if you very much listen to you. want to bring.

in. the truth. in israel.

headlines. influential figures using their connections to prosecution. with the. complex money problems facing the country. i swap since the cold war it works changed in vienna the summer before spies held by moscow. following comments from former u.s. president bill clinton that slammed russian immigrants in israel for being an

obstacle to peace with the palestinians off talks to mark levin from the national conference on soviet jewry about the diaspora and how it responded to the accusation spotlight is coming your way next here on r.t. . hello again and welcome to spotlight and today my guest in the studio is mark levin . the recent verbal attacks on the immigrant jews by former american president bill clinton have added to the rising nationalist divide in israel he accused them of

not willing to find common ground with palestinians that bring peace talks in the middle east what do the serbian born jews have to answer here is mark levin executive director of and c s j which advocates on behalf of jews in russia ukraine the baltic states and. the world appears to be fostering a more tolerant attitude towards jews and vice versa the new exhibition in berlin on hitler and his power over the german people has been welcomed by the country's jewish community they see it as an important step to a greater understanding of the holocaust but in israel itself nationalist feelings are on the rise and saw the born jews are often blamed for this foreign minister avigdor lieberman was born in ukraine. buffed the pacifist tone of a recent european delegation he told them to settle conflicts in europe first before advising israel how to deal with the palestinians.

as levin thank you for being with us well first of all we're a news channel so i want to start with the where were the news related subject which is this first ever exit ad of head that that has opened germany's the first ever post war submission of this kind it's in the national history museum germany the jews org. as ation have always been very sensitive to such things and as far as i've heard today the jewish organizations in germany have already protested against this exhibit how insulted do you think these things that are well i think it's of great concern. i haven't seen the exhibition so i can't comment comment on on it first the personal belongings mostly personal

belongings of it all federally i don't think at this time in in the world today it often needs to be commemorated in any fashion whether it's by museum or any other entity but where is where is the line between between not getting between history historical facts and the commemoration as he put it but i think that the there is a distinction between learning from the lessons of the past and commemorating commemorating what most of the world considers one of the worst tragedies in twentieth century history. do you think that this exhibition as some people would say i quote can true violence a tear in the eyes of young germans i hope not i hope that. that those who. whose responsibility is to remind people of.

the horrible mistakes that were made don't trivialize or don't. reduce it to. almost a comic book ok another another a news connected with they with not forgetting or commemorating have the germans in the second world war was the recent visit of the of the german president to russia had he visited the german central. german soldiers and he laid flowers and this was. the press tried to think if it was an official act a symbolic act or just a personal act and they came to a conclusion that it looked rather official and rather symbolic and a large percentage of russians according to the recent polls felt insulted by a german president coming to moscow and laying flowers to to to to the nazi and

nazi and had nazis and seventy here do you think that was the right thing to do well i think what's important is that the germans and russians over the last sixty years have tried very hard to normalize relations and have come a long way in doing that. but i think that the. this would be you know something that obviously was discussed of time with their russian counterparts and the. must of been accepted by sure it should know the russian about equally there was nothing wrong of course and the foreign ministry the the for the winter when these things but but. what i want to now is do you think that do you think that the. like a. large percentage of the russian people who felt that this was insulting do you did all the right things to be there to feel insulted by such things or or they

should like like we say swallow it and say well no no i don't think it's either or . and unfortunately millions and millions of of people lost their lives. including awards number of of germans and i just think it was again not knowing of the event itself i think it was were just your own who support you nothing more ok only. i've. always thought and i was taught this way that germany is one of the most or maybe even the most anti fascists anti nazi country in the world today according to laws according to public opinion but here is the recent recent polls that say that according to these surveys one third of germans would send foreigners back home if there weren't enough jobs do you think that this shows the the really the

far right attitudes are are on the rise that there may be a risk of the rise of the far right and maybe even now a knight says but i think i think one of the great challenges in the world today is to combat rising gnash ultranationalist amusin a phobia an extreme stream of them around the world it's something that my organization is very concerned about in this particular religion in fact not only in germany or not all of these so there unfortunately whether it's because of economic or political reasons. the extreme elements of the political spectrum seem to be gaining ground is it done on purpose by certain politicians or do you think it's like a like a reaction of the public to difficulties and stuff you're asking a chicken egg or in the end. and in this case. the two

