Do you ever have to interact with someone who thinks the world has always been as it is or that it isn't going to be radically different twenty years from now? If so, then patiently explain how the Soviet Union broke off diplomatic relations with Israel in 1953, for many years afterward supported the Arab states in their wars with Israel, refused to allow Jews to emigrate until 1990, and trained the PLO and other terrorists who attacked Israel throughout the Cold War. Then show them this:
Russian officials said the government in Moscow has agreed to increase security cooperation with Israel and focus on counter-insurgency. The officials said the cooperation would include Israeli training and instruction on a range of issues, including aviation security and civil defense. "We are being helped by your expertise in the field of aviation security," Vladimir Vasilyev, chairman of the Security Committee of Russia's parliament, told Israeli reporters.
The War on Terrorism makes for strange bedfellows. My children have no real conception conception of what the Berlin Wall was and what it meant when it come down. I can only imagine what we still take for granted now that my grandchildren will never know much about. Frankly, if I could pick one thing, it would be the UN. Something like the UN can prove useful, but the current UN needs to go the way of the league of nations, and the sooner the better.