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From: meth@csd2.UUCP (Asher Meth)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Soviet Jews
Message-ID: <3780132@csd2.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 30-Jan-86 17:07:00 EST
Article-I.D.: csd2.3780132
Posted: Thu Jan 30 17:07:00 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 6-Feb-86 21:59:23 EST
References: <488@decwrl.DEC.COM>
Organization: New York University
Lines: 47

Sam Cramer writes :
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Asher Meth comments that he has just seen a "A Citizen's Summit" and asks
for more info on the fate of Soviet Jews.  I'd like to throw in a few comments 
on the "Citizen's Summit" and then recommend two books.

"Citizen's Summit":
These sorts of PR extravaganzas infuriate me.  While the Soviets are stamping
out Jewish culture in the USSR and conducting a ruthless war in Afghanistan to
subjugate a people who want nothing more than to be left alone, we hear silver
haired television "personalities" and supposedly humanitarian doctors explain 
that we should learn to live and let live.
-------------------------------------

I am sorry if my comments were taken not as I meant them. The snippets that I
saw convinced me of the farce that was being played to the American audience.
It is the same farce that is played on the news & information media every day,
whether the topic is Soviet Jewry or the situation in the Middle East. The
crescendo is reached when American broadcasters relay to the viewers that they
really believe that all that they are told and that all that they show the
public is the "real thing". Witness the coverage of the war in Lebanon. The
footage of bombed-out cities was years old, showing damage done by the PLO and
other factions, destroying the Lebanese towns & countryside. To tell the truth
would not be exciting and newsworthy. Arafat is shown as a benevolent
politician, kissing babies at every opprtunity; the same babies that he uses as
human shields when he is under attack. It is because of these innocent, human
shields that the terrorists use while carrying out acts of terror that there is
further loss of life on the part of our Israeli brethren. Why ? Because the
value of human life is paramount in the eyes of our people, and for the
terrorists, a person is just another shield, like a concrete wall, a tank of
metal; anything can be used to achieve the "higher" goals of terrorism.

I wonder what the Soviet audience would have answered to the following 
question : how many of you are KGB agents ? how many of you are really telling
the truth ? expressing your own feelings ? what would happen to you if you told
us something about your country, its leaders, and its system that was not
accepted as the party line ? would you be on the next train to Siberia ?
why did the Russian moderator feel it necessary to answer a "tough" question ?
was he afraid that someone in the audience would stumble, and not give the 
party line ?

In response to a Soviet question - have any of you been to our country ? what
do you think of it ? it would have been interesting to hear a soviet emigree',
or someone who has visited refuseniks, or who had been harrassed by the soviet
authorities get up and speak.

Asher Meth ....... meth@nyu-csd2.arpa ....... allegra!cmcl2!csd2!meth