1968_4_arabisraelwar

190 / AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, 1968
lately revived its keen interest in Mediterranean countries with substantial
Greek Orthodox populations.
Although. Moscow suffered a great setback and loss of prestige as a result
of the Israeli victory in June, it was now not only recuperating from the sixday
war, but, through expanded and expensive programs, was spreading its
influence and firmly establishing its presence in the Middle East.
Impact on Soviet Jews
Soviet hostility to Israel reached such a pitch that the Soviet press and
radio at times became openly anti-Jewish. Its tone was reminiscent of the
worst of the Stalinist antisemitic campaigns. The state-controlled communications
media indulged in blanket condemnation of Israel and Zionism, and
coupled both with Judaism. Some of the propaganda made use of well-known
anti-Jewish stereotypes taken from the pogrom writings of the Tsarist Black
Hundreds. Articles of this type in the Ukrainian press were particularly
obnoxious. One piece referred to international Jewish bankers who were
united in a "world conspiracy with an actually unlimited budget," the
"Zionist promises that Jews will rule the world," "Jahwe's spirit of vengeance,"
and "the reactionary dogmas of the Jewish religion" (Pravda
Ukrainy, Kiev, September 6, 1967).
Moscow papers, discarding all pretense to factual reporting, accused Israel
of perpetrating Nazi-like war crimes. Such pieces appeared in Izvestia (June
15 and 17, 1967), Sovietskaya Rossia (June 15 and 23, 1967), Pravda (June
16, 1967), and Komsomolskaya Pravda (July 5, 1967), among others. K.
Ivanov the author of one of the articles, quoted the late Ilya Ehrenburg as
having said that "during the Second World War, antisemitism was considered
the international language of fascism." Ivanov further explained that "history
knows many cases in which, in the course of time, the persecuted themselves
became cruel persecutors," and added that some "politicians in Tel Aviv are
now speaking the language of overt colonial fascism" (Pravda, September
24, 1967). The Stiirmer-type cartoons, appearing almost everywhere in the
press, were indicative of the character of the Soviet propaganda. Not since
the publication of Trofim Kichko's ill-famed antisemitic book, Judaism without
Embellishment (AJYB, 1965 [Vol. 66], p. 425), had such cartoons been
printed in the Soviet Union. One portrayed a Jew as a slithering animal with
a long nose, holding a smoking revolver and sticking stars of David on the
graves of his victims (Krokodil #18, 1967); another showed General Moshe
Dayan with a skull covering his right eye, beneath the legend "Moshe Adolphovich
[son of Adolph] Dayan" (Krokodil #19, 1967).
Reliable visitors and foreign students, who were in the Soviet Union at the
time of the six-day war, reported that the revival of crude anti-Jewish propaganda
was openly disapproved in liberal circles of the Soviet intelligentsia.
The systematic identification of Israel with Judaism and the Jews created
more difficulties for Soviet Jews since the atrocities, of which the Soviet prop-