24 Friday, July 13, 1919 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky's Anti-Zionist Role Exposed (Editor's note: In an ar- ticle in the current issue of Midstream magazine, entitled "Bruno Kreisky and Simon Wiesenthal," in which is outlined the controversy that resulted from the Austrian chan- cellor's prejudice against the Nazi-hunter and his Documentation Center, Robert S. Wistrich, editor of the Wiener Library Bulletin, exposes Kreis- ky's anti-Zionist role and GOT A PROBLEM? DAVE'S PLUMBING A flush beats a full house 967-3343 no sabbath calls his antagonism to Jews and Judaism. In that ar- ticle, Wistrich describes Kreisky the Jew and pre- sents the following facts:) The Arab terrorist onslaught against OPEC headquarters in Vienna provided Kreisky with an opportunity to polish his somewhat tarnished image as an international states- man. The six terrorists, led by the Venezuelan, Carlos Martinez, at one point held hostage all the oil ministers of the OPFC countries, in- cluding Sheik Yamani of Saudi Arabia. Their action was designed to strike a blow for the Arab rejection front by accusing "friends of Israel" within the Arab world, like Sadat, of betraying the "Palesti- nian" cause. LAWN SPRINKLER REPAIRS NORTHLAND LAWN SPRINKLING RON BLOCK 355-3391 (home) 559-5980 (office) Though the terrorists had murdered three people, Kreisky gave them free pas- sage out of Austria. He had, admittedly, little choice in the matter, given the im- portance of the hostages and the natural insistence of the OPEC states on saving the lives of their ministers. But the speed of his capitulation (though popular in Austria where the affair was re- solved in time for the Christmas festivities) indi- cated that, as in the Schoenau affair two years earlier, Kreisky was an easy target for terrorist de- mands. Moreover, Kreisky's reservations about Israel and his sympathy for the "Palestinians" were not lost on the PLO, whose leader Yasir Arafat, in an interview broadcast on Austrian TV and sub- sequently published in the Arbeiter Zeitung, thanked him for "bravely resisting Zionist i blackmail attempts." The Arabs and the PLO correctly assumed that Kreisky's Jewish origins might actually work in their favor. Many Jews on both the political left and the right, having risen to high positions have, in the at, • raC)LD GALLEQY a • NECKCHAINS • BRACELETS • CHARMS PLUS •A complete line of the latest in fashion jewelry for men and women. •Certified Gemologist on premises •Appraisal work •Expert jewelry repair. 32802 FRANKLIN RD. FRANKLIN VILLAGE 48025 851-7111 10 AM-6 PM MONDAY THRU FRIDAY 10 AM-5 PM SATURDAY past, tended to distance themselves from Zionism and any suspicion of favor- ing Jewish interests. In the Austrian Social- Democratic Party — four of whose outstanding leaders in this century, Victor Adler, Freidrich Adler, Otto Bauer and Bruno Kreisky, were all anti-Zionist, "non- Jewish" Jews — this has been particularly evident. Opposition to Zionism has a long tradition in the theories of -the Austro- Marxist school which for the past 80 years has consis- tently argued that the con- cept of a "Jewish people" was a fiction. As a socialist, Kreisky has admittedly sought to mediate in the Middle East conflict within the framework of the Socialist International. For example, in the summer of 1975, he tried to -organize negotia- tions between Israeli, Egyp- tian and Tunisian socialists, but these broke down after they were wel- comed in public by the then Israeli Foreign Minister, Yigal Allon. Kreisky blamed Israeli indiscretions for the fail- ure of the mediation ef- fort. As a socialist, his views on the conflict are probably no different from those of his col- leagues in the Socialist International, like Willy Brandt, Olaf Palme, and Francois Mitterand, though certainly less pro-Israeli than those of the British Labor Party. Kreisky, however, be- lieves that the "Palesti- nian" issue is the heart of the Middle East problem, and that Israel was "founded entirely on land seized from the Arabs." He is convinced that it is im- possible for Israel to live in- peace until it has with- drawn from all "occupied Arab territories." In more general terms he thinks that it is up to Israel to recognize that it is living in an Arab world, sur- rounded by Arab peoples, and until it adjusts to this reality it cannot expect to be accepted by its neighbors. Kreisky, therefore, coun- sels the Israeli leaders to be more realistic (this view is shared by many European social-democrats); he is openly critical of certain trends towards annexation and "usurpation" of Arab land; and he supports the creation of a "Palestinian" state with its own sover- eignty alongside Israel. All this sounds rather moderate and reason- able, even if its premises are one-sided and al- together ignore Arab re- spcinsibilities in p6r- petuating the conflict. When he speaks as a socialist, there is actually nothing overtly anti- Zionist (in the sense of denying Israel's right to exist) in his attitude. It is