been touring Israel to drum up support for the units imprisoned fighters. They have been meeting with Israeli politicians and soldiers.

Azov intelligence officer Illia Samoilenko was released in a prisoner exchange with Russia in September.

He had been one of the hundreds of Azov fighters who surrendered in May at the end of the long Russian siege of the eastern city of Mariupol.

Israel values freedom, values strength, Israel values honour. Its the same things that we also value, he toldIsraeli newspaper_Haaretz_this week.

Samoilenko alsotoldThe Times of Israel that he sees Israel and Ukraine on the same side, the civilized battling the uncivilised in a struggle for the future of humanity, the outlet summarised.

We have prosperity, beautiful, prosperous, beautiful civilisation, and they have medieval cavemen, he said. It seems the they in this case are the Palestinians and the Russians, who Samoilenko regards as uncivilised.

Along for the Israeli tour with Samoilenko is Yulia Fedosiuk, the wife of an imprisoned Azov fighter and a far-right activist in her own right.

Both were on a charm offensive this week, as part of a wider push to whitewash Azovs image in the West.

Before Russia invaded Ukraine in February, it was widely acknowledged that the Azov Battalion promoted Nazi ideology.

The Anti-Defamation League, a major Jewish communal and Israel lobby group, for instance,warned in 2019 that Azov was a Ukrainian extremist group with ties to neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

But now with Western governments arming Ukraine, including the Azov Battalion, in a proxy war against Russia, there is a concerted effort to hide this ugly reality from public view.

Consequently with help from the media and now Israel and its lobby Azov has in recent months attempted to rebrand itself.

Seeking a stamp of approval from Israel is a time-honoured strategy of European and American far-right extremists seeking to gain mainstream legitimacy.

In May_The Times_of Londonreportedthat Azov was planning to change its symbol from the wolfsangel a far-right symbol associated with a division of the German army during Hitlers Nazi regime.

But even that surface-level whitewash seems to have been too much of a change for Azov to endure. The symbol remains visible in all of Azovs online outlets.

RecentAzov social mediapostingsshow their fighters still using the wolfsangel.

And photos posted by a pro-Azov Twitter account, the Association of Families of the Defenders of Azovstal show that Samoilenko and Fedosiuk visited Masada, where Samoilenko wore the Nazi-linked symbol on his uniform.

Masada is the site of amythicallast stand by Jewish fighters against Roman forces. Today, Israel holds swearing-in ceremonies for its new soldiers there, and they pledge that Masada shall not fall again.

The Azovstal associations Telegram accountposted photos of the Azov members at Masada and stated, When today in Israel we talk about the defence of Mariupol, the Israelis constantly repeat: Mariupol is your Masada.

As well as Masada, the tweets show that the two Ukrainian militants also met withreservistIsraeli soldiers,attendeda film screening and met with Naama Lazimi aleadingIsraeli politician in the Labor Party, which is part of the outgoing coalition government.

Shortly after publication of this article, the Azovstal Twitter accountdeleted their post showing their meeting with Lazimi.

Documented ties to Nazism

During the meeting with Lazimi, Samoilenko debunked the myths created by Russian propaganda about the Azov regiment, the Azovstal associationclaimedon its Telegram channel.

This seems to be a reference to the Russian governments accurate claim since the start of its invasion of Ukraine in February that the Azov Battalion is a Nazi organisation.

But recall that this wasnt only a claim from Russia, it was widely acknowledged and reported in Western media, including by theEU-fundedinvestigative website Bellingcat.

In 2019, Bellingcatextensively documentedthe battalions international outreach to white supremacist groups, noting that Azovs interest in reaching American extremists and the Ukrainian groups comfort in cooperating with neo-Nazis in the US and West was on display until at least 2018 four years after the Azov battalion was integrated into Ukraines national guard.

But as the US, UK and EU wage their proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, Western media have largely fallen in line, portraying Azov sympathetically as the defenders of Mariupol, as misunderstood nationalists and as the victims of Putins propaganda.

Even the Anti-Defamation League, which previously condemned Azovs Nazi ties, is falling into line.

After the Russian invasion, the ADLengaged in blatant Holocaust revisionismin order to whitewash Hitlers wartime collaborators who are today venerated as national heroes in Ukraine even though they helped the German leader murder hundreds of thousands of Poles and Jews during World War II.

