Who is playing the anti-Semitism card

”There's a hell of a lot of anti- Semitism over there! There's so much anti-Semitism in Ukraine!” the telephone receiver was all but bursting. It was the voice of an Israeli friend of mine. The friend had not seen Ukraine for a quarter of a century.

”Where is anti-Semitism in Ukraine?” I ask, ”In villages? In cities? On the streets? In shops? Where? Where did you find it there?”

”Well... you won't find anti-Semitism anywhere, of course. You won't find any. What do they call you in Kyiv? Bloody khokhol (offensive for ‘Ukrainian' — Ed. )?” my friend's voice was a mixture of irony, sarcasm, and what a ”true Jew” can feel toward a Jew unable to find anti-Semitism.

”Suppose it is I who spread a wisecrack about ‘bloody khokhols ,'” I say to him, ”But where did you get this information from?”

”Don't you listen to the radio? Don't you know what happened in Uman during the Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) celebrations? Hasids (orthodox Judaists —Ed. ) from all over the world came there to pray over the tomb of Rabbi Nachman, the righteous zaddik . And just fancy a train coming over. Full of pogrom-bent thugs. They were met by special-force submachine-gun-armed soldiers, a hundred of them were arrested, and the rest were pushed back into the cars. There was such hell!.. Then the thugs daubed anti-Semitic slogans on a fence.”

”Which thugs?” I ask, ”Those arrested or pushed back into the cars?”

”The radio said they were from UNA-UNSO (extremist Ukrainian organization — Ed. ). It was also written ‘Our President Marchik' in the same paint.”

”Marchik is your neighbor in Israel,” I say, ”And in Ukraine we've got Marchuk and Kravchuk. And UNA-UNSO does not seem to support Marchuk...”

But my Israeli friend was not interested in the details of the Ukrainian election campaign.

And I thought: when did all this begin? When political sharpers began to play the marked ”Jewish card”? They dealt this card to push the Jews off Ukrainian renaissance, to push both the Jews and the whole civilized world from all those who, opposed to the current power, want to revive a true Ukrainian Ukraine... So when did they start to deal the ”Jewish card” in order to impart the image of pogrom thugs to the Ukrainian national opposition?

This was practiced in the Russian Empire.

Then the label of a pogrom thug was attached for many years ahead to Simon Petliura, a Social Democrat, an intellectual. And no one paid attention to the fact that one of the founders of Zionism, Ze'ev Vladimir Jabotinsky, treated Mr. Petliura with much veneration, so the USSR simply slapped a ban on the name of Mr. Jabotinsky.

Then, of course, they began to scare the world with the invented ”anti-Semitism of Bandera.”

For instance, the tenth anniversary of Rukh was marked recently. And who remembers now the way the official press was then frightening the readers: ”the Rukh people are anti- Semitic?” I do. Because the constituent congress then read out my greeting telegram ending with the Jewish word ”Shalom!”

In the early 90s the authorities would scare Kyiv Jews: janitors kept coming and warning: ”Submachine- gun-armed Rukh people are coming from Lviv. You'd better stay inside. There will be pogroms.” Myroslav Popovych and I still managed to crash into the television studios (the then Communist Party CC secretary Leonid Kravchuk helped), and the provocateurs shut up.

Explosives were found in a Kyiv synagogue on December 1, 1991, on the day of the all-Ukrainian independence referendum, as if to say: look, no sooner had we become independent than synagogues are getting blown up.

The year 1998. I heard a whisper: ”Look, you are supporting Oleksandr Moroz, but he told Slava Stetsko (leader of the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists — Ed .) it was time to do away with Kuchma's ‘kikes entourage.'” I burst into laughter. For I know Mr. Moroz very well and know: this brilliant intellectual does not even think, let alone speaks, on this troglodyte level.

In the same 1998, the newspaper VEK published information about an alleged ”terrible upsurge” of anti- Semitism in Ukraine. The same ”upsurge” becomes, almost at the same time, the subject of the Moscow- based Nezavisimaya Gazeta owned by the richest man (for his is a foreigner!) who brashly tries to meddle in the Ukrainian election campaign. Who is to blame for the ”upsurge?” Of course, the one who is not the best friend of Kobzon, the two Tabachnyks, as well as Messrs. Surkis, Pinchuk, and (at that time) Rabynovych.

The ”upsurge” was concocted. Non-science fiction, so to speak. But the concocted ”upsurge” became the subject of a lengthy press conference at the House of Cinema. There, Doctor of History Dmytro Tabachnyk contrived to say the Ukrainian Isaac Mazepa was a Jew. Because he was Isaac. Then Isaac Mazepa was again subjected to ”Semitization” by no doctor of no sciences Mr. Rabynovych in an interview with VEK .

The year 1999. Mr. Rabynovych accuses (from abroad!) Mr. Moroz of ”whipping up interethnic strife.” We cannot but recall here the words of Ze'ev Vladimir Jabotinsky (a true Zionist): ”That we think it quite destinque . to keep silent about Jews has brought the most senseless consequences: you can be dubbed an anti- Semite even for the mere word ‘Jew' or for a most innocent comment on things Jewish... The purpose is to turn Jews into a rigid taboo above any kind of even the mildest criticism; and it is Jews themselves who first of all fall victim to this custom...”

By the way, how would the citizen of the State of Israel Vadym Rabynovych react if a Ukrainian said: ”I have done my best to clear the Israeli government of all Zionists (i.e., Jewish nationalists)?”

And how would People's Deputy of Ukraine Hryhory Surkis react if he came to know that a certain Ukrainian had become a deputy in Israel (which, incidentally, is quite possible) but prefers to speak the great Arabic language in the Knesset?

But let us get back to the proverbial Uman fence which so alarmed my Israeli friend. He has forgotten some facts of life. Otherwise, he would have thought: who could possibly leave on a fence a multi-lettered anti-Semitic and a no less multi-lettered pro- Marchuk slogan of the type of ”Bash the kikes, save Yevhen!” in a small town full of many law-enforcement officers on that day and night? Who could do so? Read books. The methods are well-known. They were described in the famous Aquarium by the notorious Suvorov. Who — on the eve of elections?

As to Ukrainians and Jews... Some forces have long been bent on making us quarrel. This method is also well known: ”Divide and rule.” But they will never have the pleasure of dividing and, I hope, ruling us.