Evening star., 1952-11-24
Israel and the Prague Trial

After long months of careful preparation
including presumably both refined and unrefined
methods of torturing confessions from the ac-
cused-the Kremlin's puppet Red regime at
Prague is now bringing to climax its "trial" of
IA former leading Czech Communists. In due
course, perhaps before the week is out the guilty
verdictS will be handed down and the "court" will
announce the death sentences, making few if
any exceptions.
All this may be taken for granted For the
"trial"-apparently the biggest yet staged in any
Red satellite land-involves charges of sabotage,
espionage and high treason carried out in vast
conspiracy to overthrow Premier Gottwads
regime and make Czechoslovakia a tool of the
"war-mongering Western imperialists" meaning
particularly the United States One by one, as
they testify before the court" the pre-con-
demned defendants among them former
Foreign Minister Vlado Clements and former
Vice Premier Rudolf Slansky, who year ago was
considered the Kremlins favorite in Prague and
therefore the top boss of the Czech Communists
are abjectly "confessing" their guilt and re-
Wiling themselves as creatures full of boundless
evil. In fact some of them, speaking as if half
dead already are on record as declaring them
selves to be so repulsively criminal that they
should be hanged forthwith
Thus, like similar proceedings staged else
where behind the Iron Curtain in the postwar
years, the trial" at Prague is faithfully following
the pattern first established by the Soviet Union
in the savage blood purges of the mid -193Os. But
now there is highly significant new addition
to that pattern. For this time the Kremlin,
acting through its Czech puppets, seems very
definitely to have adopted an extremely strong
anti-Semitic line. Certainly, mere coincidence
does not account for the fact that slansky and
10 others among the IA defendants are Jews
Indeed, the Gottwald regime has not made the
slightest effort to pretend that anything coin
cldental Is involved. On the contrary, with two
detained Israeli citizens testifying as state wit
nesSes against them, all of the accused are being
prosecuted not only for treason through "Trot-
skyism" and "Titoism," but also-and more i'm
portantly-treason through "Zionism"
That is to say, they are being prosecuted for
participating, according to Slansky's "confes-
sion," in an international Jewish conspiracy"
to support Israel, to re-establish capitalism in
Czechoslovakia and to help Britain and the
United States-especially the latter-to achieve
world domination. This line, of course, serves
many purposes. 1t creates, for one thing, con-
venlent Scapegoat for Czechs resenting the eco
nomlc hard times caused by Soviet policy Fur
ther, 1t acts as cover for phenomenon of Red
totalltarlanlSm-a phenomenon expressing itself
in kind of cannibalism that seems periodically
to impel Communists to devour each other Be-
yond that, the charges at the trial" add addi-
tional fuel to the hate-America campaign But
above all, because of their strong anti-Semitic
and anti-ISraeli nature, they indicate that the
Kremlin is interested in using them principally
for agitation in the Arab states and for increas-
ing tension in the Middle East
1t is small wonder, in the circumstances,
that the people and government of Israel are
watching the Czech proceedings with deep and
anxious interest The event plainly suggests the
possibility of some serious new trouble-making.
Although the Arab leaders are not likely to be
taken in by any Soviet hoax, the tension still
existing in that part of the world is real enough
to require special vigilance against Communist
propaganda of the kind now emanating from
Prague.