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The party politics that grabbed the spotlight on Sunday April 25, 1999 when Immigrant Liaison Bureau (Nativ) chief Ya'acov Kedmi tendered his resignation were very much evident in assessments of the impact Kedmi's coming in from the cold will have on immigration and the Russian vote. (May 5) - Some observers expressed concern that the departure of Kedmi - a legend among many older Soviet Jews - would convince the thousands of Jews waiting to immigrate that they're not wanted here. Since Russian immigration has increased sharply in recent months, these observers were especially concerned about the resignation of the 22-year veteran who served seven years at the organization's helm. But others expect hardly a ripple and accuse Kedmi, who coupled his resignation with harsh criticism of the prime minister, of exploiting the occasion to take potshots at Binyamin Netanyahu. Some have even accused Kedmi of coordinating his departure with Ehud Barak. The criticism was further stoked after Kedmi announced his support for Yisrael Ba'aliya and Barak on television. Indeed, concern over the potential impact of Kedmi's resignation on the upcoming elections apparently loomed so large last week that Foreign Ministry Director-General Eitan Ben-Tsur gave orders to all Foreign Ministry staff not to address the Kedmi story on or off the record. POLITICS aside, the resignation was a watershed event in the history of Nativ. The current blow-up is the latest in a series of developments which has seen the bureau go from being the personal project of David Ben-Gurion to a situation where, according to Kedmi, the head of Nativ could not even get a foot in the prime minister's door. For former Labor MK Lova Eliav, one of Nativ's founders, such a situation is "inconceivable." "To not even see him? What kind of thing is this?" Eliav said after hearing of Kedmi's accusations, included in his letter of resignation which was leaked last week. "If only part of what Kedmi, whom I know well, wrote in his letter is correct, it's very serious." Eliav described how Ben-Gurion launched the organization installing right-hand man Shaul Avigur at the helm. Nativ was directly responsible to the prime minister then, as it is now, but Eliav believes that times have definitely changed. In those days, Nativ's staff was made up largely of operatives who had been involved in illegal immigration to Israel, and who operated mainly in the Soviet Union or elsewhere behind the Iron Curtain as "scouts." "We knew very little about Soviet Jews. Our job was to find out, during trips and in conversations with people, whether there were Jews, how many, and where they were." Eliav and his colleagues met with the first neo-Zionist cells in the Soviet Union. An offshoot organization called Bar worked in the West to create the groundwork for the Soviet Jewry movement there. If you marched for Soviet Jewry or visited the Soviet Union to bring the Jews prayer books or talitot, you worked with Nativ. The organization served as a catalyst, Eliav says, using people like young Kedmi, then known as Yasha Kazakhov, and Natan Sharansky to ignite the movement in the Soviet Union. THINGS changed with the fall of the Iron Curtain, Eliav says. Questions arose over whether Nativ and the Jewish Agency, suddenly able to operate freely in the area, weren't duplicating each other's activities. Some observers recalled that the two bodies began competing over who could bring the most Jews to Israel, leading to a series of investigative committees which questioned some Nativ practices, especially elements of its role in intelligence and foreign policy work. Since immigration appeared to be drying up, the organization's raison d'etre began to come under question. Then came last year's State Comptroller's Report, which found serious wrongdoing, including financial irregularities, and an ad hoc decision by Kedmi to make unauthorized payments. Non-profit organizations, some of which were accused of bilking the immigrants, were headed by Nativ officials and supplied part of the organization's budget, the comptroller said. State comptroller Miriam Ben-Porat also questioned whether Nativ was still meeting its original goal of encouraging immigration, and suggested there be "an investigation into whether it is capable of making a special contribution to achieving state goals." The Tamir Committee arose out of her criticism, and last winter it recommended transferring Nativ's intelligence and research activities to the Mossad. With increasing pressure to trim his operation's authority, Kedmi offered to resign. But Netanyahu delayed implementation of the committee's recommendations, citing the delicate state of affairs in Russia and setting the stage for the current blow-up. NATIV'S rich history and ongoing imbroglios are well-known to Immigration Minister Yuli Edelstein, number 2 in Yisrael Ba'Aliya. Edelstein remembers being met by Kedmi on the tarmac when he arrived in Israel in 1987. "When I lived in the Soviet Union we didn't know the Liaison Bureau people by their first names, but we knew about their activities, although Kedmi wasn't in charge at the time," he recalled. Now he is worried that Kedmi's resignation may interfere with that activity. "He was the dominant figure in Nativ who succeeded in building an outstanding infrastructure. The fact that several prime ministers with different political views kept him in office, consulted with him and added him to their delegations speaks for itself," he explained. "The current operations were built very much on his actions, for