The Ganadiah Jewish News, Thursday, August 29, 1991-Page 13
coup attempt
JERUSALEM (jtA)-With Mikhail Gorbachev
back in control of th^ Soviet governmentV Israeli officials and Palestinian leaders alike scrambled last week to seek improved relations' with Moscow.
Foreign Minister David Levy expressed hope that Israel and the Soviet Union would soon resume talks aimed at re-establishing full diplomatic relations, which Moscow severed in 1967. The two countries currently have relations at the consular ie,vel;
It is generally assumed here.that fiill relations will be restored before Israel participates in the Middle East peace conference that the United States and Soviet Union are proposing to hold in October. But there has been no official confirmation from the Soviet side that it is ready to take that step.
The Pailestihian leadership, meanwhile, has back-
tracked from its initial enthusiasm for the attempt:^
ed takeover of the Soviet government by Communist Party hardlinexsv.
A Palestinian delegation from the territories that was supposed to visit-the Soviet Union this week postponed its trip without explanation. Speculation here was that the group had planned to shore up ties with the short-lived regime.
East Jerusalem activist Faisal Husseini and other Palestinian leaders niet with a Soviet Consular bfficier here and made a point of distinguishing their "neutral" attitude toward the coup and the emotional reaction in support of it voiced by ' * Arabs in the street."'^.
But their protestations seemed-to many Israelis to reflect second thoughts among local Palestinians^ who fear they may have rushed too soon to support the wrong party.
Levy~referred caustically to the joy ekpressied by "some elernehts" who \yere blinded into believing
■that a reactionary regime in the Soviet Union would help the Palestinian cause.
They were repeating the same mistake that led many Palestinians to support Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein when he invaded Kuwait a year ago, the foreign minister said,
But Hatem Abdul kader, an editor of the East Jerusalem daily Al Fajr, said Wednesday that the Israeli press had purposely focused oh thfe emotional reaction of "the street, whereas the Palestine-Liberation Organization official reaction had been restrained, treating the coup as an internal Soviet
_affair. ^
While the Palestinians' enthusiasm for Gorbachev's ouster clearly haid much to do with their dismay over the Soviet Union's warming relations
with Israel, it was also an indication of their reserit-ment over his decision in the late 1980s to permit virtually free Jewish emigration.
Ironically, though, the coup attenipt may end up spurring Soviet Jewish ». Israel is now an-
ticipatmg an upsurge m immigration, even though tht immediate danger for Soviet Jews is apparently .over, ■ ■,
Israel's Housing Ministry is preparing 20,000 housing Units for immediate occupancy to nieet the expected deniand.. And the Jewish Agency for Israel announced that its transit centres in Eastern Europe can accommodate as many as 100,000 Jews a month if need.be. -
Jewish Agency chairman Simcha Dinitz expressed hope that the Soviet authorities would continue to permit departures for Israel as they have in the past. V
ort pfo-
NEW YORK (JTA) -
Moscow citizens in general and Jews in particular were jubilant at the news that the soK:alled ' 'emergency committee'' that seized control of the Soviet government had been pushed out of power.
"I've lived in Moscow for 20 years, arid I never saw this situation — people kissing each other in the metro, people crying,'' Alexander Sehmukler, president of B'nai B'rith in the Soviet Union, said in a telephone interview from Moscow. "It's a national celebration of the great victory.
"The army has left Moscow. There are no tanks, no military trucks, no soldiers. It looks like a holiday," he said.
The Soviet Jewish community had overwhelmingly backed. _~ the pro-democracy forces, led by Russian republic president Boris Yeltsin, that resisted the hardline coup.
Sehmukler said the community had presented a statement in support of Yeltsin to members of the Russian republic's parliament at 3 p.m. Tuesday.
That was just one hour before military forces began firing on the Russian parliament building.
known popularly as ' 'the White House," initiating violence that left three people dead.
The statement of support, signed by the presidium of the Vaad, the Soviet Union's confederation of Jewish organizations, was also released to a Munich radio station and broadcast all over Europe. _^ _
A few minutes after the statement was broadcast, the Vaad began receiving "tens of calls from different Jewish organizations" outside the Soviet Union endorsing the group's stance.
"The statement- condemned the hardline junta's "blatant violation of democratic norms," Sehmukler said, and appealed to leaders of other national movements to cooperate in the struggle 'against the fascist putsch."
"We were the first national organization to open-, ly support the Russian government and president during very dangerous times," he pointed out.
That may become a valuable .claim, Schmuklerv said, since Moscow's mayor Gavriil Popov has already prohibited activity by local chapters of two organizations that supported
the "emergency committee": the Association of Veterans and the Liberal Democracy Party.
Popov has also sent a letter to Yeltsin, asking him to prohibit the publication of newspapers — mostly Communist — that supported the coup.
Jews in the Soviet Union feel elated about Gorbachev's return to power, and while they feel more secure than they did two days ago, "we can never feel .secure here," Sehmukler said. "The situation is not stabilized, and we don't know when it will be." "Thousands and thousands" of Soviet Jews who had put off their emigration because of the absorption difficulties their friends and family members are having in Israel will now flock to the Jewish state as quickly as possible.
As Sehmukler put it, ''Troops in Moscow's streets are a worse problem than Israel's absorption."
While the Israeli Consulate in Moscow has not been crowded since the coup began, Sehmukler attributed that to the curfew imposed on Moscow and the fact that there was no way to get into the city from other locations.
Sehmukler confirmed reports that OVIR, the
Soviet agency responsible for issuing exit visas, has offices around the country open and working.
Sehmukler voiced relief that the"emergency committee' ' had not organized or provoked anti-Jewish pogroms to try to destabilize their political opposition. It is a cai'd they could have played, he said,
Still, "we are not feeling safe," he said. "Of course we are excited if. Gorbachev comes back and constitutional law starts to work, but we do not know what will happen tomorrow."
In a letter Aug.;22 to Schmuckler, Bnai Brith Canada's president Marilyn Wainberg and executive vice-president Frank bimant saluted Schmuck-ler's courage, and declared the Soviet Jewish leadership's commitment to freedom an inspiration.
Wainberg is a cousin of Schmuckler. Last year, she participated ina B'nai Brith Canada fact-finding mission to the Soviet Union which mrt with Schmuckler and other Soviet leaders.
There are lOB'nai Brith Lodges across the Soviet
Union, ~and~ B'nai Brith Canada has a Russian Lodge in Toronto whose 120 members are of Soviet origin.
TORONTO-
Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) has welcomed the retunvof Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev to power.
"Since the emergence of MikhaH Gorbachev as leader and the introduction of perestroika and glasnost we have seen adramatic increase in erhigration of Soviet Jews to Israel," CJC president Les Scheininger stated. "The coup attempt certainly put all the progress that has been made over the years in jeopardy. We now hope and expect it will be business as usual in the Soviet Union."
Scheininger noted that prior to the crisis the Soviet Union was expeclod to renew full diplomatic relations with Israel in September and play a key role in the proposed regional Mideast peace conference in the fall.
"For years Canadian Jewry prayed for the day when Jews would be able to emigrate freely from the Soviet Union and those who remain there could practise their religion without restrictions," said Scheininger. "It would have been a terrible tragedy had the coup attempt suc-ceeded.._Democracy ||fcvailed. Hopefully diplomatic relations between Isr^bl and the Soviet Union will be restored." ^
CJC executive vice-president Alan Rose is'scheduled to attend the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) on the Human Dimension in Moscow next month. Rose expressed his relief that the coup foiled, emphasizing that several of the coup leaders are hardline anti-Semites. ^
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