“We liberated Europe from fascism, but they will never forgive us for it” is often attributed to Georgy Zhukov, the great Soviet general during the Great Patriotic War, or Second World War as we call it. There is no evidence that he ever said this, but there was and remains a version of this in Russia. Instead of “Europe” is “they” and that means the Jews.

The Russian people have a long-complicated relationship with the Jewish people that goes back to at least the 7th century. The Russians have a realistic view of this relationship, which is why Solzhenitsyn’s boo, 200 Years Together, has been systematically ignored in the West. It lacks the historical romanticism that is required when discussing the Jewish people in the West.

That is why that expression, “We liberated them from fascism, but they will never forgive us for it” should be understood as a joke. It is typical of Russian humor, which often has a dark realism to it. No matter what happens, the fundamental relationship between Russians and Jews will never change. The joke is not at Jews, but at the Russians who can never quite accept that reality.

This turns up, in a way, with the Israel – Iran battle. The Persians and the Israelites have a long-complicated relationship, owning to the fact that both people trace their roots to the dawn of civilization in the region. The legendary Persian king, Cyrus the Great, is one of the few non-Jews to get favorable treatment in the Hebrew bible. he freed the Jews from Babylon, and they have never forgiven him for it.

That is the nature of long relationships between people. Integral to Irish identity will be their relationship with the British. The same is true for Scots, Welsh and Cornish to one degree or another. You see it with blacks in America. Who they are depends on their relationship with Whites. We freed them from the perpetual squalor of Africa, and they will never forgive us for it.

There is something else between the Jews and the Persians. Jews see themselves as the priests of mankind. They are the chosen people not just on the sense that they are God’s people, but that they are tasked with repairing the world. The phrase “tikkun olam” comes from Rabbinical Judaism. It means to repair the world, as in to return the world to the state before original sin.

Persians see themselves as the leaders of Islam. They do not think of themselves as Arabs, but they do see themselves as the intellectual engine of the Arab world because they are the priestly class of Islam. Shia Islam is the learned, legalistic branch of Islam, that sits atop the populist and egalitarian version practiced by Sunnis. Shia is high church Protestantism, while the Sunnis are the megachurch Baptists.

The conflict between Israel and Iran is, in this way, a conflict between the two ends of the Abrahamic faiths. On the one end we have the start of it all with Second Temple Judaism, that gave birth to Christianity, and on the other end we have Islam, which according to the Muslims is the end of the Abrahamic story arc. Both sides are the nullification of the other.

There is more to the Iran – Israel war, but it is a long, complicated history that for Israel has become the locus of their identity. They need the war with Iran, in the same way the neocons need the war with Russia. The Galician Jews who came to America a century ago brought with them that essential element of their identity, which is a ressentiment toward the Russians.

The negative reaction to the Iran war, particularly the venom toward people like Mark Levin, suggests the United States is about to join the club of civilizations that has a long, complicated history with the Jewish people. Antisemites, of course, used the opportunity to do their act, but many normal people were offended by the demands made by the Israel first crowd over the last two weeks.

This post by Bill Kristol is case in point. White Christian Americans have been nothing but generous to the Jewish people, but for their trouble they get called Nazis for not wanting to be replaced in their own country. It will not be long before some clever guy quips, “We offered them shelter and opportunity from the Old World and they will never forgive us for it.”

We are not ready to write the book, 100 Years Together, but it is not hard to imagine such a thing coming. It is also not hard to see Jewish identity in American changing in the way it has in Russia. The Jews who see themselves as primarily Jewish moved to Israel and the United State. Those who stayed are primarily Russian. maybe something similar happens with Jews in America.

Regardless, it is the nature of long complicated relationships that both sides eventually figure out where they stand with the other. This is clearly happening between blacks and whites in America. Maybe the same happens with Whites and Jews. Ressentiment can only exist when the other side accepts that they will never be forgiven for doing for the other what they could never do for themselves.