Avigdor Eskin
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Avigdor Eskin (born April 26, 1960) is Russian-Israeli controversial conservative journalist and political activist. Born in the Soviet Union, Eskin emigrated to Israel where he became involved in radical right-wing politics.
Early life
Avigdor Eskin was born in 1960 to a secular Jewish family in Moscow. When he was 11 years old, he began illicitly listening to Western radio stations such as Voice of America, Kol Israel, and the BBC Russian Service. Inspired by a religious Catholic friend, he took an interest in Judaism and began attending synagogue soon afterward. He became an Orthodox Jew and committed Zionist.
Despite harassment by the KGB, Eskin participated in Zionist activities. He became the youngest underground Hebrew teacher, and translated right-wing radical Meir Kahane's Never Again manifesto into Russian.[citation needed] Eskin also became determined to emigrate to Israel, and was granted an exit visa in 1978. He emigrated to Israel in January 1979 at the age of 18.
Political activities
Eskin was a founder of Israeli New Right movement together with the former MK Michael Kleiner and was behind the alliance between the Israeli right and American conservatives, led by senator Jesse Helms. Additionally, he was a mastermind behind the arms supply to the anti-communist guerrillas in Nicaragua. The most controversial of his activities was his support of the White regime in South Africa due to its staunch anti-communist politics, until its collapse in the early 1990s.
Eskin achieved notoriety in 1995 when he laid a Pulsa diNura death curse on Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin in response to the Oslo Accords.[1] The Pulsa diNura is generally believed to "work" within 30 days, and it was 32 days after Eskin’s curse that Rabin was assassinated by Yigal Amir.
In 1999, Eskin defiled the grave of Izz al-Din al-Qassam: he placed a pig's head on the grave. For this, he was sentenced to 30 months in prison, until February 20, 2003.
Today, Eskin frequently lectures in Russia on political science and theological matters, and is well known. He is liked within the Russian conservative circles, his overt Jewish religiousness notwithstanding, due to his staunch support of Vladimir Putin, and his anti-Ukrainian, anti-Georgian and anti-Estonian stance. He is frequently criticized by liberal media as a right-wing bigot and an anti-democrat.
In May 2005, Eskin won a slander case that he filed against Barry Chamish.[2] He later described Chamish as "heavy drinking person, who sucked his theories from the bottle."
In 2007, Eskin and two private investigators were arrested but not indicted on suspicion that they illegally wiretapped Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman and businessman Michael Chernoy.[3]
Eskin led the campaign against the awarding of the title of Hero of Ukraine to Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych. The campaign attracted protests by 36 Israeli Knesset members and 10 members of the US Congress.
In 2014 Eskin called for the Russian intervention in Ukraine during the Euromaidan revolution, and attempted to rally Knesset's support for it. Since the start of the War In Donbass he was a staunch supporter of the separatists. [4]
Personal life
Eskin is married with seven children. He lives in Jerusalem but spends part of his time in Russia, and works as a consultant for Israeli companies doing business in Russia.[5]