Bush Ukraine Emissary Slams “Holocaust Industry”
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Washington, DC: The Chicago Tribune reported yesterday, "An official U.S. delegation sent to Ukraine's presidential inauguration last weekend included a Ukrainian-American who has accused Jews of manipulating the Holocaust for their gain and playing an 'inordinate role' in the rise of Soviet communism."
Myron Kuropas was selected by the White House to fly to Ukraine with then-Secretary of State Colin Powell as part of the American delegation. Mr. Kuropas wrote in 2000, "Big money drives the Holocaust industry. To survive, the Holocaust industry is always searching for its next mark. Ukraine's turn is just around the corner." He has argued elsewhere that Jews played a driving role behind Soviet leader Josef Stalin's murderous policies in Ukraine. Mr. Kuropas' has demonstrated his hostility towards Jews for some time; Michael Kotzin, executive vice president of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, explained to the Chicago Tribune, "This is not new stuff. ...If you go back over the decades, he's taken these kinds of positions highly antagonistic to the Jewish people and Jewish interests and causes."
The Knight Ridder news service confirmed that "three State Department officials said the delegation was assembled by the White House."
"It is astounding that on the eve of commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, President Bush's staff would not even bother to look into Kuropas' regular attacks on Jews and what he terms the 'Holocaust industry' before sending him to Ukraine with our Secretary of State, to represent the United States of America," said National Jewish Democratic Council Executive Director Ira N. Forman. "His voluminous writings, which repeatedly trade in classic anti-Semitic canards, are easy to find; he has engaged in such rhetoric in countless forums ever since he started working to raise money for the defense of John Demjanjuk.
"This deeply embarrassing incident shows a lack of judgment on the part of the White House and, frankly, a lack of basic competence. That the Bush White House put this man on a plane to Ukraine with our Secretary of State, even as Europe was commemorating the Holocaust, is inexcusable," Forman added.