handed economists that it's both of it's both ok now another survey another survey in germany says that one six out of the germans think that jews have too much influence do you feel that jews have too much influence and do you think that this result shows that also not only is in a phobia but also anti-semitism is undermined so i should have mentioned at the summit which has been a growing problem for a number. of years and it's something that the united states government russian government and others have focused a considerable amount of attention on and i would hope i would hope that through education through the implementation of appropriate legislation and learning what learning the moral lessons of the past would counter the ability of

extremist views from taking hold but this is really have anything to do with the real amount of influence the speech community has i'm not now absolutely not that's then what's the reason why you should have been thinking about the reasons of this rise of wealth and unfortunately anti semitism has been a part of life for for centuries for for for longer and. the jewish the jewish people unfortunately have been scapegoats for any and a number of tyrants and dictators and and others we are a small people. in the global village and we i think that we are given far too much credit. for for the successes as well as the failure of. of different issues well small but pretty influential he she should have made

that the jewish lobby is very influential all around the world not only in america where everyone has bad but the other countries too. you know i smile when and when i hear the jewish lobby because it really isn't a jewish lobby it's organisations and individuals who are exercising their rights as citizens in the united states and elsewhere to make their voices heard and if in some cases we're able to get our. you point across i think it's because we are able to to argue the merits of the case so so so you don't you know what you're saying is that you you deny an existence of a jewish lobby at all and there's no such thing and you're making it sound sinister online i don't like but this doesn't i mean this is what it was about even the american papers are writing this this is the result of the are obtuse lobbying on

a device but it's put in that context you know you're it could be it could be that health care law be or the us or the educational or. you know on issues of concern to the american jewish community we are well organized i think we could do a very good job of presenting our side of the argument and have been able to gain the support of our elected officials and depending on the issue you know we reflect the views of the majority of americans nothing nothing unusual muffy outlandish but still you say that that opera the anti semitic problems today and even in the united states. despite then flew despite of your organization despite the ability to fight back and stuff you yes that it and there is there are two trends two types of anti-semitism prevalent today one is the

traditional and the semitism that has existed for centuries and will and what we what some have referred to is the doing it the same and to some which tries to demonize and deal with. the jewish people in the state of israel says mark eleven ad executive director and see as j. which advocates often jews in russia ukraine the. states and your asia spotlight will be back shortly right after a break so stay with us we'll continue this interview in less than a minute. wealthy

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welcome back to spotlight. in just a reminder that my guest in the studio today is mark b. eleven executive director and see as jay which advocates for jews in russia ukraine the baltic states and other countries on the continent. mark for more than twenty years russian jews had no problem with immigration from this country from russia but it was. your organization that lobbied the jackson valley commandment in the seventy's and it was it was

a restriction on trade with russia until the soviet union allows jews to emigrate freely so what do you do to repeal this amendment today or did you do anything absolutely. we like to say that countries should be removed or graduated from the amendment and for the last eight and a half years and c s j has been on record in support of the russian federation's graduation from the jackson family commitment. have all the other former soviet republics been for this amendment you know there are only i believe only four have been removed from the amendment i think ukraine was removed strain georgia the kurds republican armenia and the rest are still there yes including the baltics know that all the. the baltics were removed with the dissolution of the so now they're hearing and because the united states never record they said the soviet

takeover of the better ok well let's take a look at what the jets nevada commandment is all about in a report by spotlights you lend me that. between one thousand nine hundred seventy five and the collapse of the u.s.s.r. in one thousand nine hundred ninety one half a million soviet so left the united states and twice as many immigrated to israel there were many more who wanted to leave and get in and that is it these are was not simple one of the obstacles was the so-called diploma tax introduced in one thousand seven hundred two it meant before getting permission to leave you had to compensate the state for the higher education you received in the u.s.s.r. the sum was astronomical one hundred times the average salary and although the diploma tax did not exist for long it wasn't enough to cause international protests to pressure the soviet union to. immigration the jackson then a commandment was adopted in the u.s. it puts certain limitations on trade relations with the soviet union while the fact

