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The First Step Toward an Israeli-Soviet Rapprochement
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11377 |
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Section : |
Current Issues
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11 / 1986 |
2,934 Words |
| Author
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David A. Harris
David A. Harris is the deputy director of the International
Relations Department of the American Jewish Committee. |
On August 18, some 19 years after the Soviet Union broke diplomatic relations with Israel, representatives of the two countries met in Helsinki to discuss the reestablishment of consular ties. Although unexpectedly brief, the meeting, which ended with no agreement on further talks, signaled a significant change in Soviet policy. Sharp differences over the issue of Soviet Jewry, in particular, underscore the gap separating the two sides and the difficulty of further negotiations. Still, the very fact of the meeting and the likelihood of additional contacts, whether direct or by proxies, are important developments in a complex and often stormy relationship that spans four decades.
In the fall of 1947, Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko offered the Kremlin's support for the United Nation's plan to partition British-held Palestine. "The representatives of the Arab states," he told the world body, "claim that the partition of Palestine would be an historic injustice. But this view of the case is unacceptable, if only because, after all, the Jewish people have been closely linked with Palestine for a considerable period of history." Indeed, the Soviet Union was the third nation, after the United States and Guatemala, to recognize the fledgling Jewish state and the first to extend full de jure recognition. With Soviet assistance, Czechoslovakian arms were sent to the Jews in Palestine even before the establishment of the state in May 1948. In 1949, the Soviet Union joined 36 other members in supporting Israel's admission to the UN (12 were opposed, including nine predominantly Muslim states, and there were nine abstentions).
At the same time, the Kremlin hardened its stance toward the Soviet Jewish population. The welcome
... (1992 of 18592 Characters)
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