#1
December 19, 1998


The Russian Crisis:
What it Means for the Palestinians

Much has been written and said about the recent collapse of the Russian Economy. The word “crisis” has been indelibly imprinted into the Russian vocabulary. One hears it so often that the word is starting to lose all meaning. But the problems that have been brought about by the economic collapse seem to increase every day. But what does this have to do with the Palestinians?

Throughout European history, whenever there has been economic troubles, there has always been a scapegoat in which to place the blame. The Jews, of course. In the past this has happened both in Eastern Europe and what we now call Western Europe. The persecution of the Jews, even before the Holocaust, was the man impetus towards the exodus and settlement of Jews to Palestine. Following the Holocaust, this massive movement of people increased greatly, and soon the State of Israel was created.

Russia has always had the problem of anti-Semitism rearing its ugly head at times of crisis. After the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, massive riots and killing sprees aimed at Jews were rampant in the parts of European Russia where the Jews could legally live. (They were restricted to living in the “Pale of Settlement”, mostly made up of present day Poland, Belarus, and the Ukraine.) It was during this time that the word ‘pogrom’ entered into the English language to describe any sort of uncontrolled chaotic outburst of violence against a given ethnic, cultural, or religious group. These pogroms soon died off, only to be resurrected on a larger scale after the Revolution of 1905. Then, entire Jewish ghettos were wiped out, with the tacit support of the Tsarist authorities. Russia had just lost a war and the Tsar had to make concessions to the revolutionaries. Who was to blame? The Jews, of course! Secret groups, such as the Black Hundreds, were created, and they would roam the streets searching for Jewish blood. It is no wonder that some of the first Jews to make ‘aliya’ (return) to Palestine, as early as the 19th century, were Russian Jews.

So now lets fast forward to present day Russia. The so-called ‘reform’ efforts of the past few years seem to have collapsed and left the country in disarray, and some politicians and people have renewed the age-old scapegoating call that its all because of the Jews. Albert Makashov, a Communist Duma deputy, has made numerous comments about how the Jews run the country and are to blame for the evils that have befallen the country. When a bill was introduced in the Duma to censure this man, the Communists blocked its passage. In the recent St. Petersburg city elections, many Jewish candidates had their campaign posters defiled with swastikas and “Bash the Yids” slogans. Recently I was in Voronezh, a city in the ‘Red Belt’ of Russia, and anti-semetic slogans could be seen in many places. In the Krasnodar region in the far south, Nikolai Kondratenko, the regional governor, has repeatedly made vicious anti-semitic remarks, and there have been reports of organized violence and death threats against the few Jews who have remained there since the fall of the Soviet Union. I was hanging out at a protest back in October when somebody handed me a flyer. My Russian being at the beginners level, I showed the flyer to some of my students who translated it for me. “The Jews are in control of the government”, and other like statements were contained in the flyer, as well as a ‘recommended reading’ section where Mien Kampf was the first selection. I read one politician in a local newspaper who said “Well, it’s not like they’ve been warned.” This is some really scary stuff.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, there was a massive exodus of Jews to Israel. During the ancien regime anti-Semitism was enshrined de facto in the government. Jews were not allowed into the security apparatus, for example. Natan Sharansky and others were persecuted for demanding the right to emigrate to Israel. As soon as they were given the chance, a great many of them took the opportunity and left. This created a problem in Israel, which had to find housing and jobs for this great influx of people. Many immigrants were placed in the Jewish settlements that dot the West Bank and Gaza.

With anti-Jewish rhetoric now picking up steam in Russia, there most certainly will be an increase in Russian Jewish immigration to Israel, and once again Israel will have to find a place for them to live. The state of Israel is very small, and since all Jews, no matter where they were born, have the right to citizenship, any influx of new immigrants in numbers burdens the state infrastructure. Where will they put these people? In East Jerusalem. On a hilltop outside of Hebron, perhaps.

The Netanyahu government has seen no reason to slow, let alone stop, the building of settlements in disputed territory. Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Foreign Minister, has even urged increased settlement building. The strains of an ever-increasing population in Israel are great, and any new influx of Russian Jews will only increase that strain. More settlements will have to be built, and the chances for peace in the region will decline. The Palestinians will see more of their land confiscated, their homes and crops plowed under to build roads, their expectations for freedom and a homeland greatly diminished. It is terribly sad that the evils perpetrated on one group far away are then turned into evils on another, but such is the world today. It just proves that nobody can live in a vacuum.



#2
December 26, 1998


Voronezh

Sometimes I think there aren’t any places quieter than a tourist trap during off season. This was demonstrated to me once again in Voronezh. Down by the river is a small yellow cathedral, the paint chipping and the walls cracking but the surrounding benches and park kept up well. Right next to it is a monument. My guess is it has something to do with Peter the Great and the navy he built here. From afar it looks like a huge anchor, but up close the bottom is a small boat with this massive mast(?) that springs some fifty feet high. Behind that flows the river made four time wider by a damn downstream. I turn 180 degrees from the monument and there are white arches over the entranceway to the park. The dates 1697-1997 are written on them. 1697 – the year Peter the Great came to power; 1997 – last year. While the church is obviously older, the monument and park grounds could easily have been made last year. The place had all the earmarks of a tourist trap built to order. The church surrenders to red brick benches, the monument, made of marble, and the water behind it. The green grass surrounding all. And off on the opposite side of the church, to the left of the monument, a pre-fab cafe, Cafe Europe. Has all the earmarks of a project built with money that would have been better spent on providing electricity or maintaining a clean water supply. The types of projects that have sprung up all over Russia these last few years. The skies were overcast, and our faces were getting cold. We slid into the cafe to get some tea.

