Deflecting the truth

Shohdy Naguib is shocked by the massive misinformation campaign that Russia's powerful pro-Israeli lobby is spearheading
The passions and pains of the Middle East conflict have drawn a bloody curtain over the fact that, ever since 1934, Jews have had a homeland in the Russian Far East. The Jewish Autonomous Region, popularly known as Birobidzhan, is an uninviting, mostly marshy territory, twice the size of New Jersey, that was earmarked to be Soviet Jewry's home. It was conceived as a brave social experiment that would score propaganda points in the international arena and be hailed as a viable alternative to Palestine, courtesy of Joseph Stalin.
The Jewish Autonomous Region is still there and alive, notwithstanding the massive exodus that has occurred in the past 15 years to the alleged "historic homeland" that is present-day Israel. Those who decided to pack up and leave did it for economic rather than ideological purposes. The Russian economy's catastrophic decline put paid to the last doubts over whether leaving their "pre-historic homeland" and moving to Israel, the land of plenty, was worth pursuing.
Recently, a Sunday afternoon weekly TV digest on one of Russia's leading private TV channels (NTV) presented its viewers with an extended report on Birobidzhan without making even a cursory mention of the ongoing Israeli invasion of the West Bank, the worldwide protests against the Israeli Defence Force's (IDF) actions or the fate of those who are trapped in the occupied towns.
Why did that bloody week's important events merit no more than a passing reference in that spin-doctor's catch-all term, "military activities?"
The interviews featured in the programme and the commentary that overlay it had no urgency about them, but focused mainly on the differences in living conditions between "here" and "there." The Birobidzhan Jewish community seems to be divided between those who are quitting and going to Israel and those who have opted to stay. There is nothing dramatic about this division, just the potential emigrants' careful weighing-up of their understandable doubts against the high hopes that anyone is subjected to when offered the chance for a clean break with the past.
There are also those who went to Israel but chose to return after a few years there, driven on by the notorious nostalgia that plagues the Russian soul. Simple Soviet people they are. Even the attributes of the religious cult do not disguise that distinctive Homo-sovieticus breed of sufferers. The leitmotif of that NTV report was quite obvious: these are "our folks" -- a caring and compassionate reference that Russians use in referring to their kin: nashi (ours). Monitoring the news on the main TV channels (RTR, NTV and OTR) revealed a sad picture of nervous and cynical pro-Israeli bias.
NTV's programme was not the sole offender. A cursory glance at the Russian TV media over the past few days reveals the same staunchly pro-Israeli stance. On 24 April, both the ORT and RTR channels talked of Palestinian "terrorists" holding "hostages" against their will. The media reported that "ritual Palestinian funeral-demonstrations" are followed by suicide attacks which are "less likely now because of the IDF retaliations," in a pointed suggestion that "these scoundrels only fear the iron fist." There was a passing remark about a possible resumption of the peace negotiations "unless of course some more Palestinians chose to become shahids." The regular mention of shahids was complemented by a visual sequence which featured violent mobs of Palestinians firing Kalashnikovs in the air and screaming the all too familiar and menacing Allahu Akbar!
On 25 April ORT reported that the Saudi army was pushing troops to the Jordanian border. The main news bulletin led with the latest events in Bethlehem and an Armenian monk who escaped from the church was featured mumbling unintelligibly about "hostages... calling for help." A handsome IDF spokesman was posed against a luxurious hotel talking about the "30 terrorists" barricaded inside, the rest being "simple citizens whom the IDF had nothing against" but who "regretfully are unwilling to leave the church for some unknown reason." This was a sharp change in tone from the IDF's previous announcements which accused the Palestinians of holding the monks and an Italian TV crew hostage and which were disproved when the TV crew left the church of their own volition, 24 hours after entering it.
This vehement pro-Israeli bias becomes all too obvious on the Russia's Internet news sites. No restraint. No doubt. Equating Palestinian terror with the hated Chechen militant "murderers" is the policy followed by all major news sites. The online press also displays the same trend. The death of dreaded Saudi- born Chechen warlord Khattab, also known as "Black Arab," caused jubilation all over Russia and was hailed as a triumph of the secret services who reportedly delivered him a poisoned letter. Khattab, whom Russia termed a "faithful lieutenant to Osama Bin Laden," was notorious for his cruelty and reputed to be in possession of inexhaustible financial resources which he used to make himself the principal obstacle to starting peace talks in Chechnya.
Yet, unlike the "zombie-box," the Internet is also open to all kinds of radical leftist and nationalist views, marginal as they are and all too predictable in their editorial stances. It is there that you will find a predictably anti-Semitic answer to why the Arab-Israeli conflict is presented to Russians in such an unbalanced manner: the Russian mass media and the economy as a whole is controlled by the ever-powerful kiekies, a pejorative term used to describe Jews.
The rise of the neo-Nazis was blown out of all proportion by the media in the preceding weeks and culminated in an all-out security alert in anticipation of their ugly celebrations of Adolf Hitler's birthday on 20 April. The gangs of skinheads were promoted on such a major scale that it has given rise to speculation as to why they are provided with free publicity and what their oblique sponsors' vested interests might be. It has been observed that the electoral potential of the extreme-right youth and football fans has already been successfully explored in some regions, but never before has such a high-profile move been made in the Russian capital. It was even rumored that as many as 20,000 skinheads have undergone "martial-patriotic" training in security force camps in Moscow's outskirts.
One thing is clear. Obscure political forces are preparing them to act as cannon fodder for political action. As a way of explaining away the skinheads' presence, it was said that their emergence would bring Russia closer to the West. There they are a well-known phenomenon that is intimately linked to youth and urban culture. The skinhead aesthetic is also said to appeal to Russians.
Against that ominous background, an unprecedented action took place on 25 April at a central Moscow synagogue in a gesture of solidarity with the people of Israel. The rally was publicised as being a strong anti-terror statement. It was a widely- publicised and establishment-backed event which attracted several thousand people amidst heavy security arrangements.
A witness told Al-Ahram Weekly that he could not help but feel terrible pity for all those simple people, modestly dressed and in all respects "nashi," (ours) who lapped up the pro- Zionist propaganda. Some waved large and small Israeli flags that were distributed prior to the march.
The event's host, prominent Echo Moscow radio presenter Matvej Ganapolskij, spoke of Israel's struggle against evil and how it was imperative that ordinary Russians support it. A leading rabbi called for God to wreak his wrath upon enemies of freedom such as Nazis, suicide-bombers and Muslim fundamentalists. Later in the evening someone said: "Only when Palestinians start loving their children more than they hate Israelis will there be an opportunity for peace." In between, "Jerusalem" and "Alliluyah" were performed, following which victims and witnesses of Arab terror were paraded. Images of devastation, screaming ambulances racing to the scene of bombings and gory casualties were shown on a large video screen.
It was an expressly pro-Zionist propaganda event meant to earn the Jewish Diaspora's sympathy for Israel and equate anyone who opposes Israeli policies with anti-Semitism and neo- Nazism.
Al-Ahram Weekly's source describes the sincere compassion he felt for those who lost their loved ones in terrorist attacks but could not help but ask the simple question: "Why? Why should this be a justification of the horrendous state terrorism that Israel practices on the Palestinians? Why should somebody scream down the microphone and call for the creation of a Greater Israel? Why should these poor and frightened people serve as a mouthpiece for imperial plans that appear to be in the best tradition of European expansion?"
The Chief Rabbi read a Jewish prayer which said, "... our God will take His revenge for us..."
I can not help but remember the blissful days of my childhood and youth when the streets of Moscow were spared the very notion of that wrathful God.
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