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In a Special Report, U.S. Denounces ‘More than a Century of Russian Antisemitism’
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Photo: Reuters/Maxim Shemetov
i24 News – On the eve of the International Holocaust Memorial Day, the U.S. State Department published a report on an issue that has deep historical links to the mass murder of Jews by the Nazi regime: the antisemitic conspiracy theories issuing out of Russia for over a century, including those that helped ignite the murderous Nazi obsession.
.@EinatWilf: Equating Israel and the star of David with colonialism, racism, Nazism, apartheid etc and then laundering the libels through international instutitions is an old Soviet strategy that has deep continuities with the antisemitic fabrications produced by Tzarist Russia. pic.twitter.com/LvU2vc2TAO
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) January 11, 2024
“For over a century, Tsarist, Soviet and now Russian Federation authorities have used antisemitism to discredit, divide, and weaken their perceived adversaries at home and abroad,” the report’s executive summary opened, pointing to the rarely interrupted continuity between the Tzarist regime that produced the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the Soviet Union’s “anti-Zionist” propaganda campaigns and the rhetoric of Vladimir Putin’s government.
Mahmoud Abbas’s long record of Holocaust denial & distortion relies on age-old tropes. Yet the conspiracy’s modern day iteration, where ‘Jew’ is swapped for ‘Zionist,’ hails from Soviet Russia, couched in a language progressives find irresistible, @IzaTabaro tells @laura_i24: pic.twitter.com/O4NQaiRkYT
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) November 20, 2023
“Today, Kremlin officials and Russia’s state-run or state-controlled media spread conspiracy theories, fueling antisemitism intended to deceive the world about its war against Ukraine. These tactics build on a long tradition of exploiting antisemitism to create division and discontent,” the report reads.
A chapter in that dark history that remains uniquely pertinent today is the Soviet demonization of the world’s only Jewish state, which took gained momentum following the defeat of Soviet client states Egypt and Syria in the Six Day War of 1967 against Israel. An entire pseudo-academic discipline — known as “Zionology” — was forged, devoted to rebranding an ancient hatred in a way that would make it palatable to the progressive left.
Unbeknown to the dimwits who recite it today, leftist word salad re ‘imperialist Nazi Zionist colonizers’ is lifted wholesale, with virtually no innovations, from a deeply sinister Soviet propaganda campaign shot through with the basest antisemitism, @IzaTabaro tells @laura_i24 pic.twitter.com/hjVFOfiCkL
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) December 18, 2023
“During the 1960s-1980s, the Committee for State Security (KGB) implemented several antisemitic active measures, a Soviet term for covert influence operations, to discredit its perceived adversaries — the Catholic Church, West Germany, the United States — as antisemitic,” the State Department report reads. “The KGB also targeted the Zionist movement and Soviet Jewish dissidents.”
According to writer Dara Horn, “The Soviet Union thus pioneered a versatile gaslighting slogan, which it later spread through its client states in the developing world and which remains popular today: it was not antisemitic, merely anti-Zionist.”
The premier expert on the topic today is Soviet-born U.S.-Israeli historian Izabella Tabarovsky, who has shown in great detail the pertinence of the propaganda tropes spread by a long-dead regime to current events. One prominent example is Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a leader with a long record of minimizing, inverting or outright denying the Holocaust; his PhD from Moscow is a vital clue for understanding the kind of antisemitic rhetoric that thrives in Palestinian society, Tabarovsky argues.
When the Palestinian Authority issued a statement denying the Hamas massacre, the parallels with its president’s rich record of Holocaust denial jumped out. The Soviet origins of Abbas’s lies merit closer scrutiny, @IzaTabaro tells @laura_i24: https://t.co/T68s2WHqJV pic.twitter.com/GFkjlcPedv
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) November 21, 2023
Today much of the Kremlin’s antisemitic propaganda targets Ukraine and its leader, often through bizarre insinuations, such as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s reference to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler’s alleged Jewish heritage.
“The Kremlin falsely portrays Ukraine and its supporters as Nazis, antisemites and Russophobes, demonizes Ukraine’s Jewish president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, accuses Jews of being the worst Nazis, and manipulates the history of the Holocaust for political purposes,” the State Department report states.
The post In a Special Report, U.S. Denounces ‘More than a Century of Russian Antisemitism’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.