Pretty amazing words were spoken at the end of last week representatives of the American special services. They gave an important report to the two presidents. The final cadence and applicants.
The report stated: “We believe that trying to influence the US presidential election, the Kremlin has pursued its long-standing goal to undermine the liberal democratic order under the US leadership. Putin and other Russian leaders believe that distribution of this order threatens Russia and Putin’s regime”.
You should stop and reread these words again. In order to fully grasp their meaning, you need to remember the cold war. Most of us remember her bad as due to the fact that not participating in it, and due to the fact that time erases the traces and smoothes the corners.
Be sure to re-read these words as they put the incident with the hacking of the Democratic party in the proper ideological context: in an ideological struggle between Western democracy and Eastern opponents.
Captures the spirit of a recognition of the fact that Russia, Communist and non-Communist, 200 years represents the opposite of Western democracy. It was the opposite, being an absolute monarchy, it was the opposite, being a totalitarian Communist state, and continues to play this role under the authoritarian regime of Vladimir Putin.
The era of twilight
As a rule, the heads of the spy agencies should give such a historical analysis. It is the task of political leadership. Security services supply raw materials, and politicians give it a taste.
But we are in the era of twilight. Tired eight-year presidency ends with a whimper, accompanying a series of mishaps and misunderstandings in foreign policy. A new presidency, not having yet the weight and experience, here-here will begin. From the outgoing President of the credit is exhausted, the newly elected credit yet.
Moreover, the outgoing President from the first day could not understand the motives of Russia. The “reset” of relations with Russia was high on the priority list of Barack Obama from the beginning. For the sake of the “reset” he was willing to risk the credibility of the United States from the European allies. He made a mistake in calculating the balance of forces in the Russian regime, and in vain had hoped to choose his partners, Dmitry Medvedev, instead of Vladimir Putin.
His great innocence
The President-elect has no historical understanding, the Demonstration of his innocence began recording in the tweet that appeared shortly after the heads of the three intelligence agencies went to him to tell about the actions of Russia on Friday:
“The only reason we are discussing the hacking of the leaders of the Democratic party, is that they suffered a crushing, humiliating defeat.”
“Good relations with Russia is good. Only the foolish or insane can assume that it’s bad!”
“The two countries might work together to solve the many serious problems of the world.”
It is difficult to imagine a greater discrepancy between the opinions of heads of security services and the ideology of the elected President. The President believes that the only reason the discussion of Russia’s attempts to undermine democracy in the United States is to defeat the Democratic party in the elections. Russia’s behavior he did not consider it a big problem. He sees Russia as a full partner in trying to resolve the problems of the world.
It is therefore not surprising that the Kremlin was seized with glee upon learning of the results of the U.S. presidential elections held exactly two months ago.
Many Israelis, including senior politicians, Russia’s share in the jubilation. Perhaps some of them are sympathetic to the ideology of the Russian regime and shared hostility to the Western democracies. But the Israelis should remember that they will always occupy a place among the Western democracies.
The rule of law began in 1215
“The Western liberal democratic order”, which the report said U.S. intelligence is more than just a feature of the regime. 75 years ago this report said would be about “Christian civilization” or at least “Western civilization”, that is, all the humanistic values that were collected in Western society (with all its shortcomings) for generations, including, and on the rule of law.
Curious looks the statement of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, who said that the only matters is the content of stolen emails, not how they are produced. No wonder the Russian leader, who earlier headed the secret police, does not understand that in the heart of Western democracy have a clear understanding of the goal does not justify the means.
This principle is the basis of our lives and it protects us from possible abuse of power.
What could be more natural for the Moscow dictator than to argue with what the English call due process, and in Hebrew called “the right to a fair process.”
In the West the right to a fair process has become a cornerstone of the legal system 901 a year ago, in 1215, when king John approved the “Great Charter of liberties”, which became the first Constitution of the West. The Russian Constitution appeared about 800 years later, and lasted only ten years.
The rule of law stems not from written laws. The laws of the Stalin era seemed quite affordable.
The rule of law depends on the state of opinion. Never been in the US President with a more limited view about this state of opinion, or with less awareness of the need to protect this state than Donald trump.
“Putin’s fifth column”
Russia started subversive activities against the foundations of Western democracy at the end of the XIX-th century. One of the first expressions of this activity was the most famous fake of the modern world — the “Protocols of the elders of Zion”. It is considered that fake this amounted to a resident of the tsarist secret police in Paris, Pyotr Rachkovsky.
In Soviet times, the Communist party permitted to operate in Western democracies, turned into instruments of the Soviet regime, in particular in mobilizing public opinion against political and military relations of the countries of Western Europe and the USA.
In the current round, Russia undermines the foundations of Western democracy, helping the far-right forces, not only in the United States. The head of the German office for the protection of the Constitution Hans-Georg Maassen said last month that Russia is trying to influence the outcome of General elections in Germany, scheduled for next September. Moscow aims at weakening the moderate right and the moderate left.
In 2014, Vienna held a meeting with representatives of the extreme right-wing forces from Russia and all European countries. Swiss newspaper called the meeting the meeting of the “fifth column of Putin.” Participants included marine Le Pen, the granddaughter of the founder of the French “National front”. Marin will be a candidate from “National front” in the upcoming presidential elections in France in April. Regularly reports that Russia is funding the front national.
Donald trump is not interested in history lessons. His foreign policy will be based on the commercial definition of interest, and not on values or feelings.
It seems that in Washington there are enough people in Congress, the state Department and the intelligence services — who will try to remind him that the war for Western democracy in the last hundred years, and why we should remain vigilant.
