Pravda and Anti Semitism

"Regardless of how it all ends, (the revolts in Tunisia and Egypt) they have exposed the fallacies of Israel as never before. What is at stake is the fallacy that Israel is a stable, civilised western island in the stormy sea of barbarism and Arab Islamic fanaticism. The "danger" for Israel is that the mapping is the same, but the geography changes. The country would still be an island, but of barbarity and fanaticism in a sea of democratic and egalitarian States recently formed."

The extraordinary text above appeared in Pravda two days ago (Feb 19 2011) under the heading "The Israeli Fallacy is Over".
 
Whilst Pravda might be the most inappropriately named news service in existence (the name means "Truth"), it is still highly worrying that any editorial board could allow such rhetoric. I happen to agree that the changes we are seeing in the Arab world will present Israel with serious challenges: states such as Israel need enemies in order to justify certain types of behaviour. It will also be interesting to see if Israel is able to adopt a more benevolent attitude to its neighbours once they embrace democracy, albeit in a different form to that which we in the west take for granted.
 
Pravda, however, seem to have adopted something of a Julius Streicher posture. The Newspaper, originally the official organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, was closed down by Boris Yeltsin in 1991. It has since re-emerged as a leftist journal. Pravda online, however, is run by former Pravda employees from the good old days. Its anti-semitism is disturbing.