The political sensibilities of a historic period may lead to decisions that result in unforeseen and undesired consequences down the historical road. The approval of the creation of Israel by the Soviet leader Iosif Stalin is one such event. True, shortly after wards the USSR would break the diplomatic relations with Israel, once its real natur became apparent. The USSR would even have to perform a little-known military operation against Israel to “dissuade” it from using nuclear weapons on its neighbours.

How did the USSR and Stalin personally create Israel, and why did the Jews betray the Soviet Union after that

6th of February 2021

In 1948, US President Truman was the first to recognize the State of Israel. And the Israelis do not get tired of reminding us about this till this day. Schools, libraries and hospitals in Israel are named after the 33rd President of the United States. For this reason, many mistakenly believe that the United States created the state of Israel.

But few people know that the key role in the creation of Israel was actually played by the Soviet Union and personally by Iosif Stalin. But how and why did the Soviet leader create Israel?

In January 1946, with a difference of only 2 days, Stalin received two letters. One was on behalf of the Jewish National Liberation Committee. The other came on behalf of the Arab committee. The authors of the first epistle asked Iosif Vissarionovich to help in the creation of a Jewish state on the territory of Palestine. The authors of the second one – to not let this happen. A year and a half later the whole world would learn of the decision that Stalin had made.

Why did Stalin create Israel

The first version. Stalin was guided by purely humanistic considerations and wanted to help the Jewish people who had been through grief. – This version was shared by the 5th Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir. Stalin was well aware of the plans for the total extermination of Jews in all the territories occupied by the Reich. It is no coincidence that the future Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyka, speaking at the UN, said that the Jewish people have the right to create their own state, since no Western European state was able to protect the elementary rights of the Jewish people and protect them from the Fascists.

The second version. Stalin wanted to create a Jewish state in order to expand the socialist camp to the Middle East. This idea was warmly supported by the future first Prime Minister of Israel, a native of the Russian Empire, the legendary David Ben-Gurion. He openly called himself a Bolshevik and admired Lenin’s works. Stalin did not just wanted to help a convinced Marxist to create a Jewish socialist state, but also sought to place his own people in the leadership of the newborn country.

The third version. Stalin was preparing for the Third World War. By order of Churchill, back in the spring of 1945, the British began to develop a plan codenamed “The Unthinkable”. Churchill planned to throw 12 captured German divisions into battle against the Soviet Union, and in the meantime the United States had to strike with atomic weapons. Soviet intelligence knew about these plans and Stalin was preparing a symmetrical response.

It would have been possible to create in Israel a base of strategic bombers with atomic weapons, as well as to establish a naval base. Then the Soviet Union could easily block the Suez Canal. 80% of oil supplies to Britain, Europe and the USA went through it. By cutting off supplies, victory in the war would be assured.

Military aid from the USSR

Whatever Stalin was guided by, the decision was made in favour of Israel. The Jewish population in Palestine was delighted, and the Arab population was horrified. In the meantime, the Western politicians were shocked by Moscow’s position.

Washington didn’t know what to do. The White House could not openly oppose the Soviet initiative, because Jewish emigrants in America were extremely influential due to finances and connections in the government. But supporting them meant becoming enemies of the Arab sheikhs and losing oil from the Middle East.

Meanwhile, while behind-the-scenes negotiations on the fate of future Jewish and Arab states on the territory of Palestine were ongoing at the UN, the Soviet Union began to prepare at a rapid pace for the creation of a new world for Jews. Immediately after the decision to create Israel, the armies of 5 Arab states began to at once surround the country that did not yet exist. Therefore, the main things to start with, was the creation of the army, intelligence and police.

The special services of Israel, and especially the special forces units, were created with the direct participation of specialists from the NKVD. In addition, Soviet officers identified people with military specialities among the settlers, who, after being checked by the counter-intelligence agencies, were sent to ships on which military equipment was loaded. Thus, after arriving at the destination, the tanks already had fully equipped crews and combat vehicles, and they went into battle right after unloading.

Meanwhile, at the beginning of the first Arab-Israeli war, the United States imposed an embargo on the supply of weapons to the participants of the hostilities. This embargo was in favour of the Arab countries, since large contracts had already been concluded and implemented beforehand, and the United States were fully supplying the Arabs with weapons.

Also, by order of Stalin, captured German weapons were sent from Czechoslovakia to Palestine – machine guns, grenade launchers, cannons and even 4 Messerschmitt aircraft.

When the Egyptian tank column and the Palestinian guerrillas were a couple of dozen kilometers from Tel Aviv, all reserves were thrown into battle to protect the city, including these 4 aircraft. The Egyptians and the Palestinians did not expect that the Jews would have combat aircraft. They stopped the attack, and subsequently refused to capture the defenceless city at all.

Why did Israel betray the Soviet Union

The economy of the Soviet Union was in a deplorable state after the war. Therefore, the supply of weapons to Israel was the maximum that it could afford at that time.

But you can’t feed the people with cannons and machine guns, and financial assistance was vital for Israel. so then Ben-Gurion made a deal with his conscience and presented the United States with an ultimatum – either Israel receives loans or it starts to orient itself on the USSR. And, naturally, the financial assistance was provided.

The ting is… both the Israelis and the Americans do not like to remember that half a century ago the United States were persuadeding the Jewish leaders not to declare Israel’s independence, and during the first Arab-Israeli war, it was not Israel that Washington was helping with weapons and money.