Evening star., 1949-02-21
Russians Seen Takinu
Control Of Orthodox
Church in Israel
By George Weller
Foreign Correspondent Of The stor and
the Chieaae Dolly News

the Chicago Dolly News
ROME, Italy, Feb. 21.-While
the democratic powers were roar
ing protests over the Communist
inquisition in Hungary and Bull
garia, the Soviet Union was using
the opportunity to steal for itself
another safe. easy victory in the
Middle East.
AT the very moment Cardinal
Mindszenty was facing his ac-
cusers, Russian priest, safe be-
hind the blur of the Balkan smoke
screen, was taking over the. valu-
able properties of the Orthodox
Church in Palestine. =.
Moreover. the theft, obscured by
Middle East censorship, was so
deftly managed that it passed al
most unnoticed, except here in
Italy.
The entire Communist anti
church offensive in Hungary and
! Bulgaria was timed, it Is recog-
nized here, as diversion to draw
attention away from Russia's own
capture of the Orthodox churches
and monasteries In strategic Pales-
tine.
The capture gives Moscow two
main conduits instead of only one
to pipe more Communism into
the state of Israel and broaden
Moscow's new Mediterranean foot
hold.
Patriarch Had Key Role.
The political conduit is in Is
rael's traffic of dollar-purchased
arms from the Communist Skoda
plant in Czechoslovakia, and in
the Isreali governments amnesty
granted last week to members OIL
the Communist-controlled Stern
gang and its leaders.
The religious conduit, which is
new. is the Orthodox Church,
which until last week was free of
Soviet control.
Here is how the Soviets tricked
the Western powers once more,
hooking their second foothold in
Palestine while America was glow
ering over the Balkan fence at
Hungary:
The Orthodox Church is split
roughly between its Greek clergy,
few and pro-democratic. and its
Slavic clergy, who are more num-
erous and largely pro-Russian.
In the Balkan satellite countries
the Orthodox Church is protected
as an arm of Moscow's power, not
prosecuted. In Bulgaria the ma
tional archbishop Is on the Com
munist government payroll.
Prime Minister Stains instru-
ment is the pliable Patriarch
Alexis Of Moscow. He sent Alexis
on foresighted tour of the Pal
estine missions in 1945, before
the cold war began. Alexis mis-
sion was to spearhead the effort
to recover old czarist rights in
the Holy Land. 4
Protector of Orthodoxy"
Under the cars Russia had
been the protector Of. Christian
orthodoxy" in the Middle East, |
by the same right as France was |
protector of Christian Catnnli-
; eiSm." Having t&ken bacl atl
Yalta more than the car q en1-
pire in the Far East. Mr.. Stain |
set out to duplicate the trick in
the Middle East, using the church
as an entering wed4e q
In the Middle East. however.
the hard-headed British and /
French rather than the Alneri-3
cans stood in his way. The Brit |
ish Army held Palestine and the
French the Levant-Lebanon and
Syria.
The French fumbled their Arab
relations and stumbled into CO.
, lonial war and finally into re-
treat. The British were gunned
out of Palestine by Zionist forces
financed by United States SYM
pathizers. With Israels birth
the coast became clear for the
Soviet, and only the matter of
timing the clerical coup remained
uncertain.
The Orthodox churches and
monasteries in the Holy Land,
worth tens Of millions Of dollars.
were under the custodianship of
the Archimandrite Anthony. For
IS years they had been held by
White Russian Prelates, but there
was a disposition to meet halfway
mfr. Stains seeming wish to toll
crate religion. When the Stalin-
ist patriarch toured the Middle
East, the Palestine custodian rec
ognixed his authority.
Moscow PreIate Sent.
!. The break came when the Pal