Lapel Diplomacy

As he and his wife were leaving Moscow's avant-garde Taganka Theater one night last week, Robie M.H. Palmer, a U.S. Embassy second secretary, ran into an unexpected performance on the street. Three middle-aged men blocked his path. "How would you like to be treated the way Zionist thugs treat our diplomats in America?" one of them demanded. "How would you like to have your car destroyed by demonstrators who are not under control?" When Palmer turned and tried to get into his car, one of the men seized him by the lapels. After some more tense moments of talk, the three shook Palmer's hand, smiled, and then walked away into the night.

Next day, Erastus Corning, Pan American's manager in Moscow, was accosted on the street in much the same manner; later, three other U.S. embassy officials got the treatment. One diplomat discovered the windshield of his parked car bashed in, another found his auto's tires slashed. Still others received vaguely threatening phone calls--on unlisted numbers that could only have been obtained through the Soviet government.

Moscow's lapel diplomacy was a reaction to anti-Soviet demonstrations by U.S. Jews, and particularly by the militants of the 1,000-member Jewish Defense League of New York, which has been waging a campaign of terror against Soviet citizens and institutions in the U.S. The J.D.L. is protesting the Kremlin's crackdown on the 40,000 Soviet Jews (out of 3,500,000) who have indicated a desire to go to Israel. The league is credited with actions ranging from the loosing of mice in a Philadelphia theater during a performance by the Moiseyev dancers to bombings of Aeroflot and Intourist offices in Manhattan.

The J.D.L. escalated its campaign after the recent Leningrad trial, which threatens to be the first in a long series aimed at Soviet Jews. The Leningrad court sentenced nine Jews and two Gentiles to long prison terms for plotting to hijack a Russian plane in order to flee to Israel; two of the Jews were sentenced to death, but the Soviet Supreme Court commuted the sentences. Last week Army Major Vulf Zalmanson, a Jewish officer accused in the same hijack plot, was sentenced to ten years by a court-martial. Protesting the trials in a series of rowdy demonstrations outside the Soviet United Nations Mission in Manhattan, J.D.L. fanatics warned that "no Russian is safe in New York."

Connivance Charge. The Soviets responded by ordering Washington Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin formally to protest U.S. "connivance" in the incidents; the protest also implied a threat, unprecedented in Soviet-American diplomacy, that the 400-odd American businessmen, officials and students in Moscow might be given a retaliatory taste of the same thing. Though Dobrynin, an able diplomat, managed to leave the impression that he personally considered the "connivance" charge to be nonsense, his pronouncement was the cue for the baiting of Americans in Moscow. Even as Russian agents were bullying Americans on the streets, "factory workers" and other groups bearing anti-U.S. protests beat a path to the U.S. embassy.

At week's end U.S. Ambassador Jacob Beam met Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko to protest the officially sanctioned harassment. Less than two hours before the meeting, however, a bomb explosion blew out several windows and a heavy steel door at the yellow brick building that houses the Soviet embassy's cultural and trade affairs section in Washington. The State Department quickly expressed its regrets for the bombing, which again was apparently the work of Jewish militants.

Selected Leaks. By focusing so much attention on their antics, the militants may be serving Moscow better than they are serving the beleaguered Soviet Jews. The Kremlin is desperately trying to divert attention from Leningrad. As part of that effort, Moscow two weeks ago leaked letters to President Nixon from 24 Soviet scientists and artists urging fair treatment for Angela Davis (see THE NATION). Of course, the Russians said nothing at all about a missive that was sent by Andrei Sakharov, father of the Soviet H-bomb, not only to Nixon but also to Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny. Sakharov's letter asked for justice for Angela, but it also urged the Kremlin to heed "the legitimate right of thousands of Jews who wish to leave the country."

Despite Moscow's efforts to cloud the Jewish issue, worldwide indignation over Leningrad continued to run strong. The big Communist parties in France and Italy kept up their sharp criticism of the trials. Protesters massed at the Russian embassy in London. In Copenhagen, Danish Jews trooped up to the Soviet embassy carrying petitions with 10,000 signatures. Their reception was predictable. A Russian diplomat shouted "Go to hell," and bolted the door.

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