In the old days of the USSR, Soviet Jews were treated badly – very badly – by the Communist state. There was discrimination in jobs and universities and KGB spies sat openly in synagogues monitoring the goings-on.
Yet when considering the long history of hardship inflicted on Jews under communism, people tend to overlook or perhaps forget a simple truth: The Soviets weren’t very nice to Jews but they weren’t very nice to non-Jews either.
If you wish to ascertain whether a society, culture, or philosophy is healthy and wholesome, there is a simple test you can try. Throw in some Jews. Where Jews are treated well, in general everyone is. Of course there are exceptions, like apartheid South Africa, but mostly the model holds true.
The founder of Rhodesia, now called Zimbabwe, Cecil Rhodes, famously compared Jews to the canaries that miners took with them miles underground. These birds are particularly vulnerable to the odorless and poisonous carbon monoxide or methane gas that sometimes seeps though the rocks and causes explosions. Watching how the yellow birds were doing gave the miners an indication of how they were doing and if they were in danger. Rhodes knew that if the Jews were faring well, others were too. When Jews start to leave a place, it is a bad sign for everyone.
The same formula extends to the rulers of societies and governing elites. Kings and queens and presidents and prime ministers who have a benign view of Jews tend to govern benignly for all. Those who despise and oppress their Jewish citizens, on the other hand, often oppress their other citizens too. And it’s rather obvious that those who despise and hate Jews also hate and despise those who befriend Jews and treat them well.
Tony Blair was the British prime minister from 1997 to 2007. The UK’s Labour Party had been seen as unelectable before he took over as leader and dragged it back from the far-left side of the political spectrum to the middle and, from there, possession of Ten Downing Street through three general elections. His party’s left wing hated him for it. The more left wing people were, they more they detested (and still detest) Tony Blair.
One of his many unforgivable crimes in their eyes was when in 2001 he set up the UK’s National Holocaust day. He said at the time, “I am determined to ensure that the horrendous crimes against humanity committed during the Holocaust are never forgotten.”
The BBC was very active in that first commemoration. The government expected it to produce radio and TV programs to mark the day.
I was involved in editing the BBC’s main TV documentary, in which a Holocaust survivor and his wife, together with two of their children and grandchildren, returned to the Polish town from where he had been rounded up and sent to Auschwitz.
Part of the documentary featured the chazzan of the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem singing the memorial prayer “Keil Molei Rachamim.” My job was to translate the words of the chazzan so that they would run along the bottom of the screen in English as he sang. This is actually trickier than it sounds. The timing had to be perfect so that his singing and the English translation matched perfectly.
A team of six people sat around a screen in an editing studio as I typed, turning Hebrew into the Queen’s English. One sat with a stopwatch to make sure that when the chazzan moved from one word to another, the correct words appeared below.
The problems began right away. It was the word “rachamim.” You can try this – it takes less than a second to say or sing that word, but none of the six BBC people had ever heard what a chazzan can do with a word that should take less than a second.
“Keil moleh rachami..mmmmm…iiiiiiiiii…mmmmmm…” The woman with the stopwatch looked at me for the signal to move the translation on to the next part. But she quickly realized she would just have to make herself comfortable; she was in for a very long night.
“Racha…racha…racha….mimmmmmmm…iiiii…mmmmm…” continued the cantor. Eventually I gave the signal that we could move the text on. The editors were a little bit stunned.
The next problem occurred when the chazzan sang the word “Yisrael” and my translation “Israel” appeared. Consternation and panic ensued. “We can’t translate it like that,” someone said with real concern. “What will the Muslims say?” All the others save one nodded passionately. The one discerning voice pointed out that if that was the translation (I confirmed that it was) then that is how it should appear.
The discussion escalated into a heated argument. I hid a smile and offered a compromise. “Perhaps we can translate it as ‘Yisrael’’ instead,” I suggested innocently, and everyone smiled and breathed a sigh of relief.
The second time Tony Blair’s National Holocaust Day arrived, the BBC almost totally ignored it. The Muslim Council of Great Britain boycotted it, declaring it Zionist propaganda. Left-wing Labourites whined that it ignored all the other genocides like Bosnia, Rwanda, and…the Palestinians!
With the recent publication of the findings of an official government enquiry into the invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein, a barrage of condemnation and anger has been directed at Blair. His deputy prime minister at the time, John (now Lord) Prescott, has come to believe that the war was “illegal” and that he and the Cabinet were not given enough information to make a prudent decision.
Lord Prescott seems to be unaware of what a damning indictment he is serving on himself. He voted for the war! To explain now that he did so while he was really too ignorant to make a decision is to declare himself unprincipled and a scoundrel. Nevertheless, the focus of public anger is squarely on Blair, including calls to pass a House of Commons motion condemning the former prime minister and demands that he face criminal charges.
Few have been as vociferous in their condemnation as the current Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn. It does, after all, offer a welcome diversion from the fact that the majority of his MPs have expressed no confidence in him and that he faces a leadership challenge.
It also takes the spotlight off his disastrous recent performance at the launch of the findings of the Labour Party’s inquiry into anti-Semitism in its ranks. That report was generally seen as woefully inadequate or at best a whitewash. One of Cobyn’s supporters stood up at the launch and abused a Jewish MP, claiming she was part of a “media plot.” Corbyn did nothing to defend his own MP and was even seen chatting amiably with her tormentor afterward.
Small wonder, then, that the current Labour leader is so quick to condemn his predecessor. But remember, the vilification and hatred of Tony Blair began long before the release of the report condemning his reasons for going to war in Iraq. He was and is hated principally for standing with America.
And as noted above, those who despise Jews also despise those who are their friends and treat them well.