; 10 friday,ly 22, 1983 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Author Says Success of Israel Embassy Led to Stalin Attack on Jews Moscow from 1949 to 1955, says in a recent memoir that the success of the Israel Embassy in Moscow was one of the reasons which prompted Stalin to a de- mented attack against Soviet Jews. In his book, "A Journey for Our Times" (Harper and Row), an autobiographical account of his experiences in the Soviet capital, Salis- TORONTO (JTA) — Har- rison Salisbury, former na- tional editor of The New York Times and correspon- dent'for that newspaper in CALL H.M.H.F. LOWEST FARES EVERYWHERE 557-4422 NORTHERN MICHIGAN AIR CHARTERS save up to 1/3 off on airline rates .Traverse City .Charlevoix .Harbor Springs • Mackinac Island FAA Certified Air Carrier PRECISION AIR INC. LARRY SIMS AIRLINE TRANSPORT PILOT (313) 360-1882, 642-9473 OAKLAND PONTIAC AIRPORT PONTIAC, MICHIGAN NOBODY KNOWS BROADWAIr LIKE - NEDERLANDER! wwf *whim ve tdedikd Arlaft 19 u s w 6 40 0 "CATs • 8/1gWg.r. M et/ A. p r $389 GREE. , 599 r. Plus low low prices to: $429 ISRAEL $629 Ille Way rued trip $ NO way rood trip NEOERLANDER TRAVEL CORPORATION • (3131540-0440 30300 telegraph Rd.. Sul e 143. Birmingham hactiman AkriCI Daily 8 a.m.-7 p.m. • Sat. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. • Sun. 11 ..m.-4 p.m. bury reveals that the Israel Embassy was the envy of all other legations. "The quality of the Mos- cow diplomatic corps was not high. Expertise at the American Embassy after (George) Kennan's forced withdrawal was thin .. . The extraordinary skills of the Israelis would soon be last," Salisbury writes. "They had staffed their mission with Russian- born, Russian-speaking diplomats. They had unrivaled access to friends, relatives, co- religionists — one reason, I thought why, Stalin de- veloped such paranoia about them." Salisbury says that when Golda Meir took up her posi- tion as Israel's Ambassador in the Soviet capital in 1948 long lines of Jews queued up outside the Metropol Hotel in order to shake hands with her. "That exhibition in cen- tral Moscow within sight of the Lubyanka (prison) hit Stalin's anti-Semitic nerve and may have touched off the cosmopolitanism drive. In an indirect way, it may have caused Stalin to decree the deaths of the members of the Jewish anti-Fascist Committee," Salisbury says. He also writes about other developments that led to attacks against Jews and Israel at the time. Salisbury While he was not aware at that time what had hap- pened to the Jewish intel- ligentsia, Salisbury reports that a major staple of Mos- cow talk consisted of anti- Semitic jokes. In , his memoir, Salisbury records some of those anti-Jewish stories and recalls that on a number of occasions he chided his Russian friends for engaging in such ariti- Semitic banter. JOSEF STALIN says that during the hal- cyon days of Israel-Soviet relations Jaffa orange were being sold in Moscow for the equivalent of $5 each in local stores. Muscovites attributed the availability of the Is- raeli citrus to Anastas Mikoyan, the Soviet minister responsible for food imports. Rumor had it, says Salisbury, that the Russians had paid Israel a penny-and-a-half for each orange, the result- ing profit going directly into Kremlin coffers. Salisbury recounts that on his arrival in the Soviet capital in 1949 he found the city under a siege mental- ity. Western diplomats were virtually under house ar- rest in their embassy corn- pounds. Soviet citizens, with rare exception, were petrified to be seen talking to Westerners. JUNKETS! JUNKETS! FOR QUALIFIED PLAYERS VEGAS, TAHOE, Alt. CITY, ETC. 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Cetnor Jim Jones, Designer skandia Landscaping 476-1735 american association of nurserymen 800 - 327-8165 Entire Oceanfront Block 37th to 38th Sts MIAMI BEACH Phone 13051531 0061 SAM SCHECHTER Owner Mgmt y INSTANT COLOR PASSPORTS ID. & VISA PHOTOS PROFESSIONAL PORTRAIT LIGHTING 352-7030 LEO KNIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY 26571 W. 12 Mile Rd. Caw Netwestent Hwy. The response was always the same, says Salisbury. After telling the most nauseating anti-Jewish stories, they would, upon being challenged by him, insist that there was no such thing as anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union because it had been officially banned in the Soviet Constitution. By referring to notes he made during his almost six-year stint in Moscow, Salisbury is able to re- construct the atmos- phere of hysteria which was circulating in Russia in the years before Sta- lin's death. One of the elements in that hysteria was the report of eco- nomic crimes found in Soviet newspapers. The perpetrators were identifiably Jewish in each case. He cites one news- paper account of the sum- mary execution of three Jews reported in the Soviet press in 1950. Their names gave them away. The death penalty was the talk of the town because it was un- precedented. Salisbury says that Sta- lin's wild accusations against Jewish physicians (later retracted under Khrushchev) were widely accepted as true by the Soviet people. During the early 1950's Salisbury had occasion to visit friends in a Moscow hospital and he re- calls the vicious conversa- tions he heard in that in- stitution about the wicked- ness of Jewish physicians. Kissinger Chosen to -Head Panel on Central America WASHINGTON — Former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger was chosen this week by President Reagan to head a bipartisan commission to deal with recent problems in Central America. The President said the ob- jective of the panel would be to examine underlying problems and define a long- term approach for the United Staes and its rela- tions with Latin American countries. The appointment of Kis- singer to head the panel is not without controversy, the New York Times re- ported. The former secre- tary of state and national security adviser has, until recently, been rather cool in his relations with the cur- rent Administration. The Times cited Reagan's criti- cism of Kissinger's policies during the 1976 President- ial election campaign as one reason for the strained rela- tions between the President and Kissinger. Recently, however, Kis- singer has been an occa- sional ,visitor at the White House and has had lunch from time to time with the President, the Times re- ported. Report Shamir Held Secret Parley With African Official JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli sources are dis- couraging speculation that "dramatic developments" are imminent in Israel's re- lations with some African countries. The speculation followed an exclusive report in Maariv last Friday that Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir held a secret meet- ing in Europe last week with a prominent African statesman from a country which does not have dip- lomatic ties with Israel. The Foreign Ministry is not prepared to acknowl- edge any such meeting and did not react to the report. Shamir returned to Israel Friday afternoon. The informed sources said Shamir met with more than one African envoy, though they would not say with whom. They said he dis- cussed "bilateral relations between Israel and a number of African countries — among them some that do and some that do not have diplomatie ties with Israel." Israel has ties with Zaire, Malawi, Lesotho and Swazi- land, and with South Africa. Red Cross Visits POWs GENEVA (JTA) — Representatives of the Red Cross visited the six Israeli prisoners of war held by the Palestine Liberation organ- ization in Lebanon last week. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that the visit took place last Friday and the POWs were found in good condition. According to the ICRC, the visit was conducted under its regulations. The POWs were able to speak freely with the Red Cross representatives without witnesses present. The delegation included a doc- tor. Syria holds three Israeli POWs who are visited by the Red Cross regularly every three weeks. But two Israelis held by Ahmed fib- ril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine- General Command have been visited only once, early last May.