as a Jew that Kreisky becomes an ostentatious non-Zionist, who uncon- sciously exhibits his own prejudices with regard to Is- rael. Indeed he tends to mention his own Jewish background only in order to defend an anti-Israeli view- point, which in a non-Jew might lead to the suspicion of anti-Semitiim. This was precisely the tactic - he adopted' in the Wiesenthal Affair in order to destroy his opponent's influence. In an interview published in the Beirut daily Al Anwar (Nov. 20, 1975) Kreisky was reported as saying: "I am the only one who can stand up to him be- cause of my Jewish origin. Anybody else trying to stand up to him would im- mediately be accused of being anti-Semitic and against the Jews." Naturally such state- ments are grist for the Arab propaganda mill, which sees in Kreisky one of its most valuable Jewish allies. In the Arab version of the Wiesenthal Affair, Kreisky was, for example, depicted asstriking" a blow for all Austrians against "Zionist" political pressures, intimi- dation, and attempts at de- famation. According to the Arabs, the Zionists attack Kreisky because he - has seen through their efforts to use anti-Nazi witch- hunts as a diversion from their own "fascist" crimes in Palestine against the indigenous population. The Zionists,_ they say, will try to dis- credit any politician who favors "non-racist" and "non-sectarian" co- existence in Palestine. Free Palestine in its De- cember 1975 issue saw the whole Wiesenthal Affair as a Zionist conspiracy to re- move Kreisky from office. It quoted him as follows: "I don't submit to Zionism. I reject it. It is true I am of Jewish origin and that my family is Jewish, but this does not mean I have a special commitment to the Zionist state and the Israelis. I reject that com- pletely." Kreisky added: "When the Zionists ask those of Jewish faith outside Israel to be bound by a special commitment to the state of Israel and to work for it as though they were Israeli citizens, they are adopting a wrong political line which leads to the isolation of these Jewish citizens from their national motherland and leaves them forever iso- lated in their communities." Kreisky concluded: "My family has lived in Austria for hundreds of years. There is nothing which binds me to Israel or to what is called the Je -Tish 'people' or to Zi( nism." It is now over three years since the Wiesenthal Affair was swept under the carpet; one might ask what purpose is served by raking up a seemingly forgotten con- troversy. Yet in the light of more recent events, the af- fair assumes a paradigma- tic dimension that with the passage of time can be seen in sharper -focus. In part Kreisky himsslf has contributed to this by his impetuous statements on the Mideast conflict. In a notorious interview in a Dutch newspaper in Sep- tember 1979, he attacked the Israeli Prime Minister Menahem Begin, in what can only be described as anti-Semitic terms. Accord- ing to the Austrian Chan- cellor, Begin was a "politi- cal grocer," a "little Polish lawyer from Warsaw," whose irresponsibility epitomized the "warped" mentality of Ostjuden. For good measure Kreisky went on to denig- rate Israel as a "police state," and its military capability as a "police state," and its military capability as "only a refined form of banditry." Predicta- bly condemning the "fascist mentality" of the Israeli right, Kreisky also made in- sinuations about creeping "apartheid" in Israel. At the same time he has consistently underlined, the "moderate" creden- tials of the PLO and found every conceivable excuse for Arab ter- rorism. When innocent Israeli civilians were massacred by a PLO death squad on the Tel Aviv highway in March _1978, Kreisky chose to blame Israel's "short- signed policy." While energetically de- fending the cause of Pales- tinian nationalism, he has not failed to point out that Zionism is an artificial, reactionary movement and that the Jews, in his opin- ion, do not constitute a na- tion. The fact that some Is- raeli doves misguidedly sympathize with Kreisky's stance does not make his position any more palata- ble. In short, anti-Zionism has become a popular substitute for the politically unfash- ionable and discredited anti-Semitism -of the fascist eta: Thus, irrespective of his underlying motives, Kreis- ky's attitude can only encourage those who seek to inflame anti-Jewish feel- ing. The Austrian chancellor's emotional antagohism to the Jewish state has helped lend an air of cultured re- spectability to the ravings of those groups whose polit- ical objective is the liquida- tion of Israel. Kreisky may be poles apart from the Soviet Black Hundreds, the pseudo-socialists of the Arab and–Third Worlds, from the Trotskyists, new Leftists, - PLO extremists, Pan-Islamic fanatics, and neo-Nazi fringe-groups on most international issues. But in his militant anti- Zionism, this last surviving representative of _ the Austro-Marxist tradition belongs squarely with the motley crusaders against the - national-liberation movement of the Jewish people.