The Dagestan Airport Incident

Anti-Semitism is alive and well to be sure and yet there elements within the media that are keen to spin these stories and obfuscate the real issues at hand.

There are numerous extant expressions of Right-wing Anti-Semitism with ideological ties to ultra-nationalist and fascist movements. There are also certainly expressions of Muslim Anti-Semitism, often exacerbated by the actions of the Zionist state of Israel. In some cases the media confuses and conflates ideological Anti-Semitism with opposition to Zionist Israel and its oppressive and violent policies vis-à-vis the Palestinians.

There are some Left-wing narratives regarding the Jews in terms of banking, capitalism, and so forth and yet these do not result in expressions of violence – at least none that I'm aware of. Anarchists historically have targeted bankers, politicians, and corporations and yet not on the basis of Jewish identity, leadership, or ownership.

Regardless of these nuances, the media and certain political actors will equate any and all anti-Israel protests with Anti-Semitism.

Now, what happened in Dagestan?

An Israeli commercial plane landed in Makhachkala and hundreds of rioters threaten the plane and Jews on board leading to numerous injuries as the mob clashed with police.

Well, first of all since most people in the West and particularly in the United States don't know anything about Dagestan, the Caucasus or any of the politics or culture of the region, there's little hope this story or its context will be understood.

Dagestan is part of the Russian Federation, adjacent to Chechnya. Positioned along the Caspian Sea it borders Azerbaijan to the south. Historically this region was not part of Russia but brought into its empire under the Tsars during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Dagestan is a patchwork quilt of various (mostly Muslim) groups from within the Caucasus – groups that have been frustrated by their status, caught between the overlapping Russian, Persian, and Turkic spheres.

The peoples of this North Caucasus region were forced into the USSR along with the Trans-Caucasian republics to their south – Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.

During World War II, the German thrust toward the Caucasus (and its oil) led Stalin to deport millions of these Muslim mountaineers along with other groups like the Volga Germans. Everyone who might turn on Moscow in collaboration with the Germans was sent to Central Asia in freight cars. The death tolls were significant to say the least. Some groups returned in the 1950's and 1960's after Stalin's death. Others never did.

With the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, the hopes of these peoples were rekindled and Chechnya became the focal point of the battle with Moscow. The Chechens won the first round against Yeltsin in the mid-1990's but were ultimately defeated in the Putin-led second war which began in 1999 and had more or less come to an end by 2009 – with sporadic fighting more or less ending just a few years ago. Moscow is not going to let the regions north of the Caucasus go the way of independence especially with NATO on the move, ever trying to expand and encircle Russia. For the Kremlin this point is non-negotiable.

The aspirations of the peoples of the Caucasus have thus been frustrated and while not all supported the Salafists fighting in Chechnya, there is a general frustration with the Moscow regime and its regional proxies, the worst being Ramzan Kadyrov the thuggish strongman in neighbouring Chechnya.

I do not doubt that the Gaza War has given occasion for these groups in the Caucasus to vent their anger. It has provided a focal point for the general frustration within the region as their Islam and their culture are reduced to compliance with state-approved forms. Islam is permitted and even promoted but curtailed and channeled into support for the governing regimes. The Salafists who despise many of the Sufi-inspired practices of the region are suppressed.

This is how Putin ultimately pacified the region – rather than suppress Islam, instead he gave it standing by means of the strongmen who (gangster-style) rule at Moscow's behest.

By way of analogy, we see much the same with the strongman-authoritarian models seen in Central Asia which were once part of the Soviet Union but are now independent and trying to forge their own paths and identity in the complicated neighbourhood in which they are found. To combat extremist Islam, they embrace Islam and yet control it.

So when the plane from Israel landed in Makhachkala, there was a protest – a riot. The frustrations of the Muslim population found an outlet and it would be interesting to discover if there were other forces behind this expression. I wouldn't be surprised to learn if Russian regional governors fostered this as a kind of 'relief valve', in the same way union leaders will sometimes (cynically) allow worker-members to engage in a week-long exercise. It accomplishes nothing but gives the perception of doing so. Dagestan was the site of anti-conscription protests just last year. Machiavellian leaders are keen to channel anger and now everyone will conveniently be talking about the Israel Plane for a year and a day as they say – and not talking about some of the other issues that drive angry and desperate men to violence.

Or, it could be that this attack on the plane was not 'helped' but was instead a genuinely populist expression of anger and frustration that is as much about their situation and bitterness toward the ruling regimes as it is the Gaza situation. They see Muslims suffering and it resonates with them and thus they lash out.

Moscow for its part is trying to suggest that somehow Ukraine or the West is behind it – a narrative that's a little too convenient and in this case something of a stretch.

It shouldn't surprise anyone to discover Western media will be keen to simply chalk this up as yet another expression of evil flowing from the bowels of the Russian beast.  

And yet that would be misleading to say the least. This is not about Putin's latest expression of malice, or some kind of inherent ideological and cancerous evil within Russia society. This event took place on the Muslim periphery of the Russian state, on the edge of what's left of the Tsarist Empire. These people are not pro-Moscow but at this point in their political and cultural history, they cannot escape its shadow. It's too complicated for American audiences who are unable to digest any more than what the evening news or the FOX channel provides.

Is the incident a cause for concern? Of course it is. It was a terrible thing and yet is the concern primarily (or limited to) a growing global Anti-Semitism? That's debatable to say the least.

Rather, the significance of the event is probably more indicative of tensions and currents within the politics of Russia itself and the Caucasus.

Ironically for many years the United States supported the Islamist elements in the Caucasus as they had a common enemy in Moscow. Putin's suppression and (practically speaking) 'victory' in this region was but another occasion of his countering of Washington's agenda of aggression and was another milestone on the road to the absolute enmity that now exists. Putin thwarted the West's post-Cold War designs for Russia and that larger story is directly related to the current conflict in Ukraine.

The Gaza story is not directly related but in a globalist culture connected by the Internet and social media these stories and struggles can overlap creating an ever more complicated mosaic.

Any attempt to spin this story as more evil flowing from Russia will be disingenuous. I have not yet seen a great deal of firsthand evidence but I can easily imagine the still dominant Dispensationalist factions within Evangelicalism will attempt to spin this as a 'set up' for prophetic fulfillment (as they erroneously understand it). They believe (wrongly) that the Scriptures teach a future conflict between a Russian dominated confederation and Israel and will see these events as a kind of precursor of Moscow turning against Israel. This only muddies the waters because the Scriptures in fact do not teach this. Their Judaized reading does not properly take into account what the New Testament says about the Gog-Magog prophetic typology as well as the nature of Israel in the Apocalypse itself – and how these prophecies are ultimately fulfilled in Christ, that His Body, the Church. They have it completely wrong and yet because of their influence and power they play a part in shaping US foreign policy and in particular its policy toward Israel and other related questions.

Discernment is needed and false claims need to be challenged.