THE KREMLIN TURNS ON ISRAEL
ALEXANDER, MARK
THE KREMLIN TURNS ON ISRAEL By Mark Alexander New Leader Near Eastern Correspondent r TEL AVIV. MANY WERE SURPRISED when an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman announced here recently that...
...One Interesting item should be noted: Late in ig48f a public lecture took place in the famous Hall of Pillars in Moscow (Kolonni Sal Doma Soyousov...
...i The same spectacle, however, occurred on February 14, on February 17, and again early in March...
...It was late that night when, very sad and disappointed, they decided to return to their homes...
...On December 11, a programmatic article was published in Unirea, the organ of the Communist Party in Rumania, declaring: "Zionism i* an extremely nationalist and reactionary movement—and this goes also for its left wing...
...Emigration came to a standstill, while tens of thousands of Jews who had no other way out registered at the Community Councils...
...The Zionist parties in Rumania were not disbanded by order of "the government —they voluntarly dissolved...
...These countries contain the two main concentrations of European Jews...
...The speakers were Lutzki andr Ganin, two well-known anti-Zionist rpeciolists on Near-Eastern questions, who described Israel as just another reactionary state...
...But now matters have reached the stage where they can no longer be> hushed up...
...This was more than could be tolerated by the Rumanian government, and the sever...
...These accusations were not accompanied by any evidence: These arrests did not constitute a sudden change in relations between Israel and the "people's democracies"' of Eastern Europe...
...Government employees their offices, workers the factories: . . . An Israeli spokesman denied the Rumanian government had agreed to the emigration of 100,000 Jews...
...The audience was largely Jewish, and there were many critical and loud interruptions...
...What is the whole fuss about...
...Tension rose toward the end of November, 1948: anti-Zionist demonstrations were staged by the Communists...
...MAPAM countered with publication of...
...With regard to Czechoslovakia, an agreement has been reached involving the emigration of 5,000 to 10,000 Jews this year...
...Kol Ha'am, the Communist daily, reached new heights of hypocrisy...
...The Rumanian Communists therefore deckled to dissolve, the Zionist movement W/a of which conis ted of left-wing labor groups),- and to try to get supervision of emigration into their hands...
...agricultural training farms were closed...
...progressive forces and the building of Socialism in Rumania and Israel.* MAPAM in Israel pointed out thai their party had not issued a simili manifesto when they were compelled to dissolve...
...the manifesto MAPAI hod Issued in Rumania when it decided to dissolvi This document read: .i "Our executive takes into comldoration the danger of a third warU war, the sharpening "of the das] struggle everywhere, the attempts oj Anglo-American imperialism to sub* Jugate other peoples, the capitaliej attack oa she proletariat . . . TM Just policy of the peace-loving countries headed by the Soviet UnioS guarantees the free development and independence for all exploited pe» pies, and among them Israel...
...SOVIET-ISRAELI RELATIONS arc very complicated and, for Israeli politicians, an extremely delicate subject...
...It is quite true that they were not disbanded," Its newspaper admitted, "the . Communists forgot only to add .that the ground was burning under the feet of the Zionists in Rumania...
...Witness Ehrenburg's article in Pravda, the suppresplon of Der Stern and other Yiddish periodicals, etc...
...The same goes for relations with Poland, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria, where the "Jewish question" has virtually ceased to exist because few Jews remained after World War II...
...Rather, they pointed up the steadily-deteriorating relations between the Zionist movement on lhc> one hand, and Rumania and Hungary on the other...
...ISRAELI COMMUNISTS were "attacked as the real instigators of the persecution of Rumanian Zionism...
...from letters received, it is clear that hundreds of thousands of Russian Jews were deeply moved by events in Israel, and were ready to emigrate there—without any prodding from Zionists outside...
...But the crowds in the streets greeted this skeptically, and stayed there more than twelve hours...
...MAPAI balked, whereupon the Com- . munists announced that candidates for emigration must henceforth register at the local (CP-controlled) Community Councils...
