The Cover of World War II Narratives

Millions of their people were killed during World War II, and as a result this country believes that they are exempt from the normative rules of conduct in terms of international affairs. The crisis engendered by the war was of such a nature, such an existential threat to their existence that the only imperative is this – never again.

Under the banner of never again, this country has engaged in pre-emptive attacks, invading neighbouring countries and utilizing military strikes by air, commando, and otherwise in order to protect its national security.

When threatened by proxy war, or when there's a hint of neighbouring states being subject to manipulation by distant enemies, this state has moved aggressively to check these developments. Consequently it has also freely resorted to assassination – killing political leaders, scientists, and the journalists who investigate it. In pursuit of this policy it has engaged in massacres and it has annexed territories that it has then placed under authoritarian rule – sometimes resorting to draconian measures to keep the local population subservient.

Some would describe its foreign policy as aggressive, others would say it engages in a kind of cutthroat and impolite style of diplomacy, ever appealing to its national interests.

As a consequence, it is guilty of manipulating the media. Other powerful nations do this as well, but this nation raises the stakes and engages in not just propaganda, but it aggressively seeks out and targets its enemies and gives voice to their dissidents and critics.

Many will read this and think I'm writing about Israel and they would be correct. But actually I was talking about Russia. And yet it's no less true with Israel. It has invaded and attacked neighbouring nations like Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. The Zionist state has certainly assassinated Iranians and under Likud rule its domination of the Palestinians has taken on a racial element and has erected a kind of apartheid system.

Like Russia, Israel has a sphere of influence and a larger diplomatic strategy, appealing to World War narratives and attempting to play enemies off against one another.

Russia seeks buffers and desires to maintain historical relationships. Israel for its part has no viable historical claims or relationships (as the state did not exist for 1900 years), and as such Tel Aviv has long resorted to the anti-Arab periphery doctrine. And yet in recent years shifting geopolitics has thrown this longstanding doctrine into a tailspin.

Both nations engage in heavy arms sales and training, and insert themselves (often by invitation) into other parts of the world.

And yet one is reckoned as legitimate and the other is a pariah. Zionist Israel consistently appeals to the six million dead in the Holocaust and this grants it a kind of pass or black check to cover its deeds. Russia lost twenty-seven million people in the war and played the primary role in the defeat of Nazi Germany and yet its 'never again' narratives are rejected and repudiated and in places like the United States where there's great ignorance regarding the war – laughed at and dismissed.

In fact Israel is so legitimate that questioning its rights, claims, and behaviour can lead to charges of Anti-Semitism – a patent absurdity as there are many Jews who oppose the polity and policies of Tel Aviv. The power of the Israel lobby is so extreme that in the United States and the United Kingdom questioning Israel can lead to prosecution. The BDS (Boycott, Divest, and Sanction) movement that opposes the conduct of the Zionist state has in many jurisdictions been effectively outlawed – a reality only amplified when Dispensational Theology with its Judaizing proclivities carries some weight and has the ability to affect and sway policy and legislation.

And yet from the standpoint of Moscow, their actions vis-à-vis its border region and in terms of their policies directed toward Europe and NATO are deeply rooted in the events of 1941-1945. And yet unlike Israel, their claims and the historical price they paid are dismissed.

This exercise is not to legitimize Putin or the actions of his corrupt and bloodstained regime. The point here is simply to expose the double standard and the hypocrisy at work. The argument carries little weight in the United States as so few Americans know much about the wider war and its context. In their minds, the Nazis were defeated with the D-Day landings in 1944 and through American bombing. The latter certainly played an important role but the Normandy landing only accelerated an already inevitable defeat. The vast majority of the fighting was on the Eastern Front where tens of millions died. Hitler was defeated by the Russians. Moscow was helped by American materiel to be sure and the bombing played an important role but the D-Day narrative is misleading and even (when considered in the grand scope) somewhat absurd. Yes, it was an impressive feat, the largest amphibious landing in history and yet had it been attempted a year or two earlier the results would have been quite different. And the difference was not due to Anglo-American successes in North Africa and Italy but to the titanic efforts (and almost inconceivable losses) of the Russians who stopped the Wehrmacht and slowly drove it back into Central Europe.

What Russia endured, no other nation has endured. It's a spectre that haunts their history and their thinking. It was a huge step for Moscow to allow Germany reunification in 1990 and yet it was rooted on the promises that NATO would not expand to the East. Thirty years later and after many broken promises along with tacit and overt threats – Moscow decided to act and is consequently demonised. The praise of Ukrainian fascist Stepan Bandera and his OUN by the Kiev government is ignored as is the presence of fascist brigades now integrated into the Ukrainian military is downplayed. Israel won't tolerate it on their borders but Moscow must. And yet when Moscow for this and a host of other reasons decided to strike, their arguments are dismissed, ridiculed, or more often than not ignored.

And yet if and when Israel behaves in similar terms, it is not only tolerated but justified, defended, and even promoted.

Both states are in fact evil and have committed evil deeds. But one evil is called good by American media and by a majority of US Evangelicals. This is important to understand and we must realize how these assumptions govern news coverage and most conversations out in public. There is a double standard.