Found this periodical in a Tel Aviv bookstore yesterday.

Yesterday I visited Halper’s Books in Tel-Aviv and found this periodical at the back of a shelf near the “Shoah” section.

Published in April 1970, it documents Soviet anti-Israel propaganda cartoons published between 1967-1969, primarily after the Six-Day War. It shows how Soviet media weaponized anti-Zionist rhetoric as a vehicle for antisemitism around the same time that the modern Palestinian identity was developing.

Note that the Soviet propaganda portrayed Zionism as "the most insidious threat to the safety and future of progressive mankind—an unremittingly malevolent force that surpasses all others in evil." Also, claims that“Zionism is fascism," that "Jews are taught to believe it is their right to rule over mankind," and that Jewish religion is "characterised by hatred of man, the preaching of genocide."

The cartoons consistently employ Nazi imagery (familiar?), depicting Israelis as Hitler-like figures or wearing swastikas. They portray Israel as a puppet of American and West German "imperialism," show Israeli soldiers as genocidal, and repeatedly use the Star of David in threatening contexts. Many cartoons depict Israeli leaders in collaboration with Nazi figures.

The parallels to contemporary anti-Israel rhetoric are striking. Many of the tropes documented in this 1970 publication are active in the current discourse:

  1. The conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism under the guise of political criticism
  2. The portrayal of Israel as a genocidal, Nazi-like entity
  3. The depiction of Israel as a colonial puppet of Western powers
  4. The use of dehumanizing imagery: snakes, monsters, bloodthirsty creatures à la vampires (like the portrayal of Bibi thousands of times over, but yesterday on the Hamas stage as the most recent exaMPLE)
  5. The portrayal of Israel/Zionism as having outsized global influence
  6. The equation of Zionism with fascism and Nazism

There’s a direct throughline between contemporary anti-Israel rhetoric and propaganda and the Soviet campaign presented here. They also fashioned The Protocols of the Elders of Zion a century before, so it tracks. It’s deliberate Soviet propaganda designed to demonize Israel and Jews. Please share this with people you think need to know.