good or for bad," said Edelstein. "Perhaps this only indicates that he kept his cards very close to his chest and often operated on his own. "But while I'm no expert on all the various connections there, I don't know if he has an immediate successor who can take on all these projects. "So I am very worried, especially now, when in the past few months we have seen a real stirring in the former Soviet Union in general, and especially in Russia. We're really seeing people, not just hearing about more, asking for visas. "So it's a shame that, at such a time, with the work there so important, something is happening to undermine the activities. It is very, very unfortunate." Jewish Agency Immigration and Absorption Committee Chairman Chaim Chesler, who worked closely with Kedmi for 14 years while at the Public Council for Soviet Jewry and later with the Jewish Agency's office in the former Soviet Union, is also concerned. Chesler, who is affiliated with Labor, believes Kedmi's resignation "left the Liaison Committee with no leadership "The No. 1, Kedmi, left, and the No. 2, Robert Singer, left to become executive director of ORT International. They were the top two people in the organization, and at this crucial time we will be left with no leaders. Obviously this will impact on day-to-day operations, because the top two experienced people are gone and it's a big shock." Despite "a couple of differences of opinions" that were eventually settled by Shimon Sheves, then director-general of the prime minister's office, Chesler can only sing Kedmi's praises as "a top professional. He could have stayed on longer. It's a pity that he has to end his career this way." BUT Knesset Absorption and Immigration Committee Chair woman Naomi Blumenthal, who only in December said Kedmi's resignation would be "an own goal" and a tremendous loss to immigration efforts, was singing a different tune this week after Kedmi's attack on Netanyahu. "I definitely think he's talented, and I didn't think he should resign," Blumenthal, No. 7 on the Likud list, said even before Kedmi's announcement of his support for Barak. "I thought we should try to focus the activities of Nativ more sharply, but Kedmi wasn't ready for a cut in authority. He has the talent, the know-how, but... perhaps his time [to leave] has come." "We have to separate the fact that Nativ itself has to make some changes... It could be that there are people who could deal with such things, but certainly not someone like Yasha." Blumenthal rejected Kedmi's allegations that Netanyahu had refused to meet with him. As proof, she says she has protocols of meetings in which Kedmi told her: "No, first I need to meet with the prime minister about this" when discussing sensitive issues. She says that Netanyahu himself intervened to keep Kedmi on after the Nativ head threatened to resign in December, mainly because the prime minister didn't want to hurt Kedmi personally or undermine immigration and information-gathering at a sensitive time. "I'm very sorry about his attacks... The only thing I can imagine is that perhaps he joined with Barak, which is why he launched such an attack at such a time. It is like spitting into the well you've been drinking from." Blumenthal now predictably downplayed the impact Kedmi's departure will have on the immigration effort. "I don't think much will change in the field," she said. BUT IT was Yisrael Beiteinu's No. 2, Yuri Stern, who said the man he'd worked with for years "has been turned into a cheap card in the pre-election political game." Still, Stern believes that Kedmi's support for Yisrael Ba'aliya and Barak will have little impact on the Russian vote. "If this had happened two or three months ago, a real debate would have developed and we could have looked into what this government did compared to the previous one; and what Sharansky did as the person in charge of relations with Russia for many months, between Levy's resignation and Sharon's taking the post. "But with it erupting now, everyone knows it's simply tied to the elections, anything said today has value only in that context. Ya'acov Kedmi and Nativ are not that well known among the general public, rather among those who were active in Zionist groups before. I think it will have only a limited effect on the vote for Netanyahu himself." Blumenthal agrees. "There is no expectation that it will impact on the Russian vote. These people have very well-formulated opinions and know what's going on. Such an attack won't change the direction they're headed in, and most have already made up their minds. But Chesler and Eliav both believe the Kedmi affair will indeed be a card to be played in the campaign. "The Russian people see Yasha Kazakhov as a great hero of their generation," Chesler ex plained. "Regardless of what he said, he's an important character among these people." And Eliav believes Kedmi's claims that the prime minister gave him short shrift "will stir uncomfortable feelings" among Russian Jews both here and abroad. "All you need is the one sentence Kedmi wrote, that 'for a year and a half, I didn't see the prime minister.' The response will be a feeling of neglect." Perhaps most importantly, however, the affair will be an election issue because Kedmi himself obviously wants it to be. As he told Israel Radio just hours before declaring his support for Yisrael Ba'aliya and Barak: "I'm sure that everything I say will be digested by Jews and will have an effect on their electoral considerations. This is only natural." Danna Harman contributed to this report.
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