The ADL is now also helping to airbrush Azov. Recently, the Israel lobby groupclaimedthat the Azov Battalions 2014 integration into Ukraines national guard meant that the Azov military unit had split from the broader far-right Azov political movement and from the movements founder Andriy Biletsky.

As a consequence, the ADL now says that it does not see Azov Regiment as the far-right group it once was.

But in 2019, Bellingcat had already reported on newly uncovered statements by a senior law-enforcement official in Ukraine that suggest that incorporation of the Azov Regiment into the National Guard of Ukraine didnt affect the far-right ideology espoused by the formers members and instead allowed Azov to obtain sophisticated weaponry and build their own political party.

Restore the honour of the white race

In recent months, the Azov Battalion appears to have renamed itself the Azov Regiment, another apparent attempt to legitimise itself as a normal element of the Ukrainian state and whitewash its Nazi image while maintaining all the same policies.

This name change was played up ina puff piece by_The Jerusalem Post_this week, which claimed that the Azov Battalion [is] the predecessor of the Azov Regiment.

But just as when the US and its allies have repeatedlyattempted to rebrandthe Syrian branch of al-Qaidaas moderate rebels, suchcosmetic changes are unlikely to fool anyone outside the ranks of spineless mainstream media journalists.

And despite Samoilenko and Fedosiuks charming of the Israeli press this week, theres absolutely no reason to think that Azov has moved away from its racist, anti-Semitic roots.

As well as still using the Nazi wolfsangel symbol,recent Azov social media postingsshow that the groups founder Andriy Biletsky is still a regular presence at Azov parades.

Biletsky has pledged to restore the honour of the white race and when he was in parliament he advanced laws forbidding race mixing.

In 2014 he wrote that the historic mission of our nation in this critical moment is to lead the white races of the world in a final crusade for their survival. A crusade against the Semite-led untermenschen.

A dedicated fascist

Despite thesympathetic treatment she has received this year from the same Western media that valourised the Azov Nazis, Yulia Fedosiuk too, is an active part of the Ukrainian far-right.

One of my best friends, he is a Jew and he is in Azov, Fedosiukclaimedin a_Times of Israel_interview this week.

Samoilenko made similar claims in his_Haaretz_interview, an assertion which the paper noted he was unable to back up immediately by providing names.

In a revealing piece on Fedosiuk, researcher Bob Pitt observes that Azovs propensity for double-talk and denial is particularly notable in connection with anti-Semitism, where assurances to western journalists that the movement welcomes Jewish members are contradicted elsewhere by expressions of extreme hostility towards Jews.

Pitt writes that Fedosiuk is a dedicated fascist who rants against feminism and LGBTQ rights and has valourised early 20th century Romanian fascist leader Corneliu Codreanu.

Codreanu was a virulent anti-Semitewho once declared thatThe historical mission of our generation is solving the kike problem (kike is an extremely derogatory term for Jews.)

As Pitt noted, when Fedosiuk worked for Azovs publishing house Plomin, it published Ukrainian translations of writings by Codreanu, the Italian fascist Julius Evola and other notorious figures from Europes fascist history.

Nazis in power

Israel has close ties to both Russia and Ukraine. Despite President Volodymyr Zelensky complaining that Israel has declined to provide Ukraine with the Iron Dome missile system, arms, training and fighters from Israel have reached Ukraine including the Azov Battalion.

In April,video emerged of Israeli mercenariesfighting in Ukraine, thanking the Israeli government for helping us in their war against Russia.

Also that month,video posted online by Azovshowed that Israeli anti-tank weapons were being used by the unit.

The Azov Battalion began as a gang of far-right street thugs. Its activists formed the vanguard of the 2014US-backed Maidan coupwhich overthrew the elected government of Ukraine. Soon after, it was integrated into Ukraines armed forces, where it remains.

In 2018,Israeli human rights lawyer Eitay Mack wroteto the Israeli government to object that the countrys aid to Ukraine was being used by neo-Nazis.

In response, the government confirmed that its arms licenses to Ukraine were granted in full coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other government entities but did not deny arming Ukrainian Nazis.

The Electronic Intifadas 2018 expos of Israels arming of Ukrainian Naziscaused a minor diplomatic incident, when Ukraines ambassador to Israel wrote a formal complaint to_Haaretz_after the newspaper echoed our reporting.

Mack petitioned Israels highest court to stop the state arming Ukrainian Nazis. The government responded by requesting hearings be held behind closed doors andimposing a gag order on the press.

The Electronic Intifada December 23, 2022