“None of the Soviet Leaders ever said Israel should be destroyed – but this is exactly what is said by today’s Iranians”: Evgeny Kissin speaks up for Israel, “betrayed by the West”

Daphne Anson
07 November '10

It's always spellbinding to see and hear the great Russian-born Jewish virtuoso Evgeny Kissin at the piano, and it's a joy to find this youngish man of genius speaking out on behalf of Israel with an ardour and a cogency that puts many a seasoned campaigner to shame, and with a depth of knowledge and grasp of issues that many a historian and political scientist would envy.

Kissin took British nationality in 2002 – “inspired and proud”, he explained in a letter to the BBC’s Director-General at the end of last year, “to belong to the country of Winston Churchill, who famously said: ‘There is no antisemitism in England because we do not consider ourselves more stupid than the Jews’. Above all, the BBC and especially its World Service, had always been a beacon of light, of truth and objectivity to those of us behind the Iron Curtain, in the ‘Evil Empire’. Reaching out to far corners of the world, it was the voice of a country which for us was a model of democracy and human rights.”

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