"The Russians don’t comprehend the Western infatuation with Jews." Israel Shamir claims Russia is going its own way,
By Israel Shamir — Israel Shamir.net Jan 2015
The edifice of world post-1991 order is collapsing right now before
our eyes. President Putin’s decision to give a miss to the Auschwitz
pilgrimage, right after his absence in Paris at the Charlie festival,
gave it the last shove. It was good clean fun to troll Russia, as long
as it stayed the course. Not anymore. Russia broke the rules.
Until now, Russia, like a country bumpkin in Eton, tried to belong.
It attended the gathering of the grandees where it was shunned, paid its
dues to European bodies that condemned it, patiently suffered ceaseless
hectoring of the great powers and irritating baiting of East European
small-timers alike. But something broke down. The lad does not want to
belong anymore; he picked up his stuff and went home – just when they
needed him to knee in Auschwitz.
Auschwitz gathering is an annual Canossa of Western leaders where
they bewail their historic failure to protect the Jews and swear their
perennial obedience to them. This is a more important religious rite of
our times, the One Ring to rule them all, established in 2001, when the
Judeo-American empire had reached the pinnacle of its power. The Russian
leader had duly attended the events. This year, they will have to do
without him. Israeli ministers already have expressed their deep
dissatisfaction for this was Russia’s Red Army that saved the Jews in
Auschwitz, after all. Russia’s absence will turn the Holocaust memorial
day into a parochial, West-only, event. Worse, Russia’s place will be
taken by Ukraine, ruled by unrepentant heirs to Hitler’s Bandera.
This comes after the French ‘Charlie’ demo, also spurned by Russia.
The West hinted that Russia’s sins would be forgiven, up to a point, if
she joined, first the demo, and later, the planned anti-terrorist
coalition, but Russia did not take the bait. This was a visible change,
for previously, Russian leaders eagerly participated in joint events and
voted for West-sponsored resolutions. In 2001, Putin fully supported
George Bush’s War on Terrorism in the UN and on the ground. As recently
as 2011, Russia agreed with sanctions against North Korea and Iran. As
for coming for a demonstration, the Russians could always be relied
upon. This time, the Russians did not come, except for the token
presence of the foreign minister Mr. Lavrov. This indomitable successor
of Mr. Nyet left the event almost immediately and went – to pray in the
Russian church, in a counter-demonstration, of sorts, against Charlie.
By going to the church, he declared that he is not Charlie.
For the Charlie Hebdo magazine was (and probably is) explicitly anti-Christian as well as
anti-Muslim. One finds on its pages some very obnoxious cartoons
offending the Virgin and Christ, as well as the pope and the Church.
(They never offend Jews, somehow).
A Russian blogger who’s been exposed to this magazine for the first
time, wrote on his page: I am ashamed that the bastards were dealt with
by Muslims, not by Christians. This was quite a common feeling in Moscow
these days. The Russians could not believe that such smut could be
published and defended as a right of free speech. People planned a demo
against the Charlie, but City Hall forbade it.
Remember, a few years ago, the Pussy Riot have profaned the St Saviour of Moscow like Femen did in some great European cathedrals, from Notre Dame de Paris to Strasbourg.
The Russian government did not wait for vigilante justice to be meted
upon the viragos, but sent them for up to two years of prison. At the
same time, the Russian criminal law has been changed to include
‘sacrilege’ among ordinary crimes, by general consent. The Russians do
feel about their faith more strongly than the EC rulers prescribe.
In Charlie’s France, Hollande’s regime frogmarched the unwilling
people into a quite unnecessary gay marriage law, notwithstanding one-million-strong protest demonstrations
by Catholics. Femen despoiling the churches were never punished; but a
church warden who tried to prevent that, was heavily fined. France has a
long anti-Christian tradition, usually described as “laic”, and its
grand anti-Church coalition of Atheists, Huguenots and Jews coalesced in
Dreyfus Affair days. Thus Lavrov’s escape to the church was a
counter-demonstration, saying: Russia is for Christ, and Russia is not
against Muslims.
While the present western regime is anti-Christian and anti-Muslim,
it is pro-Jewish to an extent that defies a rational explanation. France
had sent thousands of soldiers and policemen to defend Jewish
institutions, though this defence antagonises their neighbours. While
Charlie are glorified for insulting Christians and Muslims, Dieudonné has been sent to jail (just for a day, but with great fanfare) for annoying Jews. Actually, Charlie Hebdo
dismissed a journalist for one sentence allegedly disrespectful for
Jews. This unfairness is a source of aggravation: Muslims were laughed
out of court when they complained against particularly vile Charlie’s
cartoons, but Jews almost always win when they go to the court against
their denigrators. (Full disclosure: I was also sued by LICRA, the
French Jewish body, while my French publisher was devastated by their
legal attacks).
The Russians don’t comprehend the Western infatuation with Jews, for
Russian Jews have been well assimilated and integrated in general
society. The narrative of Holocaust is not popular in Russia for one
simple reason: so many Russians from every ethnic background lost their
lives in the war, that there is no reason to single out Jews as supreme
victims. Millions died at the siege of Leningrad; Belarus lost a quarter
of its population. More importantly, Russians feel no guilt regarding
Jews: they treated them fairly and saved them from the Nazis. For them,
the Holocaust is a Western narrative, as foreign as JeSuisCharlie. With
drifting of Russia out of Western consensus, there is no reason to
maintain it.
