Democratic Palestine : 38 (ص 26)
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- Democratic Palestine : 38 (ص 26)
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view of international realities and
aims. Political terms like the balance
of forces have been replaced by the
balance of interests. The world is no
longer viewed as consisting of two op-
posing poles, but as one world which
suffers a series of contradictions, ‘re-
gional conflicts and other problems. In
the midst of these new perceptions and
priorities, the specific concerns of
national liberation movements and
some newly independent countries
were relegated to a secondary position,
while top priority is assigned to resol-
ving contradictions between the Soviet
Union and the US and other capitalist
countries, mainly in Western Europe.
In this context, the four principles
which have historically constituted
Soviet Middle East policy(as exempli-
fied in the Brezhnev plan above) have
been modified to some degree, though
not totally changed. The only constant
is continued recognition of the Israeli
state and its right to exist.
Concerning Palestinian national
rights, the right of return is seldom
mentioned in current Soviet political
parlance. Gorbachev made no mention
of it in his book Perestroika; neither
did Shevardnadze name it in his speech
in Cairo last year, which spelled out
current Soviet Middle East policy. The
right of return is of paramount impor-
tance to the Palestinian people. It is
primary among their national rights, as
was stipulated by the PLO in 1974, be-
cause it concerns half of the Palesti-
nian population - specifically those
who were uprooted and dispersed as a
result of the establishment of the State
of Israel. In the absence of implemen-
tation of the Palestinian right of
return, the status quo allows only for
the Israeli Law of Return which grants
automatic rights to Jews from all over
the world to come and settle in the
land and homes of these displaced Pal-
estinians. The Israeli Law of Return
represents the essence of Zionist racist
discrimination practiced against the
Palestinians who are denied their basic
right to live in their own country.
The Soviet conception of the
means for reaching a peaceful settle-
ment in the Middle East has also
changed. Principled insistence on the
convening of a fully empowered inter-
national conference, as outlined above,
appears to be giving way to emphasis
26
on bilateral negotiations between the
PLO and Israel, as a prelude to such a
conference.
Over the past few years, Israeli-
Soviet relations have witnessed marked
improvement; there were cultural and
trade agreements in 1989; and a mile-
stone was reached when Israeli Foreign
Minister Moshe Arens met with his
Soviet counterpart, Schevardnadze,
late last year. The meeting resulted in
permission being given to the Israeli
Consul Tsefi Magen and the rest of his
staff to operate out of the old Israeli
embassy building in Moscow; they can
conduct diplomatic activity, including
contacts with the Middle East section
of the Soviet Foreign Ministry, in the
same manner as the embassies of other
Middle East countries.
Moreover, the conditions set by
the Soviet Union for resuming dip-
lomatic ties with Israel have been
watered down. The Soviets are no
longer demanding Israeli withdrawal
from the 1967 occupied territories or
acceptance of the convening of an
international peace conference, as pre-
conditions for resuming diplomatic re-
lations. Instead, they have stipulated
the rather vague concept of «making
progress in the peace process.»
Restoring ties with Israel
In the wake of the 1967 Israeli
aggression, all the Eastern European
countries, with the exception of
Rumania, broke off diplomatic rela-
tions with Israel in protest of the
Israeli occupation of Arab land. How-
ever, starting in September 1989, Hun-
gary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland have
renewed diplomatic relations with
Israel. The German Democratic Re-
public, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia have
expressed interest in doing so. The
German Democratic Republic has a-
greed to meet the Israeli conditions for
the resumption of relations between
the two states which include GDR
accepting moral responsibility for the
Nazi crimes against Jews and making
reparations accordingly. Thus, the
GDR reneged on its own history, for it
represents, politically and concretely,
the anti-fascist resistance in Germany
during Hitler’s rule. The Israeli ambas-
sador to West Germany, Benjamin Na-
von, demanded an increase in the
reparation payments the Bonn govern-
ment has been paying, in the case of
German reunification.
This new position on the part of the
Eastern European countries and the
Soviet Union is a clear departure and
retreat from their previous stands.
Israel has made no reciprocal conces-
sions either to these countries, or in
relation to the peace process. On the
contrary, Israeli repression is mounting
against the Palestinian people in the
occupied territories. In view of the
declared position of the Eastern Euro-
pean countries on reaching a peaceful
settlement in the Middle East, their
rapprochement with Israel at this par-
ticular time appears illogical, especially
when viewed in the context of increas-
ing isolation of Israel on the interna-
tional level. The EEC, for example,
has on more than one occasion decided
on economic measures against Israel in
protest of its human rights violations,
and to push for a peaceful solution to
the Middle East conflict.
In the light of these developments,
Israel in concert with the Bush Ad-
ministration has intensified the cam-
paign to reverse the UN General As-
sembly resolution(no. 3379) equating
Zionism with racism. According to US
sources, the Eastern European coun-
tries who voted for this resolution in
1975, will not vote against the reversal.
Resurrection of Zionist activities
The previously clandestine Zionist
activities in the Eastern European
countries, and especially in the USSR,
have now become overt in the midst of
perestroika and glasnost. The reaction-
ary, national chauvinist and colonialist
ideology of Zionism has _ historically
made it the enemy of socialism. Since
Zionism thrives and depends on anti-
Semitism in order to fulfill its dream of
gathering all Jews in Palestine, the
Zionists vigorously opposed the Lenin-
ist solution to the Jewish question in
the context of resolving the question of
the nationalities in the Soviet Union.
So began the covert Zionist campaign
against socialism, in concert with the
imperialist countries’ anti-communism.
The recent emergence of public
Zionist activities in the Soviet Union
has provided a new opportunity to
organize the Jewish community on two
fronts: getting as many Jews as possi-
ble to emigrate and settle in Israel,
Democratic Palestine, March-April 1990 - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 38
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