Soviet Encyclopedia Says Israel is Dependent on American Imperialism

Israel is sharply attacked in “The Great Soviet Encyclopedia” which is published by decree of the Soviet Council of Ministers, it was established today by former Senator William Benton, publisher of the Encyclopedia Britannica, who has received 39 of the 55 planned volumes of the Soviet reference work.

In translating major articles from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia for comparison with the Encyclopedia Britannica. Mr. Benton’s office found quite a difference between its own article on Israel and the article on the same subject in the Soviet volume. While the Encyclopedia Britannica presents a factual history of the birth of Israel, the Soviet encyclopedia claims that Britain and the United States provoked the 1948 war between Israel and the Arab states and says that Israel is “a centralized bourgeois republic which is economically and politically dependent on American imperialism.”

After the end of the 1948 war, the article in the Soviet encyclopedia continues, “the American imperialists became even more active in Israel. They took over the positions held by England and transformed Israel into a colony and into a strategic base in the Middle East, to be used as a jumping off point for a war of aggression. The ruling circles of Israel conduct a reactionary policy; the aim of this policy is to silence the democratic forces and to oppress the Jewish working masses and the Arab minority which is deprived of any rights. These ruling circles maintain and strengthen nationalistic and chauvinistic attitudes among the backward strata of the population.”