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PLAIN TRUTH May 1974
INTHE
MIDDLE EAST
Soviet foreign policy is opportunistic and therefore is subject to
seeming reversals. In reality, the
o
vera// goal remains the same:
the ultimate triumph ofRussian Communist ideology worldwide.
by
Michael P. Allard
~DREI
GROMYKO, then Soviet representative to the United Nations,
.t"\..
delivered a speech befare the General Assembly on May
14, 1947,
supporting
the establishment and independence ofthe
state oflsrael. In that memorable speech, he said both Arabs and Jews
"have historical roots in Palestine," and that we should not "deny the right
ofthe Jewish people to realize aspirations to establish their own state."
It was a view totally opposite to traditional Soviet anti-Zionist policy.
Why This Soviet Turnabout?
Explanations were freely offered by the news media. A moral obligation
was owed the Jews who survived World War II ; the Soviets were
disenchanted with pro-German Arab nationalism during the war;
Communist parties outside Russia, trying to establish a popular front
in
their re'>pective countries, needed to consider public sympathies and the
moods ofpotential allies in each country; Arab sympathies had turned pro–
British as far as Moscow was concerned, while Jews in Palestine were
engaged in a struggle to oust the Britisb from Palestine.
Later that year, Britain abstained from voting on the U.N. resolution
partitioning Palestine. The Arabs voted against it. The plan, which the Jews
accepted, would have created independent Arab and Jewish states. Jerusa-
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