TARRYTOWN, New York The following are just a few examples of how some countries became friends of Israel and the Jewish people.
Let’s Start with the Catholic Church and Vatican City State
After initiating inquisitions, crusades, blood libels, and brain-washing of the masses against the Jews, at the present time we became the “Older Brother,” in the words of Pope John Paul II, and the church changed its attitude to one of friendship.
Spain
After the fires of the Inquisition, forceful conversions, humiliation, and expulsion, at the present time Spain invites the “dear” descendants of Sephardic Jews to apply for Spanish citizenship.
Ukraine
After the bandits of Bohdan Khmelnytsky exterminated and tortured 100,000 Jews during the rebellion against Poland; after the bandits of Symon Petliura exterminated, tortured, wounded, and crippled even larger numbers during the Bolshevik revolution; after the pogroms, rapes, cooperation with the Nazis, and the considerable number of Ukrainians working in extermination camps during World War II, at the present time Ukraine expresses a friendly attitude toward Jews and Israel and allows Jews in parliament and in government. (Why not use talented people to Ukraine’s benefit?)
Russia
After subjecting Jews to humiliation and suffering in the Pale of Settlement, the pogroms, Black Hundreds, extermination of Jewish intelligentsia, and anti-Semitism of the Soviet time, at the present time Russian leaders make an effort to show a friendly attitude towards Jews, even to those who left Russia for Israel.
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It would take a large volume to describe similar examples from many other countries – examples containing facts and details about discrimination, crusades, blood libels, pogroms, expulsion, persecution, and killing.
Of course, all of it culminated in Germany’s Holocaust, in which they did not simply kill six million of us, but before killing, humiliated and tortured people who they made guilty without being guilty.
Now after being forced to reject the Nazi ideology, Germany is friendly to the Jewish people and Israel.
(On a side note, the above brings up the question of what makes some Jews so excited about rebuilding Jewish communities in countries where we suffered humiliation and persecution, including Germany? It is important to see that the change of official government policy does not change the anti-Semitism that has been cultivated through centuries of a large part of the population.)
A Note about Iran
Let’s make the far reaching assumption that Iran eventually will also become a friend of Israel and the Jews. In Iran’s case, it means returning back to its history of friendly relationships with Jews and Israel.
As we can see above, Iran has plenty of “good examples” of how to become a “friend” of the Jewish people.
Accordingly, we hear constant threatens to destroy Israel, lately “resourcefully” inscribed in Hebrew on Iran’s rockets. We are informed that Israel is a “one bomb country,” we are informed that Israel can be destroyed in eight days (perhaps based on the results of “scientific research”), and so on.
But the above-mentioned ways to “become friends of the Jewish people” were only possible when Jews were expelled from their land, scattered around the world, defenseless, and forced to live in different countries as unwanted guests/scapegoats. Now with a small but strong Israel, and with Jews united around Israel, the notion of a defenseless Jewish People is over.
But being strong as it is, Israel never thinks of such an inhumane and ungodly thing as destroying another country, including Iran. All that Israel is concerned about is self-defense. Even the name of the Israeli army literally translates to: Army of defense of Israel.
Maybe under the condition of “strict secrecy” somebody can inform those in this world who want to destroy Israel (unfortunately there are many) of Israel’s defense abilities.
Presently Iran’s attitude towards Israel is that Israel is an enemy. Iran has many enemies in the region, but Israel is not one of them. Maybe the time will come when the descendants of the ancient, glorious Persia will look back at its rich history and at the favorable treatment of Jews by, for example, Cyrus the Great, Darius the Great, Xerxes the Great, and many others.
The mistaken belief that Israel can sooner or later be destroyed and the Jews can be thrown into the sea, which is also a belief of some of Israel’s Arab neighbors, is the main reason for the lack of a peace treaty with these neighbors and the lack of a resolution to the Palestinian-Arab problem.
Peace will be established and the Palestinian problem will be resolved when it will be understood that this belief is wrong. Egypt and Jordan signed peace with Israel not out of love to the Jews but because Israel was able to convince them on the battlefield that this belief is wrong and Israel cannot be destroyed.
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Arkady Mamaysky is a mechanical engineer who emigrated directly to the United States from the former Soviet Union in 1979. He has visited Israel once, and often twice, during every year since then.