US embassy cable - 05BUCHAREST902

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BUCHAREST 000902 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE DEPT FOR EUR/NCE - WILLIAM SILKWORTH, EUR/OHI - JOHN 
BECKER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/11/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, SOCI, ECON, RO, Antisemitic, biographic information 
SUBJECT: ROMANIAN-ISRAELI POLITICIAN LEAVES EXTREME 
NATIONALIST PARTY CLAIMING ANTI-SEMITISM 
 
REF: A. A) BUCHAREST 0716 
     B. B) 03 BUCHAREST 3991 
 
Classified By: [POLITICAL SECTION CHIEF ROBERT GILCHRIST FOR REASONS 1. 
4 D 
 
1. (SBU) Summary: The only Jewish MP from Vadim Tudor,s 
extreme nationalist Greater Romania Popular Party (PPRM) 
resigned from the party April 7 due to publication of an 
article in one of Tudor,s publications denying the existence 
of the Holocaust in Romania.  The PPRM responded by expelling 
the MP -- Nati Meir -- from the party for &blackmail and 
intolerance.8  Tudor has sought to use Meir over the past 
year and a half as &proof8 that the PPRM is no longer 
anti-Semitic.  End Summary. 
 
2. (SBU) From 2003 until a few days ago, extreme nationalist 
politician and founder of the Greater Romania Party Popular 
Party (PPRM) Corneliu Vadim Tudor publicly boasted of his 
alliance with Israeli-Romanian businessman Nati Meir.  Tudor, 
who had begun calling himself a philo-Semite after years of 
anti-Semitic discourse, asserted that Meir,s inclusion in 
the PPRM demonstrated that neither Tudor nor his party 
harbored anti-Semitic views.  Meir, an Israeli of Romanian 
origin who reportedly returned to Romania to pursue business 
interests in the late 1990,s, entered Parliament on the 
slate of the Greater Romanian Party (PRM) -- the antecedent 
to the PPRM -- in 2004.  Meir has been among Tudor,s most 
outspoken defenders, going so far as to write a letter to the 
DCM in 2004 insisting that Tudor is not an anti-Semite. 
 
3. (SBU) However, the Tudor-Meir love fest publicly shattered 
April 7 when Meir announced his plans to quit the PPRM 
following the publication of an editorial in Tudor,s daily 
newspaper &The Tricolor8 denying the existence of a 
Romanian Holocaust.  Meir vowed to leave the PPRM unless the 
newspaper and the party retracted the editorial.  Tudor,s 
riposte was an April 8 banner headline declaring that 
&Deputy Meir Was Excluded from the PPRM for Blackmail and 
Intolerance.8  The article claims that the PPRM,s leaders, 
decision was based on Meir,s &violation of party rules8 
and actions &detrimental to the party.8 
 
4. (SBU) &The Tricolor8 also reprinted a PPRM press release 
claiming that the April 7 Romanian Holocaust denial article 
represents neither the point of view of the PPRM nor its 
leaders.   The release asserted that the PPRM could not 
accept &blackmail and threats8 from Meir, whom it accused 
of ties with organized crime and of &anti-Christian 
fundamentalism8 because of his alleged refusal to enter a 
church to attend a ceremony involving other party members. 
(Note: Although the editorial appears in the newspaper 
essentially as an open letter from historian and former 
Deputy Petre Turlea to Tudor, its prominent &above the 
fold8 placement on &The Tricolor,s8 front page implies an 
endorsement from the paper - and Tudor.  The article itself 
is a complex mishmash of pseudo-scholarly, ultranationalist 
theorizing.  End Note.) 
 
The Murky Mr. Meir 
------------------ 
5. (SBU) Nati Meir became Tudor,s foreign affairs adviser in 
2003, coinciding with the early phase of Tudor,s campaign to 
clean up his image and portray himself as a mainstream 
conservative in the Christian Democratic tradition.  Meir 
played a key role in directing Tudor,s public relations 
campaign and reportedly was involved in negotiating a 
controversial agreement between Tudor and an Israeli 
consulting firm.  Press reports suggest that Meir exploited 
his personal relationship with Tudor, taking payoffs from 
would be politicians who sought a place on the PRM,s 
electoral lists.  These reports gibe with assertions from 
political insiders who tell us that some slots on the PRM,s 
lists in 2000 and 2004 were &for sale.8 
 
6.  (SBU) Several reports in the Romanian media over the past 
year have alleged that Nati Meir was convicted in Israel of 
fraud prior to his involvement with Tudor.  An Israeli 
diplomat based in Bucharest told PolOff that Meir is &a 
crook8 with a history of criminal wrongdoing in Israel.  The 
diplomat noted that, for Tudor and the PPRM, Meir was &the 
hen that did not lay the golden egg,8 observing that 
Tudor,s attempt to include a Jewish politician in his party 
in order to prove his &philo-Semitic credentials8 had 
simultaneously alienated Tudor,s ultranationalist supporters 
and failed to gain him new votes in the fall 2004 
parliamentary and presidential elections.  Independent 
political observers also stress that Tudor,s star has waned: 
in 2000, Tudor was in the presidential election runoff; in 
the fall 2004 presidential elections, he did not get past the 
first round. 
 
As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap 
--------------------------- 
7. (C) Comment.  Iulian Sorin, the Secretary General of the 
Federation of the Jewish Communities (FCER), observed to 
EmbOff that Meir &is now reaping what he sowed,8 noting 
that the Romanian Jewish community, as well as the vast 
majority of the Romanian public, have never accepted Tudor,s 
claims that he has become a &philo-Semite.8   Tudor,s 
attempts to eventually take the PPRM into the European 
Popular Party bloc in the European Parliament may prevent him 
from overtly embracing the blatant anti-Semitic views he and 
his party expressed in the past.  He desperately seeks 
credibility and mainstream acceptance, which he viewed as 
fundamental to his success in 2000.  Nonetheless, we expect 
to continue seeing subtle reminders of PPRM,s xenophobic and 
anti-Semitic roots, as the party seeks to retain its base 
among the most extreme elements of the Romanian electorate. 
This may happen through veiled references, as we have seen 
recently in Tudor publications, to "Jewish conspiracies" or 
denial of Romania,s irrefutable role in the Holocaust.  End 
Comment. 
 
8.  (U) Amembassy Bucharest,s reporting telegrams, as well 
as daily press summaries, are available on the Bucharest 
SIPRNET Website:  www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/bucharest 
DELARE