‘Dancers’ Diplomacy’ May Be a Step Toward Renewed Israeli-Soviet Ties

Their performances have all been sellouts, and passes are not available, even for the press.

They say they have no time for interviews, although they did agree to pose for photos with their most illustrious opening-night fan, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.

Most surprisingly, the focus of this extraordinary reception is not some group of show business superstars, but a relatively obscure gypsy song-and-dance company.

What makes “The Moscow Gypsy Troupe Romen Theatre” so special is not its repertoire but its origin. The Soviet musicians, scheduled to make the last of eight appearances in Israel on Saturday, are among the latest participants in a growing cultural thaw between Israel and the Moscow-led East Bloc nations.

While these contacts are still fragile, some analysts compare them to the “Ping-Pong diplomacy” that presaged formation of diplomatic relations between the United States and the People’s Republic of China in 1979. The term derives from the fact that Chinese-American rapprochement began with an invitation for a U.S. Ping-Pong team to visit China for a series of matches in 1971.

Role of Dance Troupes

The current Israeli-Soviet Bloc flirtation could one day be recalled as “dance troupe diplomacy,” since ballet, folk and gypsy dance groups have played a central role.

“(The fact) that the Soviets and most of the others (in the Soviet Bloc) have decided to open up cultural exchanges (with Israel) is one of the good signs,” acknowledged an Israeli Foreign Ministry official, who requested anonymity. Whether it will lead, like Ping-Pong diplomacy, to full diplomatic ties is still uncertain. “In a couple of years, we’ll know,” the official said.

Moscow and all its East Bloc allies except Romania severed diplomatic relations with Israel immediately after the Arab-Israeli War of 1967. And only under the new Soviet leadership of party chief Mikhail S. Gorbachev have the Soviets shown signs of wanting to warm up the relationship.

More Diplomatic Contacts

Besides the cultural exchanges, government sources here report a sharp increase in Soviet contacts with Israeli diplomats abroad, particularly in the United States.

Diplomatic sources at the United Nations said last week that Moscow wants to renew formal ties at the consular level, gradually raising the status of relations to the level of ambassadors only after the passage of several years, in deference to the sensitivities of its Arab allies.

This week, the director general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Avraham Tamir, met in New York with the Soviet ambassador to the United Nations, government sources confirmed.

The first formal contacts between Israeli and Soviet delegations since 1967 occurred last August in Helsinki. Those talks were initiated by the Soviet side and were reputedly to discuss routine “consular issues.” They broke off after one 90-minute session, ostensibly because the Israeli side insisted on putting the issue of Soviet Jewry on the agenda.

But in fact, the Soviets had expected that topic to come up, and only a few weeks later, Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze met privately with Peres, then Israel’s prime minister, at the opening of the U.N. General Assembly.

Softening Emigration Line

Now it appears that Moscow may be softening its line on Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union. Officials here say that more than 400 Soviet Jews are expected to leave the country in March, triple the figure for February and by far the biggest monthly total in years.

While stressing that emigration is still far below the record flow of up to 5,000 emigres per month in 1979, Jerry Goodman, executive director of the New York-based National Conference on Soviet Jewry, said in an interview here that the latest figures nevertheless represent “the first significant progress since 1981.”

In another hint of movement, Soviet officials are meeting in Moscow this week with the National Conference chairman, Morris Abram. “It’s a first encounter between us and them at that level,” Goodman noted. He stressed that “there are no negotiations” but that the meetings are “against the background of actual or promised changes.”

While most other contacts still appear extremely tentative, “dance troupe diplomacy” has made measurable progress during the year or so since it began.

In the past, there have been occasional cultural contacts between the two countries within the framework of relations between their respective Communist parties. The Israeli Foreign Ministry official said that the first visit going beyond that took place in February, 1986, when a popular Soviet singer performed here.

Cultural Exchanges Discussed

Peres and Shevardnadze reportedly discussed cultural exchanges during their meeting at the United Nations last September. A month later, a ballet company from Soviet Georgia performed here, followed by the current Romen Theatre tour. Peres’ appearance at the gypsy group’s premiere March 21 was clearly intended as a signal to Moscow of Israel’s interest in warming relations.

Poland may be setting the pattern for change in the East Bloc attitude toward Israel. The two countries late last year opened special “interest sections” in Tel Aviv and Warsaw. While the move falls short of diplomatic recognition, officials assigned to the sections enjoy full diplomatic privileges, and the Foreign Ministry official here said that there has been “a general beginning of bilateral relations in all spheres.”

Importantly, the official added, “the cultural exchanges came before the diplomatic moves.” At the end of 1985, Poland sent two theater groups here, where they enjoyed “enormous attention,” he said.

There were several cultural visits in 1986, including one here by the internationally known Polish folklore troupe Mazowsze and performances in Warsaw by Israel’s Bat Dor dance company. The wife of Polish Communist Party chief Wojciech Jaruzelski attended the Israeli troupe’s premiere.

‘Tourism of Nostalgia’

Since the beginning of this year, Israeli tourists have been able to get visas to visit Poland, setting off what the Foreign Ministry official here characterized as “a tourism of nostalgia--a very bitter nostalgia” for Israelis. Poland was the site of Nazi Germany’s most notorious extermination camps for European Jews during World War II.

This year, about 500 Israeli students are expected to visit Poland under a youth exchange program that will also have “a few score” Polish young people coming here.

While it has no official representation in Israel, Hungary has an even wider scope of contacts with Israel than Poland. It is Israel’s largest East Bloc trading partner, and there is “very significant” tourism between the two nations, the Foreign Ministry official said.

More Coming Than Going

The Israeli Foreign Ministry official conceded that so far, the cultural exchanges involve far more East Bloc groups coming here than Israeli groups traveling there. Moscow is particularly sensitive to hosting Israeli performers, he said, because of concern that they will “evoke Zionist feelings” among Soviet Jews.

He said that even before 1967, when the two countries had full diplomatic relations, cultural ties with Moscow “were quite limited.”

There are also deep reservations about the cultural contacts among Soviet Jewish emigres, estimated to number about 200,000, now living here. About 40 of them demonstrated outside the Jerusalem Theater the night Peres went to see the Romen Theatre group.