By Yuri Shtern, Chairman, Israel-Russia interparliamentary association

Many pseudo-liberals in Europe, Israel, and even Russia, claim that Israel and Russia are united in their cruelty towards Islamic separatists. Recently, this colossally erroneous view has been dealt a serious blow in Moscow by the publication of a new book, Babylon and Jerusalem: the Biblical View of the Middle East Conflict. The book is sponsored by the Michael Cherney Fund to Aid Terror Victims.

The book is collection of works by prominent Russian Orthodox theologians, which prove that uniting Russia and Israel to fight terror is not an end, but a means of joining the Russians and the Jews for the most important objective: creative collaboration in spreading the light of the Bible.

The alliance of Israel and Russia is rooted in common spirituality. If we are joining hands only now, when evil of terror casts its shadow over the world, this shows our spiritual stupor: when we refused to follow the path of knowledge, God took us down the path of suffering. In a short period of time, this is the second occasion that fate brings the Russians and the Jews together; the first one was World War Two, when they fought Fascism together. But that alliance did not bear fruit of a real union between Jews and Russians, and now we again have to fight the new Fascism together.
What is sensational for Russia is that for the first time the Church has supported not merely Russia's stance against anti-Semitism, but exhorted it to lend decisive support to Israel and Zionism. Now one can say that this project gives birth to "Russian Orthodox Zionism", analogous to the Christian Zionism of the West.

More and more Russian Christians - and the Kremlin itself counts a number of religious people, beginning with Putin himself - become convinced that one cannot believe in the Bible and its promise of rebirth of Israel as key to the dawn of the true Era of Peace, and at the same time support the creation of a state led by Arafat who openly asserts that Palestinian sovereignty is a mere springboard for destruction of Israel.

I was especially inspired by the Russian Church and the Kremlin's emerging interest in their Arab co-religionists. Both the book and the Russian media are revealing for the first time the new facts about the role played by Yassir Arafat, whom the KGB tenderly called "Uncle Yasha", in the destruction of Christian Maronites in Lebanon. Russians are showing particular concern about the suffering of Christian Arabs under the Palestinian Authority. At one time, Russia used to support the Christians of the Balkans against the Turkish Islamization, and was the guarantor of the rights of Christian Arabs who lived in the Holy Land under the Turkish rule; now Russians begin thinking about reassuming the key role of Russia in the Middle East - now as a protector of Christian Arabs suffering from Islamic extremism, rather than a supporter of dictatorships.

The Russian politicians were particularly interested in the plan of our party to create an autonomous Christian enclave in Bethlehem with the active support of Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church.

Of course, the pro-Arab lobby is still influential in Russia and the Russian church - both as an aftermath of Soviet-era politics and as a result of financial gains from trade with Iraq and Iran. Yet more and more Russians realize that they have to choose between Babylon and Jerusalem. Babylon is a symbol of totalitarian ideology. Jerusalem is a symbol of individual and free responsibility of Man before God; it is the symbol and the center of our civilization. Babylon and Jerusalem are locked in constant combat, but in the last 100 years this conflict has reached the critical point. During this period, Babylon has three times attempted to take over the world - Communism, Fascism, and now Islamic Fundamentalism. Now Jerusalem physically has become the arena of this combat. TANAH said, I shall make Jerusalem a heavy rock for all nations, and he who will try to lift it will collapse. Russia begins to understand that if Islamic terror triumphs in Israel, it will triumph everywhere.

The Michael Cherney Fund has accomplished a very important thing for Israel: it took a risk of suggesting that the Russian Orthodox Church, which has always been suspected of anti-Semitism, should move from general talk about condemning anti-Semitism to the specific support of Israel. The presentation of the book, sponsored by the Fund, was followed by a church prayer service for the people of Israel - for the first time in Russian history.

It is regrettable that this important initiative came from a private fund, rather than from the State of Israel. Ministry of Propaganda and Foreign Ministry are too cautious in conducting hasbara - and that's too bad. The world is capable of realizing that by withholding its support of Israel, it supports death.

What we should do is bury our own cliches and stop thinking of anyone as a biological anti-Semite. Then we'll find supporters in the most unexpected places - Russian Church, for one.