The Soviet Union is playing a double game over the Lebanese situation. On the one hand, it voices verbal support for the Palestinians; on the other, it carefully refrains from criticizing Syria, whose intervention has tipped the balance in favor of the Palestinians’ Lebanese enemies.
It is thus hoping that when the fighting dies down it will retain its position in Syria and–through support of the Palestinian cause–in the Arab world as a whole. This two-tier policy was evident from Soviet propaganda during the siege of the Tel El Zaatar Palestinian refugee camp.
In addition to muting criticism of Syria, the Soviets also play down any references to the religious nature of the civil war, which they blame almost entirely on the machinations of U.S. imperialism, Arab reaction and Zionism. Their aim, one Moscow commentator declared, was to destroy the Palestine resistance which was “the strike force of the Arab national liberation movement.”
Thus, Moscow Radio seized avidly on the report that the Lebanese rightists were using arms supplied by Israel while the Israeli navy was preventing arms from reaching the leftists and Palestinians.
AUTHORITATIVE SOVIET STATEMENT
One of the most authoritative Soviet statements on Lebanon was the article in Izvestia, the government newspaper, on July 29 by Viktor Kudryavtsev. He wrote: “It is hard to overestimate the role and place of the Palestine resistance in the Arab national liberation movement. Objectively it is the link between the progressive sections of the population in different Arab countries because circumstances have made it the most consistent fighter for the elimination of the consequences of the Israeli aggression.
“The Arab people of Palestine wish to establish their own state and for this reason they are fighting for the liberation of the Israeli-occupied Arab lands, the only place where a Palestinian state can be established.”
Kudryavtsev warned that the imperialists were “trying to establish an advance post in Lebanon in the form of an Arab Israel.” This would mean “a new aggravation of the Middle East crisis and delays in its settlement.”
Moscow’s desire to remain friendly with Syria was reflected in a statement by Khaled Bakdash, the veteran Secretary General of the Syrian Communist Party, while visiting the Soviet stand at the Damascus international fair on Aug. 5. “Our relations with the great Soviet Union, our great friend, are not based on considerations of the moment, but are relations of destiny in the struggle against imperialism, Zionism and for social progress,” Bakdash told Moscow Radio.
MOSCOW’S CYNICAL ATTITUDE
From its balanced attitude towards Damascus, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the Soviet Union has resigned itself to letting the military struggle inside Lebanon run its course, even if it ends with the destruction of Palestinian power. Indeed, the Soviets may well believe that the Palestine Liberation Organization will then be a far more malleable instrument. It is significant, too, that Syria as well as Moscow is opposed to the creation of an “Arab Israel” in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, the Soviet Union continues its bitter criticism of Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat and the Saudi monarchy for their close ties with the United States. It depicts them as traitors to the Arab cause, a charge it refrains from levelling at Syria.
Sadat himself seems in no doubt about Moscow’s underlying alliance with Syria. Interviewed in the Kuwaiti newspaper, As-Siyasah, on Aug. 14, Sadat ridiculed a claim that Moscow had warned the Syrians to pull out of Lebanon. “I cannot understand what is the meaning of such a warning when the Soviet vessels carrying arms are active in unloading their cargo in Latakia,” he said.
Meanwhile, Israel is not being neglected in the Soviet propaganda war. In addition to its daily Hebrew broadcasts, Moscow has introduced overseas commentaries in Yiddish. Israeli listeners were warned on Aug. 11 that, by sending arms to the Lebanese right-wing, “the rulers of Israel are dragging the country into a new adventure.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