of checks and then again on the soviet union is questionable it does affect morning relations between russia and the us although since nine hundred eighty nine the amendment has been regularly waved it's still in force now after the collapse of the soviet union russia sees it as unjustifiable trade discrimination standing in the way of its accession to the w d o china was also subject to jacksonville and it but it was removed from the legislation more than ten years ago. so mark. there should be political forces in the us who support this chest and i commend the good because whoever asks including you say we are fighting against it would think we think it makes no sense with think if it happened as trade relations between the countries the business says no we don't want it so that who does well we we say that the russian

federation has fulfilled the requirements of the amendment and that should be recognized that it should be seen in a positive light and therefore the amendment should no longer apply to russia there are a number of organizations. entities who continue to oppose russia's graduation for a variety of reasons including the what they see as broad base human rights violations and questions about russia's commitment to democracy in addition there are means certain parts of the american business community community who believe that russia should be removed until all of the negotiations for the. beauty of membership have been completed but i think the removal of this of

this amendment is there will will go automatically with russian inclusion w t o they can con co-exists know. it well not know what will happen with the accession to. all the members of the w two will enjoy. the trade benefits with russia except the united states until the human rights no longer apply to russia ok ok now another thing in the end of the subject we always talk about intelligence we've talked about germany we've talked about xenophobia and semitism but what about israel itself would you agree to what many people write today in the press in this country that that this phobia is taking hold of the israeli society itself how would you explain the right wing shift in israeli politics i think israel's one of the most open democratic

countries in the world today and the accusations about it. being extreme of society are way off the mark so you don't see any warning signs in israel. that israel you know many other democratic countries in the world is different. no have. they have the ability to see political shifts take place over time but they never see you know what but the political shifts go center left or center right i don't see an extremist element taking hold in israel today well actually president bill clinton former u.s. leader he does see. signs of the rise of the n.f.l. we have in israel and here's how he tries to explain it. an increasing number

of the young people in the israel defense force are the children of russians and settlers the hardest core people against a division of the land. this presents a staggering problem it's a different israel sixteen percent of israelis speak russian. would you agree that israelis of russian and soviet origin are really less tolerant than the rest of the jews absolutely not i think that. israelis of russian origin may be more on the on the conservative side of the political spectrum but i don't think they're any less the less tolerant and i think having had the privilege of working with president clinton in his administration for eight years on these types of issues i suspect that his words and not by you but the original report may have been just misinterpreted or misunderstood

right out of the context and maybe out of him because this quote was all over the person not only or something a lot of the absolutely but i think i think the point president clinton may have been making is where where are the israelis of russian origin stand today in political life and nothing more who maybe maybe what he means i'm just suggesting is that is that the russians who came to israel to live for good they want to be as the french say. at least clear what i mean more and more jewish that the jews know i think. that for many israelis of russian origin who came particularly in the sixty's seventy's and eighty's they have a healthy skepticism of. of too much government influence. and believe in

a strong national defense. mark do you happen to. perform a sliver of men in the finest i've had the opportunity to hear him speak. and i have met him on a couple of occasions but i want to know him but yeah ok well he has a russian origin and it and some. commentators describe him as the as the aggressive as the right just face of israel would you agree to just such a suggestion i think he has very strong views that he articulates in a very strong fashion and. and again in a free society he is able to express his views and try to gain support for for those years and and having been elected as part of the majority coalition in the

government has obviously convinced enough people to support him. as a person who worked with bill clinton you may agree that after all of the bad my distraction came to power the. relations between washington and jerusalem have become tel aviv have become well less less war a month sort of a chill is there would you agree to that not today not today i think that both governments have made up for it's too. late to improve the relationship and have done so and in fact i continue to believe that the united states remains is one of israel's if not israel strongest advocates but this what's happening from for a period of time is not true i think i think there was a difference of opinion in. several. in several areas

and. as allies they work through those differences i don't know whether it's a relative or friend a business associate i don't know of anyone who is always one hundred percent together. ok ok thank you thank you very much for being with us it was a pleasure talking to our thanks to you it's the it was my pleasure to be here thank status and just to remind that my guest in the studio today was mark levin executive director of and see as jay which advocates on behalf of jews in russia ukraine the baltic states and europe asia and that's often after all of us here if you want to have your say on spotlight we have someone in mind do you think i should get to you next time please drop me a line at al green of at r.t. t.v. dot are you and let's keep spotlight interactive it will be back with more first our comments on the what's going on in and outside russia until then stay on r.t.

and take it thank you thank you. hungry for the full story we've got it for us the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers. in. the. mood.