Dan Hatmandas

If you hate Zionism, believe Israel is the new Nazi Germany, or think Zionists secretly control the world, you need to understand where some of these ideas came from. Let me take you back to Moscow, 1983. On March 29, 1983, the Soviet Communist Party approved a KGB proposal to establish the Soviet Anti-Zionist Committee. Just one year earlier, Mahmoud Abbas, today’s Palestinian Authority President, had defended his doctoral thesis in Moscow, promoting Holocaust distortion and conspiracy theories about Zionist collaboration with the Nazis. Both emerged from the same Soviet environment of anti-Zionist propaganda. The committee’s mission was simple: demonize Zionism, discredit Israel, and spread the Kremlin’s narrative worldwide. But the KGB had a clever strategy. They deliberately placed Jews at the head of the organization to deflect accusations of antisemitism. Led by Soviet Jewish General David Dragunsky and supervised by the KGB and Communist Party’s Propaganda Department, the committee became a propaganda machine. Here is how it worked: 1. Compare Zionists to Nazis. Pravda accused Israel of using Nazi methods and operating concentration camps. 2. Manufacture Jewish opposition to Israel. Soviet media promoted supposed letters from Jewish emigrants claiming they had been deceived by Zionist propaganda. 3. Stage international press conferences. Committee leaders accused Israel of adopting Nazi practices, while TASS and Novosti amplified their accusations worldwide. 4. Export propaganda worldwide. The Soviet Union used international media, publications, foreign language broadcasts, and propaganda networks to spread its anti-Zionist narratives across Europe, the Middle East, and beyond, turning a Kremlin campaign into a global messaging operation. 5. Give propaganda academic credibility. In 1985, the committee published a 300-page White Book portraying Zionism as a global conspiracy and Israel as an instrument of American imperialism. Meanwhile, the same Soviet regime restricted Jewish emigration and persecuted Jews who wanted to leave for Israel. Think about that. More than 40 years ago, the KGB was systematically manufacturing the accusations we hear against Israel today. Zionism equals Nazism. Israel is an apartheid regime. Zionists manipulate governments. Even Jews supposedly reject Zionism. Today, these narratives circulate across university campuses, demonstrations, social media, and mainstream political debates. Perhaps one of the greatest successes of Soviet propaganda is that millions of people today believe they arrived at these ideas entirely on their own. Before repeating the next accusation about Zionism, ask yourself one question: Who taught the world to think this way?