A new Soviet map of the Palestine area received here seems to indicate a Soviet political desire to divide pieces of Israel’s territory among its Arab neighbors.
Theoretically based on the 1947 United Nations partition decision, the map throws all of Jerusalem and central Palestine into Jordan territory. It also colors parts of the Negev, the Gaza Strip and pieces of Western Galilee in the same shade as Egypt.
Historically, the map has little in common with the UN partition decision. The Gaza Strip, central Palestine and several areas of the Negev and Galilee occupied by Israel after the Arab states invaded the Jewish State in 1948, were all supposed to be part of an independent Arab state of Palestine. This state died aborning, torn to bits by the invading Arab armies which attached huge sections of it to Jordan and to Egypt.
The other error in the Soviet map is that Jerusalem was ordered internationalized by the UN, not tossed into Jordan’s lap. When the war on this front ended in a stalemate, Israel and Jordan remained in occupation of the areas which their troops held and neither has advanced a political claim to the other’s sector.
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