Please or Register to create posts and topics.

Israel exists thanks to the USSR

August 7th, 2014

Already a half-forgotten page in the history of the emergence of the State of Israel. Let's hear what the Jewish leaders have to say.

President of the World Zionist Organization Nachum Goldman:   

Without the Soviet Union, the State of Israel would not exist at all. And not so much because the Russians voted for its creation, but because during the Arab invasion in 1948-1949, Israel received all the weapons from the communist countries.

The same was confirmed by the founder of Israel, Prime Minister Ben-Gurion. In an interview with Israeli TV journalists, he said:
“If I now receive you in the Jewish state, then we owe this much more to the Soviet Union than to the United States, for during our war of independence, when we were surrounded by Arab armies, we did not receive a single gun from the United States.”

On May 14, 1947, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR Gromyko, speaking at a special session of the UN General Assembly dedicated to the Palestinian question, stated:

“It would be unfair ... to deny the right of the Jewish people to create their own state. The denial of such a right of the Jewish people cannot be justified," and allowed the division of Palestine into "two independent independent states - Arab and Jewish ... if it is impossible to ensure the peaceful coexistence of Arabs and Jews."

In short, the USSR supported the proposal to create a state on a national basis, amending the principles of internationalism declared by it. Thus, he tried to stake out a place for himself in the Middle East in order to realize his geopolitical plans.

The first Arab-Israeli war and assistance to the USSR
On the night of May 14-15, 1948, a few hours before the declaration of part of the territory of Palestine by the state of Israel, the first Arab-Israeli war began, called the Palestinian War.

Israel was opposed by: Egypt, Transjordan (since 1950 - Jordan), Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Already in the first days of its existence, the Jewish state was on the verge of disaster. In the north of the country, bloody battles unfolded with the Syrians and Lebanese; The Arab Legion captured the previously lost territory in Jerusalem and cut off the path to Mount Scopus; The Egyptian army captured the fortress in the northern part of the Negev. Arab planes completely controlled the airspace. Forty-two people died as a result of a massive bombardment of a train station in Tel Aviv. In this situation, the side of the Palestinian Jews, in contrast to the Western countries, was supported by the Soviet Union.

The Soviet leadership expressed its official line by publishing in the Pravda newspaper of May 30, 1948. It stated: “It must be made clear that in waging war against the young Israeli state, the Arabs are not fighting for their national interests, nor for their independence, but against the right of the Jews to establish their own independent state. Despite all their sympathy for the movement for the national liberation of the Arab people, the Soviet people condemn the aggressive policy waged against Israel.

With the beginning of the war, various Jewish organizations turned personally to I.V. Stalin with a request to provide direct military support to the young state. Particular emphasis was placed on the "importance" of sending "Jewish volunteer pilots on bombers to Palestine." Israel promised to pay for the planes and, playing on Soviet-British relations, hinted that there were more than 40 British officers "in the rank above captain" in the Egyptian army . According to official figures, Soviet Jewish volunteers were not sent to Palestine. Nevertheless, there is evidence that in the spring of 1948, many Jewish officers who had been demobilized from the Red Army were secretly allowed to travel to Palestine with their families if they so desired.

One way or another, in October 1948, the Israeli military attaché in Moscow, Colonel Johanan Ratner9 met with the First Deputy Chief of the General Staff, General of the Army A.A. Antonov. At the meeting, practical issues of supply and methods of sending German captured weapons to Israel and the acceptance of a group of Israeli officers for study in the USSR were discussed.

After that, captured German weapons and military equipment began to arrive in Israel, which the young state badly needed. Its deliveries began to be carried out mainly through Czechoslovakia and Hungary. In Prague, military specialists were also trained for the future Israel Defense Forces (Gottwald brigade).

