Soviet Anti-Zionist Propaganda and Its Deadly Echoes Today with Izabella Tabarovsky

In one of the most important and timely conversations on our podcast, Izabella Tabarovsky shares her research in tracing the roots of anti-zionism rhetoric to the Soviet Union. Izabella’s article, “Zombie Anti-Zionism” for Tablet magazine shares the striking similarities between today's anti-Israel language and Soviet propaganda from the 1960s to the 1980s, revealing a dangerous connection that many are unaware of. Izabella explains how this rhetoric, which demonizes Zionism and Israel, has been meticulously and expertly transmitted to the West and passionately adopted by the global left. 

We discuss Izabella’s process of tracing the origins of anti-zionism to the communist party of the Soviet Union and cover some of the channels, major players, publications and methods that allowed it to infiltrate American society. Izabella’s research shows the explosive growth of this rhetoric after the 1967 Six day Arab-Israeli war. When Israel won the war, the Soviet Union started to see that there was an Israeli and US alliance, with Zionists firmly aligned with the West against the USSR and its allies. Izabella shares the significant influence of Soviet propaganda, the role of third-world publications, and the geopolitical chess moves that led to the widespread, and highly successful adoption of anti-Zionist rhetoric as a “peace movement”.

Similarly to the discredited and fraudulent Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the anti-zionist rhetoric coming from the modern left, is an echo of Soviet led propaganda that equated zionism with fascism, colonialism, and portrayed zionists as traitors to their homeland. 

If you want to know the historical context of the propaganda around the Israel-Gaza war, and the origins of today’s anti-Israel, anti-zionist movements, do NOT miss this conversation, and please share it with a friend.

 https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/zombie-anti-zionism

(08:26) Why did the Soviets invest such an incredible amount of resources into propaganda

(14:23) More people from the former Soviet Union know about Angela Davis than Americans do

(19:30) Mahmoud M. Abbas and the Soviet Union Connection

(24:21) How Anti zionist language came from the Soviet Union

(31:51) Today's language is even more radical than we had in the seventies and eighties

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Quotes:

"What we hear on college campuses is not criticism, it's demonization of Zionism in Israel."

"The Soviets invested an incredible amount of resources into this propaganda."

"The Soviets had geopolitical interests in targeting Israel, and in targeting Zionism as an ideology."

"So today, essentially, the dividing line is that Zionists are people who believe that Israel has a right to exist."

"The Soviets completely redefined the word Zionism."

"For us, the United States most certainly was a force for good."