Buttinsky Syndrome

[bulldogg]

http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/11/24/antisemiticprop.shtml

Russian Chief Rabbi Berl Lazar met this week with Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Dmitri Rogozin, the heads of two Russian nationalist parties that disseminate anti-Semitic propaganda, the Haaretz daily reported Thursday.

During the meeting, Lazar reportedly told Zhirinovsky and Rogozin that many Russian Jews who had immigrated to Israel were now returning, and that this year, more Russian Jews had left Israel than had moved to it.

Zhirinovsky, who serves as deputy speaker of the Russian parliament and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, expressed satisfaction with this, saying: “The Jews are talented people and it’s good that they are returning because they can contribute to Russia’s development.”

Both Zhirinovsky and other members of his party have frequently expressed anti-Semitic views. And Rogozin heads the Rodina (Motherland) Party, several of whose members signed a petition by 500 public figures urging that the Jews be expelled from Russia.

The petition also urged the Russian prosecution to ban dissemination of the Shulchan Aruch, a classic Jewish legal text, claiming that it incites to racism. The prosecution indeed began an investigation into the book, but then closed it under pressure from Israel and Jewish organizations.

Due to such incidents, Israel has long boycotted Zhirinovsky, Rogozin and their parties, so the meetings sparked outrage at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, which said that such encounters only served to boost the nationalist parties.

“Through these meetings, the chief rabbi confers legitimacy on people and parties known for clearly anti-Semitic positions,” said one ministry official.

Following the meeting, a statement on the official Web site of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS, which Lazar heads, declared: “There is common ground. Both sides [the Jews and the nationalist anti-Semites] adopt patriotic positions.”

Officially, the Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the meeting. “The rabbi holds no official Israeli government position, so he is not subordinate to the government’s policy,” said a ministry spokesman.

Off the record, however, ministry officials were furious.

“The rabbi’s obsequious meetings with individuals tainted by blatant anti-Semitism and Russian nationalism arouses anger and disgust,” said one.

“[The meetings] grant them legitimacy and undermine the Israeli government’s policy of rejecting them and avoiding contact with them.”

A spokesman for Lazar, who was in New York on Wednesday, said: “The Foreign Ministry forgets that the rabbi is committed to the well-being of Jews in Russia. The meetings were public and demonstrate the status of the Jews to all the supporters of these parties; moreover, the two leaders with whom he met undertook not to persist with their [anti-Semitic] declarations.”

Maybe I am too simple but Israel really needs to back off and let the people in Russia handle this one. I have grown really sick of the political bull manure about meeting with an opposition group gives them legitimacy. Horse puckey! The people who follow and listen and support them give them legitimacy and if you fail to address them you are simply sticking your head in the sand which leaves your derriere a very easy target for them to nail you in.

Russians are very racist. That's a fact and they have a long history of problems in dealing with the jews in their society. If this Rabbi who has the support of his people in Russia thinks some good can come from meeting with the leaders of these anti-semitic organisations then he should. He and the russian jews he represents MUST live with these people, not the idealists residing in Israel who find it politically expedient to raise their voices from afar.