Zionism, Israel, and the Soviet Union: A study in the rise and fall of brief Soviet-Israeli friendship from 1945 to 1955

Despite general Russian/Soviet hostility toward Zionism and the Jews, the Soviet Union supported the establishment of Israel in 1948. This study examines the important but neglected aspect of the twentieth century history: the short period of Soviet-Israeli friendship, its background, reasons for its existence and termination. This article concludes that the unexpected interlude of friendship was caused by a common interest: the expulsion of British presence from Palestine. After the two sides achieved what they had wanted, however, the relations between the two deteriorated very rapidly for two reasons: anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union and the intensification of the Cold War. The Soviet Union then realized that Israel belonged to the West and the Islamic world offered much more opportunities for the Soviets.