By this time, the Israeli army had several brigades in its composition, the number of which was actually equal to the regiments of other armies. Thus, the largest, the 1st Golani brigade, consisted of just over 4,000 people, and the smallest, the 2nd Carmeli brigade, had less than 2,500 people. One of the brigades, the 8th Armored, commanded by World War II veteran Colonel (Aluf-Mishneh) Yitzhak Sade, consisted of immigrants, natives of Palestine, and a number of deserters from the British army. The brigade included two battalions, while one of them, the 82nd tank, was divided according to language and consisted of an "English" and a "Russian" company (or squadrons). The 89th Mechanized Infantry Battalion, a jeep-borne commando unit, was led by thirty-three-year-old lieutenant colonel (sgan-aluf) Moshe Dayan, later chief of the Army General Staff. 7th brigade, created in the second half of May 1948, was commanded by Shlomo Shamir, a native of Russia. It consisted of immigrants from Eastern Europe: Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Russia. The new army had only two field 65-mm artillery pieces from the beginning of the century with limited ammunition and no aiming devices. The first armored units were two 28-ton Cromwell cruiser tanks with 3-inch frontal armor and a 75-mm gun, stolen from the depot of the British Army Hussars. The next three tanks were the 32-ton American M4 Sherman, to which ten 12-ton French Hotchkiss H-35s with 37-mm guns and several half-tracked and wheeled armored vehicles were added during the fighting. It consisted of immigrants from Eastern Europe: Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Russia. The new army had only two field 65-mm artillery pieces from the beginning of the century with limited ammunition and no aiming devices. The first armored units were two 28-ton Cromwell cruiser tanks with 3-inch frontal armor and a 75-mm gun, stolen from the depot of the British Army Hussars. The next three tanks were the 32-ton American M4 Sherman, to which ten 12-ton French Hotchkiss H-35s with 37-mm guns and several half-tracked and wheeled armored vehicles were added during the fighting. It consisted of immigrants from Eastern Europe: Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Russia. The new army had only two field 65-mm artillery pieces from the beginning of the century with limited ammunition and no aiming devices. The first armored units were two 28-ton Cromwell cruiser tanks with 3-inch frontal armor and a 75-mm gun, stolen from the depot of the British Army Hussars. The next three tanks were the 32-ton American M4 Sherman, to which ten 12-ton French Hotchkiss H-35s with 37-mm guns and several half-tracked and wheeled armored vehicles were added during the fighting. The new army had only two field 65-mm artillery pieces from the beginning of the century with limited ammunition and no aiming devices.

 

The first armored units were two 28-ton Cromwell cruiser tanks with 3-inch frontal armor and a 75-mm gun, stolen from the depot of the British Army Hussars. The next three tanks were the 32-ton American M4 Sherman, to which ten 12-ton French Hotchkiss H-35s with 37-mm guns and several half-tracked and wheeled armored vehicles were added during the fighting. The new army had only two field 65-mm artillery pieces from the beginning of the century with limited ammunition and no aiming devices. The first armored units were two 28-ton Cromwell cruiser tanks with 3-inch frontal armor and a 75-mm gun, stolen from the depot of the British Army Hussars. The next three tanks were the 32-ton American M4 Sherman, to which ten 12-ton French Hotchkiss H-35s with 37-mm guns and several half-tracked and wheeled armored vehicles were added during the fighting.

The first disassembled Messerschmitts arrived in Israel from Czechoslovakia on May 24, 1948. In an atmosphere of strict secrecy, they were assembled by a group of five Czech aviation technicians and carried out the first bombardment of the Latrun fortress on the Jerusalem front and in the south of the country.

During the war, interrupted by short-term truces, Israeli troops captured - part of the territory of Palestine, which was intended by resolution of the UN General Assembly to create an Arab state, as well as part of the city of Jerusalem. Thus, the territory of Israel was increased by almost 48% in comparison with the territory determined for it by the decision of the UN.

Israel lost 6,000 men killed alone - roughly 1% of its then population. In Jerusalem alone, 2,000 military and civilians were killed and wounded. As Yitzhak Rabin later stated: "It was the longest, most difficult war with the largest number of victims in our country." Arab losses were higher.

After the war,
Israel's support was explained by the hope of the Soviet leadership to turn the Jewish state, many of whose citizens had Russian roots, into their outpost in the Middle East. Other ways of penetrating the strategically important Middle East were closed to the USSR in those years: the Arab world was entirely oriented towards Great Britain. In Israel, the Soviet Union, which saved the Jews from final destruction, and Stalin personally were enthusiastically treated.

And yet, the hopes that Israel would become a conductor of Soviet influence in the region did not materialize. Leading Israeli politicians have taken a pro-American stance. This was due to the financial support provided to Israel by the United States and American Jewish organizations. In addition, Israel counted on the mass immigration of Jews, and the Soviet leadership categorically did not agree to allow the free exit of Soviet Jews.
Since 1949, relations between the USSR and Israel began to deteriorate rapidly.

https://zabinok.livejournal.com/727638.html