Bulletin of Palestine Studies

Abstract

It is almost forgotten that without the diplomatic and military assistance of the Soviet Union, the establishment of Israel would have been difficult. The Soviet Union's diplomatic support for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meetings after the Second World War was complemented by its de-jure recognition of Israel as the first state. Prior to the establishment of Israel, the Soviet Union focused on two main options for the solution of the Palestinian question. The first option was the establishment of a united federative Arab-Jewish state with equal rights for both ethnic groups; the second option was the division of Palestine into two independent states, Jewish and Arab. The Soviet Union's diplomatic support for Israel continued with military assistance in the first war between Israel and the Arab states. However, these relations did not last long, and in the early 1950s the Tel-Aviv government improved its relations with the Western powers, resulting in a crisis that led to the termination of diplomatic relations between Moscow and Tel-Aviv in 1953. The article discusses why the Soviet Union needed the establishment of an Israeli state in the Palestinian territories, what kind of diplomacy it pursued in this process, and the processes that led to the events that caused the diplomatic crisis between Moscow and Tel-Aviv. In particular, the role of Soviet diplomacy in the post-World War II period, both in the Kremlin and at the UN, is discussed. In particular, the article examines the period from the establishment of Israel to the diplomatic crisis in Moscow-Tel-Aviv relations in 1953. The article also analyzes how the Kremlin approached the issue using Soviet and Russian sources and aims to contribute to the Turkish literature.