ГУЛаг Палестины

In your appearance on the 60 Minutes broadcast "The Ugly Face of Freedom" of 23

October 1994, you offered some startling testimony concerning the existence of

anti-Semitism in contemporary Ukraine. In your own words:

There have been a number of physical attacks. In a small town, two

elderly Jews were attacked at knifepoint and stabbed because they are

Jews and because of the myth that all Jews must have money hidden in

their homes. The same thing was in west Ukraine, the Carpathian

region. These are very, very frightening facts, because it's - again

that stereotype that we mentioned before, when that leads someone to

really - to - to stab an older couple and leave them helpless, and

you know? - they left them for dead. That means that we have serious

problems.

In the mind of the typical 60 Minutes viewer, your statement would constitute a

substantial proportion of the Ugly Face of Freedom's evidence for the existence of

anti-Semitism in today's Ukraine, and the only evidence at all for the eruption of this

anti-Semitism into violence.

However, I cannot help noticing that your statement is devoid of detail. You do

not disclose the names of the victims, nor the places and dates of the attacks. Nor do

you indicate the source of your information - did you hear about these attacks on the

radio, see them on television, read about them in the newspapers, receive personal

communication, or what? This lack of detail is particularly troubling in view of four

considerations:

(1) that your non-specific testimony occurred in the middle of a broadcast which

was dominated by misrepresentation and disinformation;

(2) that it came from the mouth of an individual recognized in the Ukrainian

community for holding anti-Ukrainian views, and for spreading anti-Ukrainian hatred, as

I think I have demonstrated in my seven previous letters to you of 6Jan95, 26Sep97,

27Sep97, 28Sep97, 29Sep97, 29Sep97, and 30Sep97, in which letters are discussed such

issues as that of your reciting every Saturday in the capital city of Ukraine the

Khmelnytsky curse;

(3) that Jewish interests have sometimes employed exaggerated, or wholly-imagined,

or even self-inflicted anti-Semitic acts to achieve such aims as heightened group

cohesion or increased emigration to Israel; and

(4) that Jewish groups in Ukraine who monitor anti-Semitic incidents report being

unaware of the two attacks that you describe.

Specifically with respect to point (4) above, an open letter to Morley Safer and

the 60 Minutes staff from I. M. Levitas, Head of the Jewish Council of Ukraine as well

as of the Nationalities Associations of Ukraine, as published in the Lviv newspaper Za

Vilnu Ukrainu (For a Free Ukraine) on December 2, 1994, included the following

observations, which I translate from the original Ukrainian. In the portion of the

letter that I quote below, Mr. Levitas argues that the attacks you describe may have

been simple robberies devoid of anti-Semitism. More importantly, Mr. Levitas provides

us with reason to wonder whether the attacks occurred at all:

You reported that two Jews were robbed and beaten. This might have

happened, but most likely not because they were Jews. I imagine that

in Lviv, Ukrainians are also robbed (and significantly more often!),

and yet nobody draws from this the sort of conclusions concerning

ethnic hostility that you draw from the robbing of these two Jews.

Our Jewish Council constantly receives news concerning Jews in

Ukraine, but during the past five years, we have received not a single

report of anyone being beaten because he was a Jew. However, it must

be admitted that such a thing may have occurred without it coming to

our attention - there are plenty of miscreants in every country.

The above speculations lead us once again to the questions of whether your

orientation toward the Ukrainian state is supportive or destructive, responsible or

irresponsible, restrained by reason or fired by emotion. A step toward answering such

questions would be taken by your responding to the points below:

(1) Would you be able to provide the names of the two sets of Jewish victims that

you alluded to (that is, the victims of the knife attack, and the similar victims in the

"Carpathian region"), and the places and dates of the attacks? If by "a number of

attacks" you mean more than two, I would appreciate receiving such documentation for the

other attacks as well. If in addition you are in possession of corroborative evidence

such as videotapes, newspaper clippings, or letters, I would appreciate receiving copies

of these as well.

(2) If the attacks did occur, then there follows the question of what motivated

them. Mr. Levitas suggests that if the knife attack occurred, then it was more likely

driven by economic motives than anti-Semitic ones. You, on the other hand offer that

the attack occurred "because they are Jews," and "because of the myth that all Jews must

have money hidden in their homes," and because "it's - again that stereotype." But for