In the spring or summer this cafe must have more people, but in November it’s empty along with the rest of the grounds. I sit and sip my tea and feel the warmth returning to my face. I look at the TV, it is playing French cartoons with the sound off. The music in the cafe is in English – Duran Duran, Joan Osborne, and then some Sting. A Sting song I actually like – “Fragile”. My face tingles with my nerves regaining consciousness. I look out the window at the huge waterway, the clouds moving in, obscuring the sunset, making the world look darker than it should be. The sky and the water show me about ten different shades of blue. Across the waterway, the high-rise Khrushchevian suburbs that are all over Eastern Europe are starting to light up. Slowly the cars driving across the bridge in the distance turn on their lights. “How fragile we are” in the background. Its amazing how quiet tourist traps can be in the off-season.

* * *
To Benet Vincent – one laid back Brit. Left Moscow back to Britain, next Italy, China, wherever. Guided us towards the ropes – both teaching English and living in Russia. Got us a social life. Got me rooting for Chelsea – hell, got me paying attention to English football (soccer to my American compatriots). In the future . . .

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Just got a tape in the mail from Riverside, California’s best band, The Conditionz! It’s great! If your into straight-up garage-surf-type rock and roll, send $5 to Bob Nye, P.O. Box 52371 Riverside, CA USA. There is even a cameo appearance by me, johnnie b. baker, speaking some unintelligible Russian!

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I was quite pleased with the response to the first Budget File. Here is the first letters section. I love to hear replies, so don’t be afraid to write and let me know how you feel! Send in whatever you feel like saying! Be sure to tell me where you’re from. Of course, with long letters, I reserve the right to edit them down to size.

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. . . I don't believe that you can attribute the gross human rights violations, including the state sponsored torture of Palestinians by the State of Israel, or the attempt to economically stifle the Palestinians so that they would leave their homeland (there is a 60% unemployment rate in the occupied territories), the demolition of Palestinian homes, the building of settlements, and the constant demoralization and dehumanization of these people under the hands of the Israel's, and so on and so on as "evils" brought about by another evil. No. Evil begins with each individual responsible for carrying it out, and each person will be held responsible for his actions, with no one else taking the blame.

On a point of note, I would like to inform you that Russian immigrants are in fact encouraged by the State of Israel to come to Israel, so that the number of "Israelis" (I refuse to say Jews since not all Jews are Zionists or Israelis, some even refusing to be called that...) would increase in number to counter the indigenous Palestinian population. So it's not like Israel doesn't know what to do with them. It wants them to come precisely for the purpose of having them build settlements in East Jerusalem and kick more people off their land. . .

. . .this is EXACTLY WHAT ISREAL WANTS TO DO, and is not just doing it for the sake of housing those poor Russian Jews who are being discriminated against in Russia. . .

Dalia El-Newehy
Cairo, Egypt

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A bit heavy on the history (gee, I suppose it was a historian who wrote it), but the interesting parts were the extent of anti-Semitism in Russia and its public acceptance--that is news to me that is quite alarming.

Had you had access to stats about Russian immigration to Israel, Palestinian pop. growth rates vs. Israeli growth rates, it would have added some value and emphasized the Israeli desperation to attract new immigrants. Indeed, something about the lack of American Jewish immigration to Israel would also have added context--they really are desperate for immigration, both in their national literature, security mindset, and ethno-religious concerns.

Or better still, the reverse immigration stats showing Jews from areas other than Russia who are evidently leaving in greater numbers than are arriving. Of course, that's a state secret...

Donovan Rinker-Morris
Washington D.C.

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On Immigration and the Jewish Question

Speaking as a man who by Jewish law and custom can immigrate to Israel, fuck the Jews. For that matter, fuck the Palestinians and the Russians too. What are all these Jews doing trying to move into the confines of a landmass never meant to hold the hordes of people trying to settle it. I don't care how fucking holy the land is supposed to be, it can only sustain a certain sum of people, and then that's all folks. Every Jew in the world fleeing back to Israel seems almost as ridiculous as if every Puerto Rican or Cuban decided to resettle their tiny ancestral islands. We the people of the world have done too much fucking and shit out too many little kidlings to get attached to a particular piece a dirt. Besides, why Israel? Is one fucking crumbling wall worth all the headaches, stones, shrapnel and shitbombs? It's time to let reason have its day in court.

Here's my solution. First, put Disney in charge of all the religious sights in Gods little dust patch. Charge an exorbitant fee to wail next to David's outhouse, walk in the bloody footsteps of the original hippie, or kneel on the carpet under the dome. Then, after the minions for the Happiest Place on Earth take their cut, take the profits and use them to resettle the oppressed Jews and displaced Palestinians in the worlds original dumping ground for the dispossessed, the great U.S.A. They'd like it better here anyway. I mean, fucking San Bernardino County [in California - ed.] is bigger than Israel. Matter of fact, that's where will put them. Right out in the Desert. They'll feel right at home. Just get some rich Arab oilmen and a few of the wealthier Jews in the entertainment business to build a desalinization plant and ‘viola’ garden city baby. A drive into bullet ridden San Berdoo and few car bombs delivered by militia wackos into these new settlements and the folks will feel right at home. Now how's that for a rational solution. Sure it's insane, but it's not as insane as what's going on and will continue to go on as religion further makes the planet the wonderful chaotic dung pile that it is and will continue to be. Selah

The Right Rev. Richard Tater
Harrisburg, Oregon, USA

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Until next time...



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