A Tale of Two Countries: America Blessed, Russia Cursed

This is an excerpt from As America Has Done To Israel by John P. McTernan:

Chapter Five

And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curseth thee . . . (Genesis 12: 3)

(Pages 81-85)  America and Russia provide a good test of the accuracy of the Bible regarding the treatment of Jews.  Russia has a long and well-established history of hating Jews.  America has a long and well-established history of accepting and blessing Jewish people.  The comparison of these two nations is astonishing.  It shows the authority of God's word regarding the blessing or cursing of the Jews.

The nations of America and Russia are similar in many respects.  They are both huge countries with large populations and expansive areas of farmland.  They have abundant natural resources such as coal, iron, lumber, oil, and other minerals; they have tremendous rivers.  Both nations also have historically Christian roots.

In 1727, Queen Catherine of Russia banned all Jews from the country.  Russia partitioned Poland in 1772, and large numbers of Jews came under the authority of the Tsar, who forced them to within the Pale of Settlement, a section of western Russia allotted for the Jews.  The Russians prohibited the Jews from traveling beyond "the Pale."  Life in the Pale was filled with terrible hardships; however, the pogroms of 1881 became a turning point in Jewish history.

With 1881 as the starting point, the blessings and the curses between these two nations become clear.  Starting in 1881, Russian Jews experienced a number of pogroms up to the Russian Revolution of 1917.  The May Laws of 1882 catalyzed the massive Jewish exodus from Russia.

After the Civil War, the United States military shrank to almost nothing.  By 1880, the American navy was virtually nonexistent.  In 1881, Congress began debating the need for a modern navy.  After two years of debate, Congress then passed the Navy Act of 1883, which called for the construction of four modern cruisers.  This modest act was the beginning of the United States becoming a world naval power.

Congress started this debate the very year the great Jewish exodus began from Russia.  The Naval Act of 1883 was enacted while tens of thousands of desperate Jews were pouring into America from Russia.  America's major thrust toward a world naval power occurred just seven years later.  In 1890, the Navy Act called for the building of four battleships--the act that propelled America toward becoming a world naval power.

In 1890, Christian Zionists and Jews met in Chicago and passed resolutions calling on the Tsar to stop the persecution of the Jews.  The following year, this Christian Zionist meeting resulted in the Blackstone Memorial.  America's rise to becoming a world power parallels this blessing of the Jews.

On February 15, 1898, the battleship Maine exploded in the harbor of Havana, Cuba.  Congress declared war on Spain in April 1898.  On July 3, 1898, the American Navy completely destroyed the Spanish Navy at the sea battle of Santiago de Cuba.  The war resulted in the complete defeat of Spain.  America went from having no navy in 1883 to being a world naval power in just fifteen years.

The first Zionist Congress met in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897, and called for a Jewish state in Palestine.  America was thrust forward just one year after the Zionist Congress called for a Jewish homeland.  The ascent of America as a world power and the official birth of modern Zionism coincided.  This was not an accident.  America was part of God's plan to restore the nation of Israel.

Russia continued its brutal treatment of Jews, and early in the twentieth century, additional vicious pogroms broke out.  The pogroms started in the Spring of 1903 and continued through 1906.  In the middle of the pogroms, the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 started.  On May 27, 1905, the Japanese totally destroyed the Russian navy at the battle of Tsushima Strait.  The Japanese also defeated the Russian army in a series of land battles.  During the battle of Mukden, the Russians suffered ninety thousand casualties.

By August 1905, Russia wanted to end the war.  President Theodore Roosevelt acted as a mediator and the two sides agreed to the Treaty of Portsmouth on September 5, 1905.  Japan got what it wanted from this treaty, and Russia was humiliated.  This humiliation of Russia came at the very time a vicious pogrom was taking place against the Jews!

There is irony to all this.  Anti-Jewish Russia had to agree to a treaty mediated by an American president who greatly favored the Jews.  Russia was driving Jews out; America was taking them in.  The Russian emissary came to America to sign the treaty!  Russia, the greatest Jew-hating nation of the time, came to the greatest Jew-favoring nation to sign a humiliating treaty.

President Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the war.  He refused to accept the cash award for the Nobel Peace Prize while in office.  In 1910, he received $45,482.83 as his cash award, giving the entire amount to charity, including such organizations as the Red Cross and the Salvation Army.  Then, with greater irony, he gave $4,000 to the Jewish Welfare Fund!  There was no prejudice in the president toward the Jews.

In 1914, World War I began.  Like the Russo-Japanese war nine years before, this conflict resulted in the defeat of Russia and the complete destruction of the Russian army.  Before losing the war, the Germans totally annihilated the Russian army.  The Russian army literally threw their weapons down, left the battlefield, and walked back to Russia.  This led directly to the Russian Revolution of 1917 when Communists seized control of the country.  Following the Revolution, pogroms again broke out in Russia until 1921.  It is estimated that one hundred thousand or more Jews were killed at this time.

From 1917 until today, Russia has been a "living hell."  Communist tyrants such as Lenin and Stalin rose to power, killing tens of millions of people.  Millions starved to death and millions died in prison camps.  The people lived in terror.  Looking at Russia post-1917, it appears that God applied the May Laws of 1882 in the form of communism to the entire country.

Jews lived in terror; under communism, the entire Russian population lived in terror.  Jews could not own property; nor could the Russian population.  The Tsar forced Jews to relocate; the Communists uprooted huge numbers of Russians and forced them to relocate.  The Jewish people starved; huge numbers of Russians also starved to death.  The Tsar hindered Jewish worship; the entire Soviet Union was forbidden worship under communism.

The Russian Orthodox church played a major part in the persecution of Jews.  In fact, it added to the pogroms and encouraged the attacks.  Konstantin Pobedonostev, the head of the governing body of this "church," best summed up their position on the May Laws.  He expressed hope that "one-third of Jews will convert, one-third will die, and one-third will flee the country."

The Russian Orthodox church soon suffered as the Jewish people did.  The Communists applied their own form of the May Laws to the Russian church.  They closed the churches and turned them into museums.  The Communists killed huge numbers of ministers and herded the rest into concentration camps.  The church had no freedom and was actively persecuted by the Communists.  The Russian church suffered under the Communists just as much as the Jews had suffered under the Tsars, if not worse.

Russia remained a living hell until communism fell in 1989.  Even after the fall, Russians are still suffering from poverty and disease.  Russians have the lowest life expectancy in the Western World.  This country paid a fearful price for violating God's word about blessing the Jews.

May Laws