The Kremlin and the Jews: The Case for Moderation
Goldman, Marshall
The Case for Moderation Marshall Goldman The Soviet Union is the country you love to hate. For most Americans such a feeling comes easily. For most Jews it is usually a passion. Our main...
...Now that our emotions have been aroused, it will not be easy for us...
...We should be resolute—not unreasonable— determined but not dogmatic...
...But it does mean that we should support efforts for compromise and an end to the impasse in which we now find ourselves...
...Because there was no such progress, we have moved the momentum of our relationship from compromise and concession to challenge and confrontation...
...We, too, can become so worried over "losing face" that we forget the real issue is saving Soviet Jews...
...Whipping up anti-Soviet sentiment among American Jews, then, is no challenge...
...To head off such threats, the Soviets can usually be quite flexible...
...This would require some delicate maneuvering, but it can be done...
...But our feelings, after all, must be kept in perspective...
...Certainly a unilateral surrender to the Soviets on all issues affecting trade and credits would most probably produce nothing but contempt...
...A unique opportunity for improved Soviet-American relations was lost during the first one hundred days of Carter's administration...
...Far from it...
...The question is: can anything be done to increase the flow of Jews from the Soviet Union...
...What is critical is whether or not the actions we take will help Soviet Jews...
...But the likeliMarshall I. Goldman, Professor of Economics at Wellesley College, is Associate Director of the Russian Research Center of Harvard University...
...Perhaps the optimal negotiating stance for dealing with the USSR is for the United States to be always on the verge of passing some law, but never quite adopting it...
...Yet it is also true that demanding too much from the USSR can be counterproductive...
...Our main concern is over the treatment of Soviet Jews and Soviet anti-Semitism...
...Indeed, it can be argued that a return to the cold war would be disastrous not only for world tensions, but for Soviet Jews...
...That may mean providing the Soviets with trade credits and other commercial concessions...
...The missiles were withdrawn but the Soviets did not have to make an abject surrender...
...The Soviets, however, are not the only ones who can appear to be unreasonable when negotiating...
...This was amply demonstrated during the debate over the Jackson-Vanik Amendment...
...At the same time an escalation of the present tension between the United States and the Soviet Union is unlikely to improve conditions...
...Concession is frequently a signal for the Soviets to push all the harder...
...The best illustration is the Cuban missile incident...
...He had a quotient of good will to spend on American-Soviet relations that was squandered...
...Moreover, the Soviets often misinterpret compromise as weakness...
...Americans can also become so absorbed in the process that we, too, become more concerned over the atmospherics rather than the solutions...
...The Soviets are very much concerned with "face.1' While they are not above capitulating completely on an issue when they have no alternative, they more frequently look for some prestige-saving solution...
...Deciding what the strategy for negotiations with the Soviets should be is never easy until after the fact...
...It is legitimate to ask, however, is that sentiment being used in the best interests of the Soviet Jews who remain, not to mention the best interests of Soviet-American relations...
...Unfortunately, once the Amendment became law, the number of emigres was cut back to one thousand or so a month...
...The Soviet government is nasty and does hateful things...
...The United States attained its aims and yet provided for some reasonable maintenance of Soviet dignity during the missile confrontation...
...The purpose is to save Soviet Jews...
...President Carter appears to be seeking to halt the erosion in detente...
...We tend to forget that if anyone had said as recently as 1969 that the Soviets would openly permit the flow of even a few hundred immigrants a year, he would have been regarded as a dreamer...
...A look at human rights under Stalin and during the Cold War suggests that the opportunity for Jewish emigration was at its best during the enthusiastic height of detente...
...Moreover, despite their words, the Soviets continue to permit a small but steady stream of Jews to emigrate...
...To suggest that moderation toward the Soviet Union may be good for the Jews risks criticism...
...To save them may take something more than un-orchestrated animosity...
...Without turning his back on human rights, President Carter and his advisors should have accompanied their moral pronouncements with concrete deeds in the field of trade and SALT agreements...
...Considering that just five years earlier there were only a few hundred emigres a year, that was a remarkable change on the part of the Soviets...
...But there are also memories of pre-revolutionary Russia and the inhospitable treatment given to most of our forebearers...
...Moment/49 hood of such cessation is greater in a time when the momentum is in the direction of closer relations as it was prior to December 1974 than it has been since...
...Yet on the whole, Soviet Jews fare better during a period of detente than during tension...
...All is not lost...
...It will be difficult to stop the anti-Semitic venom that is beginning to surge from official Soviet channels now that detente seems to be on the wane...
...Indeed the Soviets seem most willing to make concessions before some threatened act is implemented...
...While the Amendment was being discussed in 1972 to 1974, the Soviets were releasing as many as 30,000 Jews a year...
...That does not mean that we should ignore what is happening nor terminate our publicity about cases of intimidation and persecution...
Vol. 2 • October 1977 • No. 10
