Col. Gen. David Dragunsky, the highest ranking Jewish officer in the Soviet armed forces, attacked “Zionism” in an article distributed here yesterday by the New Times-Novosti press agency, the Soviet Union’s overseas news service, and likened Zionist “lies” to the methods used by the Nazis.
Dragunsky wrote that “(Joseph) Goebbels and his propagandists were past masters at prevarication and slander on both a global and local scale. Zionists, too, use big and small lies to cover up their ugly deeds.”
Dragunsky said the first “lie” was “that the Zionists represent the interests of ‘world Jewry.’ “He claimed that there was no such entity because Jews “consider themselves patriotic to the country where they and their forebears were both born.” He said the second “lie” was that Zionists were concerned about the condition of Jews in the USSR, claiming that Jews in Russia “enjoy the same rights as the rest of the more than 100 nations and nationalities of our country.”
The Russian general maintained that the third “lie” was that the USSR is hostile to Israel.” Noting that the Soviet Union was one of the first nations to vote in the UN for the creation of the Jewish State, he said his country is opposed “not to the State of Israel as such but its aggressive policy which threatens the peace.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
