Husak's 'Anti-Zionist' Campaign

...NEW TWISTS TO ANOLDTALE Husak's 'Anti-Zionist' Campaign BY BLANCA JICINSKI GUSTAV HUSAK One predictable consequence of the Russian occupation of Czechoslovakia has been the enforced importation of anti-Semitism That is surely what it is, since indigenous sources of this particular prejudice have historically been negligible Czechoslovakia prides itself on its pogrom-free past, its ancient Jewish settlement, its beautiful medieval synagogues, its Kafka, in the mind of the average citizen, anti-Semitism is an aberration reserved for Stalinist functionaries, yahoos on the eastern border, and kooks Indeed, it was the pressure of public opinion that induced the Dubcek government to consider a resumption of diplomatic relations with Israel Now, however, the Czechs and Slovaks are being told that they were duped, that their "counterrevolution" was masterminded by "Zionists"--although few Jews remained in the country after the Holocaust and the massive emigration of 1948 It has taken nearly two years of Russian occupation to persuade the Czech regime to join the Soviet bloc's anti-Zionist campaign, but there was an abortive attempt to start such a drive immediately following the invasion At that time, Radio Vltava, the Soviet station broadcasting from East Germany m both Czech and Slovak, singled out for attack the two Jews prominently involved m the events of the Prague Spring Eduard Goldstuecker, chairman of the Writers' Union, and Ota Sik, the economic reformer Typical of the charges hurled against them was that during their visits to the West they reaped fat fees as lecturers spreading bourgeois ideologies at bourgeois universities " Anticipating that someone might say two Jews do not make a Prague Spring, Vltava invented a Hebraic origin for Dubcek's Foreign Minister, Jin Hajek, claiming his original name had been Pereles But the still defiant Czech media refused to take any cues from Radio Vltava Only after the sweeping purge of the Party and press did Gustav Husak's regime begin to employ the anti-Semitic theme Among the various "anti-Socialist" episodes of 1968 that it revived and revised to place blame on the Jews was "the Kultwm zivot affair" Kulturm zivot was a very outspoken Slovak literary magazine, and the affair, which originally had not caused much of a stir, involved a split in its editorial council over coverage of the Middle East The poet Laco Novomesky and two colleagues quit in protest against what they termed the others' "unjustly anti-Arab stand " In the revised version, Novomesky is presented as the victim of a Rightist purge engineered by the Zionist-dominated editorial council It contained one Jew The Sik-Goldstuecker motif has also been dusted off Of the two, Ota Sik has proved the more lastingly "useful" figure, for any current economic shortcoming--from this winter's severe fuel shortage to flies in the canned syrup--can conveniently be blamed on him The Party daily Rude pravo recently noted the latter phenomenon (along with worms in the stew) at an exhibit of cannery rejects, and promptly blamed Sik's economic experiments of 1968 Like the leadership m other bloc countries, too, the Czech Party has taken up that familiar Soviet favorite, "the dangers of international Zionism " But it has added some new twists to the old tale, after all, it must atone for 20 years of persistent pro-Semitism In the past, books and films about the Jewish wartime experience met with official favor--not for their esthetic merits but because they buttressed the Party's anti-German stance Nevertheless, it was a policy that suited the artists and public as well, and several of these works won international acclaim In addition, to encourage tourism by American Jews the Party emphasized Czechoslovakia's Jewish cultural monuments m its travel advertisements Ironically, this eventually led to the country's wholly assimilated Jews taking an interest in their heritage The inevitable conclusion to Czechoslovakia's official romance with the Jews came in 1967, with the Six Day War Moscow ordered an about-face and the Prague leadership complied, only to find that the pro-Semitism of the masses, unlike its own, was not self-serving and hypocritical To the chagrin of the Party, everything Jewish became more popular than ever after diplomatic ties with Israel were broken This obvious sequence of official actions and popular reactions is now interpreted by the Party revisionists as a clever operation on the part of a band of Jewish intellectuals According to the new line, for years these bourgeois schemers worked quietly but diligently to corner the literary and film markets, making piles of money while infecting the nation with Jewish chauvinism At the same time, this version has it, they were securing important Party positions and international Zionist connections which, when the moment was deemed ripe, would allow them to start their pernicious "counterrevolution " Thus the Party's calculated pro-Semitic policies come to be blamed on none other than the Jews themselves, and the "counterrevolution"--until recently the work of unspecified "Rightist elements"--becomes an insidious Jewish plot By virtue of their total command of the mass media, it is now explained, the Jews were able to manipulate public opinion without opposition by Party officials, for they had silenced them with charges of anti-Semitism Since no more than perhaps a dozen Jewish professionals could be implicated in the events of 1968, it was deduced that they were helped by "international Zionist capital, whose shareholders and partners are united by a common ideology, theory, and practice " To this Nazi-Soviet myth Prague added its own touch, something that may be called "the international Jewish domination of cultural activity " Jews, it was charged, dominate all Western literary and film juries, movie companies, theater chains, and the publishing industry They decide the works to be touted and those to be condemned or ignored What few cultural events the Jews do not control (like the Soviet artists' tours in the U S ) they at least try to disrupt, by means of the "fascist pickets of the Jewish Defense League' It is all very neat But, oddly, the articles presenting -these conspiracy fantasies are rarely signed Occasionally, such items are initialed, or simply attributed to "the foreign press' (Normally an interpretative article would bear the name of the foreign author and publication, as well as that of the Czech translator ) Perhaps Prague is eager to protect its writers and translators from "the spite of the class enemy " One exception to this pattern is J F Kolar's pamphlet "Zionism and Anti-Semitism," an ostensible expose of the counterrevolutionary conduct of Czech Jews Recently the Husak regime broadened its anti-Semitic literary output by publishing a translation of the Russian book Beware of Zionism, by Yuri Ivanov and Yevgeny Yevseyev Yet it is perhaps another indication of how disreputable anti-Semitism still is in Czechoslovakia that the one serious review of the book was printed not by Rude pravo or even the Party theoretical magazine, but by an obscure bureaucrats' bulletin, Na-todni vybory, whose American equivalent would be a Civil Service newsletter While thoroughly purged, the media remain reluctant to promote anti-Semitism For even before the publication of Beware of Zionism, most Czechs and Slovaks regarded the campaign as entirely Russian-inspired One intellectual acidly put it "Our principal Soviet imports now seem to be cholera and anti-Semitism " But only a few cases of either disease have been reported in the easternmost part of Slovakia, and the renewed anti-Soviet animus these reports have provoked is quite disproportionate to any actual danger of epidemic In fact, all the Russians had to do to insure the continued untouchable status of anti-Semitism in Czechoslovakia was give it their backing Blanca Jicinski, a writer for Radio Free Europe, has contributed to the Christian Science Monitor, National Observer and East Europe...