Democratic Palestine : 38 (ص 27)
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- Democratic Palestine : 38 (ص 27)
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and continuing the campaign against
socialism, utilizing the new avenues
opened by glasnost. The renewed
Zionist activities have manifest them-
selves in various forms and permeated
different facets of life in the Soviet
Union and Eastern Europe. For exam-
ple, there has been a marked increase
in media reports favorable to Israel.
Even more alarming was the mid-Feb-
ruary assassination of Yevgini Yey-
siyev, chairman of the Soviet Commit-
tee against the Resumption of Dip-
lomatic Relations with Israel.
Soviet Jewish Immigration
The most crucial of the repercus-
sions of the changes in Eastern Europe
on the Middle East, is the mass immi-
gration of Soviet Jews to occupied
Palestine. A basic component of the
Zionist project has been luring Jews
from around the world to immigrate in
order to colonize Palestine. Large
numbers of immigrants bolster the
Zionist state and open new horizons
for its expansion, whereas emigration
threatens the state’s very existence.
In this context, the massive new
immigration of Soviet Jews will un-
doubtedly alter the balance of forces in
favor of Israel and make the prospects
for peace less tenable, especially when
these new immigrants are settled in the
1967 occupied territories. Despite Is-
raeli government attempts to downplay
the possibility that the new immigrants
will be settled in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip, the Knesset in March
allocated $100 million for expanding
settlements in the West Bank and
Jerusalem, where 200,000 settlers are
already living.
The problem does not lie in the
Soviet policy of easing emigration,
which is part of the overall restructur-
ing and openness trend. In the past,
the vast majority of Jews who decided
to leave the Soviet Union chose to go
to the US. The new mass immigration
to Israel is the result of a carefully
designed plan agreed upon by the
Zionist movement and the US. While
the US administration agreed to dras-
tically cut back the granting of visas to
Soviet Jews, Israel continues to de-
mand that the Soviet Union not issue
them passports; rather they emigrate
with a document that includes an exit
visa and travel visa to Israel only, for-
Democratic Palestine, March-April 1990
cing them to go there. This coercion is
reminiscent of the thirties when Jews
fleeing from Nazi terror were refused
entry to the US upon the request of
Zionist leaders, in an effort to route
them to Palestine.
It is ironic that the US administra-
tion, which poses as the champion of
human rights and always presses the
Soviet Union to allow Jews to emi-
grate, now, when this permission is
granted, slams the door in the face of
the emigrants.
Still, Zionist officials are not satis-
fied. The Jewish Agency has submitted
an official request for direct flights
from the Soviet Union to Israel to
avoid the stop over in transit coun-
tries(Austria, Hungary and Rumania)
in order to prevent any of the emi-
grants from «escaping.»
The changes in Eastern Europe
are an uneven process, the outcome of
which is not yet totally clear. While
some of the changes in these countries
are not in the long-term interests of
the people, in the Soviet Union there
is still hope of salvaging socialism and
restoring its viability in the eyes of the
people. The mistakes committed in the
process of building socialism have
turned off the peoples of Eastern
Europe to socialism as such, whereas
the process of restructuring and open-
ness in the Soviet Union was begun as
a positive initiative to renew socialism.
However, Gorbachev’s recipe for
realizing this end has served to rele-
gate the revolutionary forces in the
developing world to a lower priority.
The results are very clear, for exam-
ple, in relation to Cuba: Where there
was once an outlet and firm source of
support for Cuba in the face of the US
attempt to choke it economically, this
is less true today. In the Middle East,
the shift in the Soviet role, and the
new relations between Eastern Europe
and Israel, will tip the balance of
forces further against the Palestinian
struggle and strengthen the Israeli po-
sition. Bearing in mind Zionism’s his-
torically reactionary international role,
this is not in the best interest of the
Soviet Union or any other socialist
country. @
Bush and Shevardnadze: Did they agree on the Middle East?
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- Democratic Palestine : 38
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