This does not mean the Jews are discriminated against. The Jews of
Russia are doing very well, thank you, without Holocaust worship: they
occupy the highest positions in the Forbes list of Russia’s rich, with a
combined capital of $122 billion, while all rich ethnic Russians own
only $165 billion, according to the Jewish-owned source.
Jews run the most celebrated media shows in prime time on the state TV;
they publish newspapers; they have full and unlimited access to Putin
and his ministers; they usually have their way when they want to get a
plot of land for their communal purposes. And anti-Semitic propaganda is
punishable by law – like anti-Christian or anti-Muslim abuse, but even
more severely. Still, it is impossible to imagine a Russian journalist
getting sack like CNN anchor Jim Clancy or BBC’s Tim Willcox for upsetting a Jew or speaking against Israel.
Russia preserves its plurality, diversity and freedom of opinion. The pro-Western Russian media – Novaya Gazeta of oligarch Lebedev, the owner of the British newspaper Independent
– carries the JeSuis slogan and speaks of the Holocaust, as well as
demands to restore Crimea to the Ukraine. But the vast majority of
Russians do support their President, and his civilizational choice. He
expressed it when he went to midnight Christmas mass in a small village
church in far-away province, together with orphans and refugees from the
Ukraine. And he expressed it by refusing to go to Auschwitz.
2
Neither willingly nor easily did Russia break ranks. Putin tried to
take Western baiting in his stride: be it Olympic games, Syria
confrontation, gender politics, Georgian border, even Crimea-related
sanctions. The open economic warfare was a game-changer. Russia felt
attacked by falling oil prices, by rouble trouble, by credit
downgrading. These developments are considered an act of hostility,
rather than the result of “the hidden hand of the market”.
Russians love conspiracia, as James Bond used to say. They do not
believe in chance, coincidence nor natural occurrences, and are likely
to consider a falling meteorite or an earthquake – a result of hostile
American action, let alone a fall in the rouble/dollar exchange rate.
They could be right, too, though it is hard to prove.
Regarding oil price fall, the jury is out. Some say this action by
Saudis is aimed at American fracking companies, or alternatively it’s a
Saudi-American plot against Russia. However, the price of oil is not
formed by supply-demand, but by financial instruments, futures and
derivatives. This virtual demand-and-supply is much bigger than the real
one. When hedge funds stopped to buy oil futures, price downturn became
unavoidable, but were the funds directed by politicians, or did they
act so as Quantitative Easing ended?
The steep fall of the rouble could be connected to oil price
downturn, but not necessarily so. The rouble is not involved in oil
price forming. It could be an action by a very big financial
institution. Soros broke the back of British pound in 1991; Korean won,
Thai bath and Malaysian ringgit suffered similar fate in 1998. In each
case, the attacked country lost about 40% of its GDP. It is possible
that Russia was attacked by financial weapons directed from New York.
The European punitive sanctions forbade long-term cheap credit to
Russian companies. The Russian state does not need loans, but Russian
companies do. Combination of these factors put a squeeze on Russian
pockets. The rating agencies kept downgrading Russian rating to almost
junk level, for political reasons, I was told. As they were deprived of
credit, state companies began to hoard dollars to pay later their debts,
and they refrained from converting their huge profits to roubles, as
they did until now. The rouble fell drastically, probably much lower
than it had to.
This is not pinpoint sanctions aimed at Putin’s friends. This is a
full-blown war. If the initiators expected Russians to be mad at Putin,
they miscalculated. The Russian public is angry with the American
organisers of the economical warfare, not with its own government. The
pro-Western opposition tried to demonstrate against Putin, but very few
people joined them.
Ordinary Russians kept a stiff upper lip. They did not notice the
sanctions until the rouble staggered, and even then they shopped like
mad rather than protested. In the face of shrinking money, they did not
buy salt and sugar, as their grandparents would have. Their battle cry
against hogging was “Do not take more than two Lexus cars per family,
leave something for others!”
Perhaps, the invisible financiers went too far. Instead of being
cowed, the Russians are preparing for a real long war, as they and their
ancestors have historically fought – and won. It is not like they have a
choice: though Americans insist Russia should join their
War-on-Terrorism-II, they do not intend to relinquish sanctions.
The Russians do not know how to deal with a financial attack.
Without capital restrictions, Russia will be cleaned out. Russian
Central bank and Treasury people are strict monetarists, capital
restrictions are anathema for them. Putin, being a liberal himself,
apparently trusts them. Capital flight has taken huge proportions.
Unless Russia uses the measures successfully tried by Mohammad Mahathir
of Malaysia, it will continue. At present, however, we do not see sign
of change.
This could be the incentive for Putin to advance in Ukraine. If the
Russians do not know how to shuffle futures and derivatives, they are
expert in armour movements and tank battles. Kiev regime is also
spoiling for a fight, apparently pushed by the American neocons. It is
possible that the US will get more than what it bargained for in the
Ukraine.
One can be certain that Russians will not support the Middle Eastern
crusade of NATO, as this military action was prepared at the Charlie
demo in Paris. It is far from clear who killed the cartoonists, but
Paris and Washington intend to use it for reigniting war in the Middle
East. This time, Russia will be in opposition, and probably will use it
as an opportunity to change the uncomfortable standoff in the Ukraine.
Thus supporters of peace in the Middle East have a good reason to back
Russia.
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