Shalom Pollack: Ukraine and the Jews

 What are we in Israel  to learn from the current crisis in Eastern Europe?

There are no altruistic  chivalrous knights on white horses to save the innocent from  evil forces .
This has been the way of the world and always will be until the Messiah ushers in the period of world peace.
The Czecks learned this lesson in 1938 and again in 1968.
Before the final blow, the victims were portrayed as evil by the true aggressors.

In the  current case  of Ukraine, the Russians have been employing  diplomatic, military and propaganda -  psychological tools  to delegitimize  Ukraine as  a  sovereign  political entity  or as a people independant from greater Russian history, peoplehood and culture.
Russia  is  the caring, responsible  Slavic older  brother  and Ukraine is threatening the entire  family.
Order is needed.

The Soviets  and historically the Russians are the authors of this strategy.
China studiously and successfully  learned from their Communist mentor. and "Reeducation" camps  are where minorities are taught who they truly  want to be and really  always were before they were misled by outside forces.

How  does this apply to little Israel and the ancient Jewish people who returned to their homeland?
The Soviets, patrons  of the Arabs, realized in the 1960's  that their clients were not capable of defeating little Israel even with  unlimited military and diplomatic aid and instruction.
Repeated  defeats  reinforced  the perception  of Arab military  inferiority  and embarrassed their Soviet patron.
What to do?

They embarked on a sophisticated  campaign that  Patrick Moynahan called "Semantic infiltration."

The "Palestinian   People ''  narrative was  a brainchild of the KGB. They understood that  primitive, aggressive  Arabs trying to wipe out the tiny  post Holicaust Jewish state is not a successful brand  that  just stiffens the Jews' resolve. The world's sympathy will always  lie with the  ones on the barricades repulsing  barbarian onslaughts. The Jews  were seen as the victims and believed in their justice.

How to fix this perception?
Create a national identity  around which   the  Arabs  can  focus their energies against the hated  Jews . That identity must be one of a victim that was terribly wronged by a heartless foreign invader of their ancient home land  ;the kind that the world can not  in good conscience champion.The Soviet propoganda machine was the first to dare  place  the Jews  in the role of  Nazis and the Arabs victims  as the Jews .
The book,"1984"  for the Soviets  was not a warning against totalitarian thought control but a helpful  play book.

For  a world that was  actively or passively  complicit in the murder of  six million, Jews  the tiny remnant in the Jewish state  was given a short  period of grace.
The Soviets understood  that this moral  mantle must be removed from the Jews . Only thus  could  their Arab clients  progress in breaking down the wall of Jewish  self confidence and moral strength.

At first,  few outside the Communist and Muslim world  dared adopt the  KGB fbricated absurd narative. But it caught on.
Today Israel feels it  must explain why they are not Nazis and  are not trampling  the rights of  an  ancient peace loving Palestinian people.
One would  have thought  that this could ever  have happened. But it is happening.
The victim is presented as the  aggressor and the aggressor the poor victim.
Increasingly Jews are accepting the guilt  and apologizing.

No matter how  sophisticated and powerful Soviet  "new think" propaganda is, it could not have imposed  national amnesia on so many Jews if there was not fertile ground.
The Jewish Left, in and outside of Israel,  do not have the spiritual, moral and intellectual means to weather the attacks,
They have joined the accusers.
It is not the first time in history that Jews who  reject Torah and God  turn on their own .
The KGB's  had  much experience with such Jews  who were  leaders of the Communist party , until they were "liquidated"  and "purged" by Stalin.
It did to stop Left Jews in Israel from mourning bitterly when Stalin died.

The KGB had experience with Jews long before they launched the Palestinian Narrative New  Speak  campaign.
They knew who they were dealing with.

They are so much more predictable  than Ukrainians.

shalompollack613@gmail.com

"Jews, Israelis and Arabs" is available on Amazon