...Why do you try to make us responsible for their decision...
...The seven, representatives of the World Zionist Organisation, were charged with intervening in the internal affairs of Rumania and with organizing demonstrations against the government...
...This was too much even for the pro-Soviet MAPAM...
...On March 18, a note was sent by Moshe Sharet, the Israeli Foreign Minister, to Anna Pauker, Rumanial head commissar...
...In a flash, Strada Borgele (the seat of the Israeli legation) was besieged by thousands of Jews...
...A fortnight later, all Zionist parties dissolved "voluntarily" and transferred their property to the Communist Community Councils...
...Apart from such incidents — which seldom become known outside the Soviet Union—relations between Russia and Israel have remained generally unchanged for two years...
...Half a million Rumanian Jews, who long to leave the country—_as__quickly as possible, represent an clement of "instability" in the eyes of the Rumian government...
...Zionism wishes to Isolate the Jewish masses from the peoples in the midst of which they live, and to prevent the fight of Jews against AngloAmerican imperialism...
...It contained a request to review again the whole mat ter of emigration of Jews from R» mania...
...According to a Czechoslovak officer who witnessed this event (and later reached Israel), eighteen questioners were later arrested and sentenced to several years of hard labor...
...A mere 15,000 stayed in Bulgaria, 25,000 in Czechoslovakia, and about 80,000 in Poland...
...The Communists now demanded that a supervisory board be established, consisting* of members of MAPAl, MAP AM, and the Communist Party...
...Poland permits only registered members of Zionist organizations to proceed to Israel...
...Till then, prospective emigrants to Israel .were selected by the Zionists...
...But no one expects that anf thing will result from this move...
...It -is bad for "morale" when so many prefer the uncertainties of Israel to the blessings of Anna Pauker's "people's democracy...
...At no time did the"Soviet Union ever contemplate allowing the Zionist movement to flourish within the socialist sixth of the earth, or the emigration of Soviet Jews "fb-Israel...
...MAPAI, Ben Gurlon's party, accused MAPAM of bearing some responsibility for the events in Rumania...
...Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv, MAPAI and * MAPAM appointed delegations to go to Bucharest to try to break the deadlock and to renew negotiations with regard to emigration...
...both sides, however, were not interested at that time in publicizing the matter abroad...
...Zionist headquarters were stormed and seized...
...Official blasts against this "revival of bourgeois nationalism" demonstrate, however,, that Soviet leaders consider it to be a very disturbing phenomenon...
...The Israeli government, on its part, never expected any change in this policy, and did not try to encourage a "national renaissance" among Soviet JewryThe birth of the state of Israel nevertheless had certain repercussions inside the Soviet Union...
...The delegation was refused a visa...
...I • • • EYEWITNESSES REPORT free Bucharest that on last February Jl hell broke loose in Bucharest...
...Students left school...
...HUNGARY'S AND RUMANIA'S attitudes to Zionism have been considerably modified...
...it bleated...
...Ontj such a policy of class unity gassi anlees she victory of proletarian us...
...Rumors spread that the Israeli delegation had started to register candidates for immigration...
...First indications of this situation were already apparent in November, 1948...
...MANY WERE SURPRISED when an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman announced here recently that seven Israeli citizens were arrested in Rumania and are, as this Is written, still in custody, despite efforts by the Israeli legation to secure their release and return to Israel...
...Actually, the demonstrations were extremely embarrassing to the Israeli legation, as they complicated the already complex negotiations with the Rumanian government...
...Israeli who had been in Rumania for the last two years were arrested and charged with organizing the demonstrations...
...Whoever resisted the "spontaneous, outbreak" was arrested...
...It is our task to mobilise the Jewish masses for this fight and to destroy any trace of bourgeois nationalism...
...When question-time came, the speakers refused to reply, as this would have involved reading out the written questions and the "unspeakable falsehoods contained therein...
...It is difficult to learn how these "nationalist'feelings" found expression in Russia...
Vol. 32 • April 1949 • No. 16
