President Chaim Herzog opened a two-month intensive campaign on behalf of Soviet Jewry here Monday by declaring that “The State of Israel has no conflict with the USSR and no hatred toward it.”
He conceded, however, Israel’s disappointment that the new Soviet government headed by Mikhail Gorbachev, which came to power last year has not eased the condition of Soviet Jews.
“We are not enemies of the USSR,” Herzog asserted. “We are eternally grateful for its decisive role in the defeat of Nazi Germany, for its support of the establishment of the State of Israel and its vital aid in supplying defense weapons to the Israel Defense Force at the height of the War of Independence, at a time of almost total embargo on the part of the West.”
He stressed that from Israel’s standpoint the issue of Soviet Jewry “should not be related either to the inter-bloc (East-West) confrontation or to the solution of the Middle East conflict.” But, he added, “Israel cannot compromise until every Soviet Jew wishing to immigrate to Israel or live as a Jew” in the Soviet Union is able to do so. It is therefore essential he declared, “to try every means–both public and quiet–in an effort to open the gates.”
HOPES FOR A CRACK IN THE IRON WALL
Herzog said Israel had hoped the new Soviet government would bring about “an opening, or at least a crack in the iron wall depriving Jews of the freedom to leave the Soviet Union and immigrate to Israel.” But so far those expectations have not been fulfilled, he said.
The new campaign for Soviet Jewry is being coordinated here by the Public Council for Soviet Jewry. It comes at a time when the immigration of Anatoly Shcharansky, Eliyahu Essas and a few other well-known aliya activists may have generated the erroneous impression among Jews inside the USSR and their supporters abroad that conditions for Soviet Jews are improving.
David Yafit, chairman of the Public Council for Soviet Jewry’s executive committee, said at the opening of the campaign at the Presidential residence that the two months of solidarity with Soviet Jews was necessary because the Kremlin’s policy with respect to Jewish emigration during the year preceding the summit conference in Geneva last November had been “based on misinformation, deception and lies.”
The goal of that policy, Yafit maintained, is to lull world public opinion and weaken the struggle for the release of Soviet Jews. The new campaign is intended to increase public awareness of this and not let people be led astray by Soviet promises and declarations.
Yafit appealed to President Herzog to intervene for the release of imprisoned Jewish activist Yuli Edelstein who is currently hospitalized in Siberia after a serious accident. Yafit said that under Soviet law, a prisoner who is gravely ill may be set free.
A BLISTERING ATTACK BY HERZOG
Herzog devoted part of his address to a blistering attack on the Jerusalem Soviet Jewry Information Center, a rightwing, generally antiestablishment group headed by former “prisoner of Zion” Yosef Mendelevich. The group recently attacked Herzog for meeting with Meir Wilner, leader of the Hadash Communist Party, after the latter returned from the Soviet Communist Party Congress in Moscow to which he was invited as a delegate and honored guest.
Herzog angrily denied allegations by Mendelevich that he had been negotiating through Wilner for the possible reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and the USSR. Herzog said he leaves that to the government and the Foreign Ministry. Addressing himself to the Jerusalem Information Center, he added, “You should have the good manners to treat a Jewish President the way you would treat a gentile president abroad.”
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.
