FACES AND PLACES: Benefits of CBS scourging (11/13/94)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

Benefits of CBS scourging

CBS officials who met with the Ukrainian American delegation protesting the "60 Minutes" scourging of Ukrainians promised to "investigate" in determine the facts. Give me a break!

CBS already knows the facts. CBS knew the facts when the broadcast was made. Its "investigation" is nothing but a smokescreen, a bone to throw to Ukrainians so that CBS can buy time. If CBS does anything in the future it will be a 15-second mealy-mouthed apology along the lines of "our intention was not to offend anyone, and we hope no one suffered unduly."

Suffered unduly? Every Ukrainian with whom I've spoken has suffered. The pain was written all over their faces. We're all wounded. And that's just the beginning. No one will ever know how many of the 17 million people who watched "60 Minutes" the night of October 23 will make decisions or perpetrate acts that will impact on the life or lives of some Ukrainian(s) somewhere, somehow. It may be on the job or at the university or in a social situation. Their lives may be changed forever. CBS has committed a hate crime against the Ukrainian people,

The question with which I've been wrestling is cui bono (who benefits)? I think I know.

The first to benefit is Russia. CBS effectively put Russia's own anti-Semitism on a back burner. Mr. Zhirinovsky and Pamiat are not an issue as long as Ukraine is experiencing a "rising tide of anti-Semitism."

Those in the U.S. State Department who want Ukraine back in Russia's pocket also benefit. They can now argue that an independent Ukrainian state is not only dangerous militarily (we still have nukes) but politically. As a California Heritage headline proclaimed on November 4, "Nazis March to Wide Acclaim in Ukraine."

The CBS broadcast also helped resurrect that discredited dinosaur Simon Wiesenthal. His efforts to paint members of the SS Division "Galicia" as Jew-killers failed miserably in Canada, and he needed this broadcast to restore both his credibility and his stature. It is interesting that Mr. Wiesenthal, who admitted to Julian Kulas that his life was saved by a Ukrainian, has yet to admit that most of the information he's been peddling about Ukrainians over the years - he once declared that Ukrainians were worse than Germans in the destruction of Jews originated with the KGB. We'll be hearing more from Mr. Wiesenthal in the future, you can be sure of that.

Another group of beneficiaries of the CBS broadcast are those Ukrainian and Russian Jews who have developed a network of illegal activity in Ukraine. Who would dare go after them now? Who could dare to even mention that fact now that Morley Safer said there are Ukrainians who "blame the Jews for Ukraine's current economic condition." We all know that a mafia exists in Ukraine and Jews are involved, perhaps as much as Ukrainians and Russians.

The Office of Special Investigations (OSI) benefits as well. Discredited by both an appeals court for perpetrating fraud against the innocent and the Supreme Court, which refused to hear their arguments, the OSI has its raison d' etre renewed by Mr. Safer.

The CBS scourging of Ukraine has also made it easier for America's institutional Jewry to approach the State Department and demand refugee status for Ukrainian Jews who wish to emigrate. Mr. Safer told 17 million Americans that "the message is clear to Lvov's (sic) Jews. They're leaving as quickly as they can get exit permits."

The "Jewish institution" that benefits most, of course, is David Roth and "Project Ukraine." As David explained to us in his October 30 interview in The Ukrainian Weekly, "We are in Ukraine for several reasons. First, we want to strengthen the ability of the local Jewish leadership to battle anti-Semitism...We are working with the local Jewish leadership in Ukraine to strengthen their ability to deal with the government, to position themselves honorably as culturally distinct citizens of the land, and to battle anti-Semitism." No anti-Semitism. No funding. No Project Ukraine!

David Roth's self-serving comments in the wake of the CBS broadcast is more than a mere disappointment. It's a calamity. Here is a man who has worked with Ukrainian Americans formally and informally for almost 30 years. Here is a man who has enjoyed uncurtailed access to our press to our community and to our leadership. Here is a man who has been given countless books and articles about Ukraine and Ukrainians here is a man who travels to Ukraine regularly, who meets with Jewish and Ukrainian leaders over there, who has developed a "project" to help Ukrainian Jews. And what does he tell us after all of that? "We take seriously charges of anti-Semitism that are brought anywhere." If someone like David Roth can say that after all of the years he has spent dealing with us, then what hope does our community have of convincing other Jews that we are not "genetically anti-Semitic"?

I understand that a meeting has been planned between the institutional Jewish leadership and President Leonid Kuchma during the president's visit to the United States. If I were President Kuchma, I would refuse to meet with any Jewish leader who has not unequivocally repudiated the scurrilous CBS attack on Ukraine. Thus far, the only Jew that qualifies for a meeting with President Kuchma is Rabbi Lincoln.

I would also suggest that our Ukrainian leaders refuse to dialogue with any Jewish leaders whose organization hasn't condemned CBS for its defamatory treatment of our people. Our community has been trying to convince the Jewish American leadership of our good intentions for decades. We've issued joint proclamations. We've bent over backwards and what has it gotten us? Has any Jewish newspaper afforded us the kind of coverage that David Roth gets in our press regularly? Has any Jewish newspaper provided the kind of coverage to Project Ukraine that The Ukrainian Weekly has offered? Did any Jewish reporter accompany David on his last trip Ukraine? Has any Jewish organization offered its facilities for a mass meeting with their people on the order of the kind David Roth and other Jewish leaders have enjoyed in our community?

We Ukrainians need to stop trying to please Jews. We Ukrainians need to stop trying to convince Jews of our good intentions and of the fact that our history has been distorted. We Ukrainians need to realize that for many Jewish leaders, it doesn't matter what we say or do. They will cling to their biases and their prejudices because to do so brings great benefits.

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