In two sensational broadcasts – one in the general Arabic service and one in the Algerian service Moscow Radio came out last week in defence of aliya from the Soviet Union. The two broadcasts were a response to criticism in the Arab media of the Soviet Union, and a report that even the Lebanese Information Minister had joined the chorus of criticism of Soviet policy.
In the broadcast on the general Arabic service it was stated: “The Beirut newspaper, Al Anwar, may have invented the statement by the Lebanese Minister of Information that the Soviet Union was helping the enemy of the Arabs. It is the Zionists and the imperialists who always tell the Arabs that the Soviet Union had deserted them.”
In the broadcast to Algeria it was stated: “the fact that a certain number of Jews have left the Soviet Union for Israel does not justify equating the USSR with the U.S. in relation to the Arabs. After all, only 42,000 Jews have left the Soviet Union for Israel but about 800,000 Jews have left the Arab countries for Israel.”
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