(Reprinted from Peking Review, Number 46, November 16, 1973)
Palestine had long been a land inhabited by Arabs; Jews also live there, with the Arabs in the majority. To scramble for spheres of influence and strategic positions and plunder petroleum resources prior to World War II, the imperialists supported the Zionists, stepped up Jewish immigration into Palestine and did their best to foment conflicts between Jews and Arabs so as to facilitate their aggressive activities and suppress the Arab people’s movement for national independence.
As early as 1917, British Foreign Secretary Balfour with U.S. concurrence, concocted the notorious “Balfour Declaration” which “envisages the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” This was followed by worldwide Jewish immigration into Palestine under the instigation of U.S. imperialism. After World War II, U.S. imperialism made further efforts to groom and foster Zionism, using it as a tool for its expansion in the Middle East, aggression against the Arab countries and suppression of the Arab national-liberation movement. On November 29, 1947, the Second Session of the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution on “partition” of Palestine which the Soviet Union voted for. The resolution stipulated that two states be founded in Palestine — one an Arab state with an area of 11,000 square kilometres, the other a Jewish state covering an area of 14,000 square kilometres — with the city of Jerusalem (158 square kilometres) under the United Nations’ administration. While consenting to the resolution on “partition,” the Zionists cold-bloodedly persecuted and slaughtered the Palestinian people. On May 14, 1948, they unilaterally proclaimed the establishment of the “state of Israel.” It is crystal clear that the so-called state of Israel was artificially established on the basis of bloody oppression of the Palestinian people for the sole purpose of meeting the needs of imperialist aggression.
The First Arab-Israeli War
War between Israel and the Arab countries broke out on May 15, 1948, the day after the establishment of the “state of Israel.” Armistice agreements were signed in 1949 between the respective Arab countries and Israel, with those between Egypt, Jordan and Israel concluded through the intervention of the U.S. representative to the United Nations. In this war, Israel seized large tracts of Arab territory and occupied the western half of Jerusalem, a total of 6,700 square kilometres. As a result, the area under actual Israeli control amounted to 20,700 square kilometres. Moreover, the Zionists drove a million Arabs in Palestine from their homeland to become refugees in neighbouring Arab countries. The Palestinian people were thus completely deprived of their national rights.
The Second Arab-Israeli War
On July 26, 1956, the Egyptian Government nationalized the Suez Canal, a just action by the Egyptian people in defence of national sovereignty and independence. The imperialists, however, were not reconciled to their defeat. On October 29, Israel started a brazen war of aggression against Egypt. Thanks to the resolute resistance by the Arab people and the opposition and support of the world’s people, Israel was compelled to withdraw to the 1949 truce line. During this week-long war from October 29 to November 6, Israel again occupied the Gaza Strip and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and did not evacuate them until March 8, 1957.
In the second war, the Arab people won great victories in safeguarding their state sovereignty and national interests, and opposing imperialism and foreign monopolists. With such heavy blows dealt to the imperialist colonial forces, the Arab people became more united and their struggle against imperialism and colonialism reached a new high.
The Third Arab-Israeli War
From the end of the Suez War, Israel, with U.S. backing, constantly carried out armed provocations against the Arab countries and unceasingly created tension along the border. In the spring of 1967, it stepped up military provocations and subversive activities against Syria. While arrogantly clamouring about recourse to force of arms against Syria, Israel went so far as to mass troops along the Israeli-Syrian border, and with Israel on move in May 1967, war was imminent. Soviet revisionist social-imperialism, however, did all it could to spread the illusion of “peace” to benumb the Arab people. On June 5, Israel, backed and abetted by the superpowers, mounted a surprise attack and in no time made inroads into Egypt, Jordan and Syria, with the result that the Arab countries suffered heavy military losses. In six days, Israel again occupied Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank of the Jordan River, that part of Jerusalem under Jordanian administration, the Gaza Strip and Syria’s Golan Heights, a total of more than 65,000 square kilometres. In addition, nearly another half a million Arabs became homeless refugees.
The Soviet revisionist renegade clique played a particularly despicable and treacherous role in this incident. On the one hand, it continued to “assure” the Arab countries that Israel would not attack them so as to lull the Arab people, and hypocritically supported their struggle. On the other hand, when the war erupted on June 5, it sold out the Arab countries and, together with U.S. imperialism, hastily cooked up a “ceasefire” in favour of Israel, thereby creating a situation of “no war, no peace” which facilitated their contention for and division of spheres of influence.
The third war served to expose the Soviet revisionist renegade clique as an accomplice working in close partnership with imperialism to suppress the Arab national-liberation movement. Its treachery enabled the Arab people to see more clearly the true features of the Soviet revisionist renegade clique as a false friend and to come to understand that their fate absolutely could not be dictated by the superpowers and that only by relying on their own efforts could they free themselves from the shackles of the superpowers and fulfil the task of recovering their lost territory and restoring their national rights.
To this end, the Arab and Palestinian people have carried on an unceasing struggle in the last six years or so. Bolstered by the superpowers, Israel, however, has continuously carried out provocative activities against the Arab countries.
The Fourth Arab-Israeli War
On October 6, 1973, Egypt, Syria and the Palestinian guerrillas rose in action against the armed attack by Israeli troops. Victorious in the heroic battles against Israeli aggressor troops, Egypt again flew its national flag over the east bank of the Suez Canal which had been occupied for more than six years. The Syrian army and people inflicted heavy losses on the enemy in the Golan Heights, while the Palestinian guerrillas valiantly went forth against the Israeli forces. This made a breakthrough in the “no war, no peace” situation deliberately created by the two superpowers, exploded the myth that Israel was “invincible,” demonstrated the Arab and Palestinian people’s firm fighting will and further promoted the unity of the Arab countries and people.
The two superpowers once again played an ignominious part in the entire event. By delivering a small quantity of arms to the Arab countries, the Soviet Union, far from giving any real support for a counter-offensive against Israeli aggression, actually intended to contend with the other superpower in a vain effort to control certain Arab countries. Their aim was to make the Arab and Palestinian people stop fighting, bind them hand and foot and place them at their mercy. It was precisely at the time when the situation was very favourable to the Arab people that the two superpowers — the Soviet Union and the United States — rushed in with their proposal for a “ceasefire in place” on October 22, calling on the Arab countries to stop fighting.
This proposal in no way denounced Israeli aggression, nor did it clearly stipulate that Israel withdraw unconditionally and completely. It made no mention of restoring the Palestinian people’s national rights. The essence of the so-called resolution on a “ceasefire in place” was designed to impose once again the situation of “no war, no peace” on the Arab countries and people. The destiny of the Arab people must be held in their own hands. No schemes by the superpowers can stem the advance of the heroic Arab and Palestinian people. They will certainly continue to break through the situation of “no war, no peace,” persist in their unswerving struggle, strengthen unity and carry their just struggle against aggression and hegemonism through to the end.